Why you should buy a petrol tow vehicle

COMMENT

It’s been an unwritten rule for nearly 20 years: you need a diesel-powered 4WD to haul you caravan or camper – particularly into remote regions.

One of the historical reasons had nothing to do with the merit or otherwise of the fuel. It was more about availability.

With most working machinery powered by diesel engines, Outback properties have diesel tanks and have embraced the same engines for their working utes and trucks. As diesel is less volatile than petrol, storage is also easier and safer.

The choice for people on the land and RV travellers was not really impacted by the introduction by BP in 2002 of its low-aromatic Opal unleaded fuel, that doesn't contain the properties that create a ‘high’ when sniffed.

Regular unleaded 91 RON unleaded fuel has since been replaced with Opal at selected sites in South Australia, the Western Australian Goldfields and throughout Central Australia, although you might find limited, but unreliable, supplies of higher octane ULP in the caged and locked bowser out the back of the roadhouse if you're lucky.

Diesel still a strong option

While Opal is OK for most basic petrol-powered vehicles, its quality is well below the 98 RON Premium ULP preferred (and often demanded) by modern European and Japanese engines for both premium power and to meet emission requirements.

As a result, manufacturers, until recently, put their design effort into developing common-rail and sophisticated diesel engines for large 4WDs and utes, rather than petrol engines. This was helped by the substantial price disparity in favour of diesel, particularly in Europe.

The tide began to turn for large 4WDs in 2010 when Nissan announced a direct-injection 300kW ULP-fuelled 5.6 litre V8 engine as standard in its long-awaited new Patrol – the Y62 – with no diesel option, overnight turning it from being a lower-cost alternative to the Toyota Landcruiser in Australia to irrelevant for remote areas towing.

On examination, it turned out that Australia was Nissan’s only major export market that wanted a diesel engine and volume/cost numbers simply didn’t stack up. Compounding the problem, the petrol Patrol at $82,000-$114,000 (depending on model) was priced squarely against the proven and redoubtable Landcruiser 200 Series V8 diesel, rather than bargain-priced bulk for buck, as had been the case with the superseded Y61 3.0-litre turbo-diesel Patrol.

Also read:

Tow Test: Nissan Patrol 

Tow Test: RAM 1500 Laramie

How to choose a tow vehicle

The fact that it’s a truly great engine that forms the basis of Nissan’s V8 Supercar, but with the bulk of its muscular 560Nm of torque available at 1600rpm in the Patrol (more than that produced at similar revs by the petrol-fuelled 5.7-litre Hemi V8 in the RAM 1500 truck) was not the point: modern folklore demanded a diesel in a large, caravan-towing 4WD.

The first Y62 V8 Patrols were also perceived as thirsty. Because many owners took full advantage of the 298kW available from the free-revving, silky-smooth 5.6 litre quad camshaft V8, it wasn’t hard to see fuel consumption figures in the mid-20L/100km when hustling a mid-sized caravan along, particularly in hilly country.  Similar for the RAM.

For this reason, the Y62 petrol Patrol initially didn’t sell its head off, with the model often heavily discounted to justify its relevance as the flagship of the Nissan Australia range.

Petrol starts to add up

The biggest discounter was Nissan itself, which in mid-2015 dropped the entry-level ST-L Patrol, slashed $24,000 from the price of the mid-level Ti and reduced the price of the top-level Ti-L by almost $20,000, leaving the RRP of the Ti-L that we recently took on a big trip north, at a just under $90,000 – very affordable when you compare that feature for feature with a mid-range Landcruiser or Land-Rover Discovery.

But now the fuel tide has turned again in favour of ULP and after nearly 5000km towing my 2.7 tonne fully-laden Trakmaster Pilbara Extreme through coastal and Outback Queensland, I’m here to tell you that the petrol Patrol is a good thing that you should consider while prices are low and before the word gets out. It’s also a relative bargain, as at $90k it’s specced more like a $120K Sahara.

Two other significant things have happened in recent years to put diesel on the nose: the development of high efficiency turbocharged and supercharged petrol engines and ‘Dieselgate’.

The first has been the product of tightening environmental rules, which have recognised that diesel engines are ‘dirtier’ than the most efficient petrol engines in urban environments, This prompted a spur in the development of more efficient, more powerful and cleaner petrol engines that now match their diesel equivalents in power, although not yet in torque.

Then came ‘Dieselgate’, which cost the Volkswagen Group and others heavily for their ‘defeat software’ than allowed many diesel engines to produce better emission results when tested to official standards than in real-life road usage.

