New Discovery SUV Tows Tractor, Seven Trailers in Oz

Land Rover’s new Discovery SUV tows a 328-ft. (100-m), 121-ton (109,800-kg) Australian road train along the Outback’s Lasseter Highway.

The stunt in the remote Northern Territory was to announce the arrival Down Under of the ’18-model-year Discovery.

Road trains consist of up to four trailers, the maximum permitted in Australia’s vast Outback region. They typically carry fuel, mineral ore and cattle between remote rural communities.

The law limits their length to 175.5 ft. (53.5 m), and Land Rover obtained special permission to pull seven trailers and the 13.2-ton (12,000-kg) tractor unit, which was retained to operate the trailers’ hydraulic brakes.

The Discovery Td6 has a maximum certified towing capacity of 1,773 lbs. (3,500 kg) on public roads but successfully towed the road train along a closed section of the Lasseter Highway, using its 255-hp 3.0L diesel V-6 and all-wheel-drive traction.

Land Rover product engineer Quentin Spottiswood says pulling a rig and seven trailers, with the rolling resistance of so many axles to overcome, is a huge achievement.

“We expected the vehicle to do well, but it passed this test with flying colors, hitting 44 km/h (27.4 mph) along its 16-km (10-mile) route,” he says.

The Discovery used a standard 8-speed automatic transmission and AWD system and was hooked up to the road train using a factory-fitted towbar attachment. The road train itself carried 11 tons (9,980 kg) of ballast.

The test was the latest in a series of towing demonstrations completed by Discovery vehicles. At its 1989 launch, the original Discovery I was used to pull a train, and last year a Discovery Sport premium compact SUV towed a trio of rail carriages 85 ft. (26m) above the Rhine River.