Thread: Towing Caravan with TD5 Series 2 Auto with SLS

Two reasons.

One: The genuine Land Rover towbar is not rated for it.
Two: The SLS will have a little fit at the change in loading.

Do a search for weight distibuting hitch or WDH, you will find a lot of information.

Also, 230kg on the ball is too much. The maximum for the LR tow hitch is 150kg. Your caravan probably has poorly distributed weight (too much in the front, that much is sure, but may also be too much in the rear).

I have no such issues towing my boat that is 10.5m (~34' 4") overall on the trailer, weighs around 3000kg, but only loads the tow bar by about 100-120kg.

The bulk of the weight must be over the axles of the trailer.

Originally Posted by disco2hse

Also, 230kg on the ball is too much. The maximum for the LR tow hitch is 150kg. Your caravan probably has poorly distributed weight (too much in the front, that much is sure, but may also be too much in the rear).

I have no such issues towing my boat that is 10.5m (~34' 4") overall on the trailer, weighs around 3000kg, but only loads the tow bar by about 100-120kg.

The bulk of the weight must be over the axles of the trailer.

150kgs? Then why does it say maximum nose load of 250kgs stamped on my towbar?
Regards
Robbo

There is quite a large thread done on this a while ago. The question I posed and will put again is this: When using load levellers you are transferring some of the weight to the front wheels. So why does SLS not like this? It functions fine with no caravan. It functions fine with a caravan(assuming it is with in weight limit) so why can't a caravan have level rides taking some weight off the rear?

Dave.

Your towball weight is far too high, thats causing the problem (I would think).

We towed our 2,000kg boat, fully loaded (prb total 2.5t) from Sydney to Darwin behind our TD5 D2 (SLS) with the standard towing setup - no problems.

You may need to move some stuff behind the axles to get some load off the ball.

Cheers,

Adam

Originally Posted by robbotd5

150kgs? Then why does it say maximum nose load of 250kgs stamped on my towbar?
Regards
Robbo

That is the towbar limit not the car design limit - While I think the D2 does have a higher limit than 150kg but I don't know what it is - the allowable tow ball weight is the lesser of the towbar design limit and the car limit.

Garry

The maximum ball weight limit for a D2 is 250 kg, it is a D1 that has a 150 kg limit from memory.

In theory you are not over weight at 230 kg, having said that I have towed our 2500 kg caravan with our D2a with SLS and it is not good to say the least stability wise and I have to be very careful especially on bumpy dirt roads. It is obvious in the way the vehicle handles that there is not enough weight on the front wheels but I did not want to fit a WDH because the caravan is towed off road often and WDH limit's articulation.

Grumdriva who is a member of this website towed for thousands of klm's a 2.7 ton van, his D2 had coils with airbags and a WDH with out any stability issues as far as I know, not like mine.

I have now fixed the problems of towing a reasonably heavy van with a under powered V8 D2a Disco, I brought a TDV6 D3.

It might be an idea to PM Grumdriva, I'm sure he would be happy to assist with advice on how to set your D2 up for towing a big van. By the way maybe the easy way to find him is look in the Markest section where his D2 is for sale. It is a 99 D2 with a 4.6 V8 fitted.

I'd guess often with boats that many would have a much lower centre of gravity and possibly a 2 ton boat might not to be as long as some vans like yours. I'd also guess that vans are more inclined to catch the air off of a truck because of their big slab sides. I tried on several occasions to move more weight back to see if a lighter tow ball weight would assist in front wheel weighting and all it did was make the van cause the Disco to sway more as the tail wagged the dog so to speak.

I'm sure with some research and fiddling you will get a good set up for towing.

Good luck.

cheers,
Terry

The commonality then is that those who have towed with more than 200kg on their tow bar have had stability issues and those that tow with less don't. You do the math and make your own decisions.

As I said earlier, the rig I tow is much larger and heavier than the rig concerned and I have no issues.

The problems are too much weight on the tow bar and poor weight distribution.

Sometimes in life you just have to accept that what you are doing is wrong and you need to make the changes yourself. The addition of further technical devices to `fix to problem' only moves the problem elsewhere. That means when that solution fails the results will be more catastrophic.