When corrected, this further reduced the operating advantage of many diesel engines over their turbocharged and supercharged petrol alternatives, but also led to the decision of some carmakers – notably Porsche – to delete diesel engines from their model ranges entirely.

Both of these factors played into the hands of tow tugs like the Y62 Patrol, as ULP became more relevant and socially responsible, even in socially irresponsible places.  Upmarket petrol-engined rivals, like the petrol-fuelled Porsche Cayenne, were not rivals in Australia, as their price and owner-demographic meant they will rarely be seen off the bitumen, despite their undoubted off-road ability.

Improved fuel economy

The greater fuel efficiency of the latest Nissan Patrol has also narrowed its fuel consumption disadvantage.

In many thousands of kilometres criss-crossing Australia towing caravans of varying weights with diesel V8-engined Toyota Landcruiser 200 Series 4WDs, I’ve come to expect their fuel consumption to range from 18-21.5 litres/100km, depending on the weight of caravan, the road conditions including the terrain, the wind direction and the average travelling speed.

My recent round trip from Southern Queensland to Daintree, towing my 2.7 tonne Trakmaster with the petrol-engined Patrol Ti-L returned an average of 21.4l/100km for the first 1000km, battling traffic and interminable roadworks up the coast, constantly travelling at the posted 100/110 km/h speed limit.  Returning via the less trafficked Atherton Tableland with a strong headwind at similar speeds, consumption rose to deliver an overall trip average of 22.7l/100km.

If this sounds thirsty, you need to consider several things:

Firstly, although the Nissan is designed to perform its best when drinking 98 RON ULP, the truth is that once you leave the major town and access the Outback, you often have just two ULP options: 91 RON or nothing!

Now, while 98 RON Premium fuel, when available, is also premium priced by around 15-20c/litre above diesel, 91 RON is usually a similar amount cheaper than diesel. As I wasn’t climbing sand dunes like the Middle Eastern buyers who are the V8 Patrol’s most prolific buyers and never needed to exceed 3000rpm in any towing situation, the Patrol I drove never complained once, delivered noticeably less power or returned a higher fuel consumption on its enforced 91 RON diet.

That effectively means at (say) 20L/100 and at $1.40/L for 91RON ULP and $1.55/L for diesel, it would have cost me $280 to cover 1000km on ULP and $310 to travel the distance at the same average speed on diesel. That’s just $30 or so less for ULP over $1000 in this hypothetical, which is really nothing in the scheme of things – a McDonald's breakfast for two every second day.

Lower maintenance costs

However, while diesel engines generally last longer between major overhauls than petrol engines, they're higher maintenance, with things like injectors and fuel pumps needing regular attention. At this stage diesel-engined 4WDs are still worth more in the used market, but the pendulum will surely swing back in the future. Swings and roundabouts...

Dynamically, the Y62 is also well-sorted. There's double-wishbone suspension at both ends, as well as a proprietary passive system called Hydraulic Body Motion Control that minimises the body lean you'd usually get from a large 4WD by stiffening the outer-side shock absorbers through fluid transfer, while endowing any wheel a greater arc of travel off-road. Its standard 272mm of ground clearance is not too shabby either.

Like the LandCruiser, the Patrol in unmodified form sags a little at the tail under the weight of a caravan drawbar, but not quite as much. We were able to get our caravan to tow level and sway-free without the aid of a weight distribution hitch and with good ground clearance by using a Gen-Y multi-position 7.0-tonne rated coupling developed in the US for big pick-up trucks to haul a variety of trailers, from large caravans to heavy earth moving equipment.

Vague speed-sensitive power steering but powerful ventilated disc brakes all round make the Patrol relatively easy to drive on or off road, although you still need to leave plenty of space for U-turns and shopping centre manoeuvres.

Naturally, there's a heap of standard equipment: all Patrols get keyless start, three-zone climate control, 8.0-inch screen with sat-nav, a 360-degree camera and a sunroof, while the Ti-L adds a 13-speaker Bose sound system, a cooler box between the front seats, a power tailgate and Xenon headlights.

The relaxing hum of a petrol V8

However, one of the most impressive features that comes standard with the ULP V8 and a practical body design, is its travelling silence.

For someone like me accustomed to the background clatter of a diesel engine when towing, the Patrol's tranquility was a revelation and encouraged me to tow faster, longer and with less driver stress.

Along with its relative silence, the Patrol is also a very comfortable place to travel in, with its slightly choppy unladen ride softened by the effect of 240kg on its tongue.

So, if you’re in the market for a new tow tug to put ahead of a heavy caravan, you really need to reconsider your need for a diesel-engined vehicle.

Otherwise, you just might find yourself on the wrong side of history...