This is the extraordinary moment a Land Rover towed a 110-TONNE road train through the Australian outback.
The Land Rover Discovery has a maximum certified towing capacity of 3.5-tonnes on public road.
But to show what the £55,000 off-road was really capable of, Land Rover took a model out to the Lasseter Highway in the Northern Territory.
They then hooked the Discovery up to a 100-metre long, seven-trailer road train and towed it for almost ten miles.
On the route, the 4×4 hit a top speed of 27mph as it towed the 110-tonne road train through the unforgiving landscape.
John Bilato, managing director of haulage specialist G&S Transport, took the wheel for the epic pull.
He said: “When Land Rover first got in touch, I didn’t think the vehicle would be able to do it, so I was amazed by how easily the standard Discovery pulled a 110-tonne road train.
“And the smoothness of the gear changes under that amount of load was genuinely impressive.
“These road trains are the most efficient form of road haulage on the planet and using the Discovery made this the most economical of all.”
Road trains of up to four trailers are only permitted in Australia’s vast Outback regions and typically carry fuel, mineral ore and cattle between remote rural communities.
Strict regulations limit their length to 53.5m so Land Rover obtained special permission to pull seven trailers and the 12-tonne tractor unit – retained to operate the hydraulic brakes fitted to the trailers.
Land Rover used a Td6 model Discovery, which is powered by a 3-litre diesel engine with 440lb/ft of torque, which enabled the amazing pulling power.
It is the latest in the Discovery family to show off its towing capability.
When Land Rover launched the original ‘Disco’ in 1989, they used one to pull a train.
In April, a Porsche Cayenne towed a 285-tonne Airbus A380 Superjumbo 42 metres at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
// We only want these styles applied when javascript is enabled
$(‘.gal_content’).css(‘display’, ‘block’);
// Initialize Advanced Galleriffic Gallery
var gallery = $(‘#thumbs_22430_1’).galleriffic({
delay: 3500,
numThumbs: 12,
preloadAhead: 12,
enableTopPager: false,
enableBottomPager: false,
imageContainerSel: ‘#slideshow_22430_1’,
controlsContainerSel: ‘#controls_22430_1’,
captionContainerSel: ‘#caption_22430_1’,
loadingContainerSel: ‘#loading_22430_1’,
renderSSControls: true,
renderNavControls: false,
playLinkText: ‘Play Slideshow’,
pauseLinkText: ‘Pause Slideshow’,
enableHistory: 0,
autoStart: 0,
enableKeyboardNavigation: true,
syncTransitions: false,
defaultTransitionDuration: 300,
onTransitionOut: function(slide, caption, isSync, callback) {
slide.fadeTo(this.getDefaultTransitionDuration(isSync), 0.0, callback);
caption.fadeTo(this.getDefaultTransitionDuration(isSync), 0.0);
},
onTransitionIn: function(slide, caption, isSync) {
var duration = this.getDefaultTransitionDuration(isSync);
slide.fadeTo(duration, 1.0);
// Position the caption at the bottom of the image and set its opacity
var slideImage = slide.find(‘img’);
caption.fadeTo(duration, 1.0);
},
onPageTransitionOut: function(callback) {
//this.hide();
setTimeout(callback, 100); // wait a bit
},
onPageTransitionIn: function() {
var prevPageLink = this.find(‘a.prev’).css({‘opacity’: ‘0.3’ , ‘display’ : ‘inline-block’, ‘cursor’ : ‘default’});
var nextPageLink = this.find(‘a.next’).css({‘opacity’: ‘0.3’ , ‘display’ : ‘inline-block’, ‘cursor’ : ‘default’});
// Show appropriate next / prev page links
if (this.displayedPage > 0)
prevPageLink.css({‘opacity’ : ‘1’ , ‘display’ : ‘inline-block’, ‘cursor’ : ‘pointer’});
var lastPage = this.getNumPages() – 1;
if (this.displayedPage < lastPage)
nextPageLink.css({'opacity' : '1' , 'display' : 'inline-block', 'cursor' : 'pointer'});
this.fadeTo('fast', 1.0);
}
});
/**************** Event handlers for custom next / prev page links **********************/
gallery.find('a.prev').click(function(e) {
gallery.previousPage();
e.preventDefault();
});
gallery.find('a.next').click(function(e) {
gallery.nextPage();
e.preventDefault();
});
});
ENDS
