WDH anyone tried it on D3

[Bulletman]

G'day All,
I'm not interested in opening the can of worms that says don't use or you can't use... I'm just purely interested in if anyone has actually tried using 1 coupled with the air suspension on a van or trailer of 3ton or more.
I specifically asked for D3 as I believe the D3 could/would have less stability electronics than the D4 especially the later D4s.
As I said I don't want to go down the reasons why you can't it's for those if any that actually have tried and did it work.
Cheers Bulletman

[veebs]

Not a direct answer for you, but I haven’t used one with my early D4 (basically a D3), and haven’t had any dramas.
Where a trailer felt ‘heavy’ on the ball, some more intelligent loading fixed any floaty sensation.

That said, I’m not towing a block of flats, rather, a big enclosed trailer with percussion instruments, and ~2t camper trailers.

[Tombie]

I’ve seen someone use it, and they had woes.
The vehicle was continually fighting the WDH and unbalancing the rear bags.

D3 onwards have design in engineering to account for the reduction in weight up front and therefore the system compensates appropriately. (A bullbar also assists)

Using a WDH lifts the weight off the rear bags making the vehicle think it’s lighter load and the rear doesn’t regulate correctly.

[Graeme]

Many years ago a motoring magazine did a tow-test of a largish van towed by several popular large 4WDs using load levellers that included a D3 or possibly a D4. After initially setting the D3/D4 lift too high, the sweet spot was found whereby enough load remained on the rear-end with enough load transferred to the front to prevent excessively light steering. The issue is air suspension hiding excessive lift provided by the load-levellers, not other D3/D4 electronics.

[Bulletman]

I towed our 23 ft van from Darwin to Perth with many side trips both on and offroad , and because we had packed up and were leaving Darwin the van and D3 were fully loaded. I know the van was right on it's 3500kgs , the D3 with long range tank , rear wheel carrier , 90ltr Waco in the back plus God knows what else was probably overloaded until we burnt off some fuel.
Funnily enough it towed great , could cruise on 90 no worries with no bounce or sway .
Fast forward till a few days ago decide to tow the van 200 odd kms , I know tow ball weight was 210ks according to my scales and I reckon at a guess the van was around 600kgs lighter than when we came down from Darwin. The car had the rear wheel carrier on , maybe 50 ltrs in the long range tank , no Waco fridge or roof rack so was really not much above tare weight. We did encounter very strong winds mainly cross winds and wow it was a pig to tow. Felt like the front had no weight at all and I had to fight to do 80km/hr.
I got passed by a RRS towing a similar size van and I'm about 80% sure he had a WDH set up and he certainly seemed to have better control than me.
I know many factors come into play here, I drive road trains for a job so have a fair idea on towing and how weight affects the character of what's being towed . I did try to load the van accordingly but seeing we were not taking much it really wouldn't have been a great amount of weight even if it all was put in 1 spot .
It got me thinking about the RRS and if it was using a WDH set up. The van came with the full WDH set up when I bought it and the previous owner had a D5 but I never got to ask him if he used it or not.
This was the reasoning behind the question.
I might do some tests for myself when I get back home .
Cheers Bulletman

[Graeme]

I certainly liked the way that load levellers made towing a smaller van with my D2 feel like a single unit rather than a tow vehicle and van.

[Bulletman]

I certainly liked the way that load levellers made towing a smaller van with my D2 feel like a single unit rather than a tow vehicle and van.
The D3 air suspension certainly levels it out, even fully loaded probably overloaded the air suspension made the van and D3 sit perfect, plenty of non LR people commented on how well balanced they looked with such a big van.
I have done lots of reading the last few nights and all the symptoms that loadlevers seem to cure is what I experienced towing a few days ago.
Cheers Bulletman

[LGM]

Like others here I tow a relatively heavy van of 3.2t with my 2011 D4. I don't use a WDH and have never experienced the issues you talk of. Your vehicle set up has more 'fruit' than mine long range tank etc. which sets me to wondering if there may be something else at play with your suspension system performance?

[Bulletman]

Like others here I tow a relatively heavy van of 3.2t with my 2011 D4. I don't use a WDH and have never experienced the issues you talk of. Your vehicle set up has more 'fruit' than mine long range tank etc. which sets me to wondering if there may be something else at play with your suspension system performance?
Thanks for the reply , I did think that but in reality I towed the same set up over 5000kms on and off road altho both van and vehicle were far heavier. Nothing to my knowledge has changed , sure weight in both van and vehicle have but in reality the van is at tare weight except for probably 50ks as we are doing 5 days in a town that has all facilities so we only put in a few clothes and not much more.
The only unknown factor is the wind , I did drive thru cross winds from Broome to headland but I doubt they were as strong as when we headed south from Perth when we did.
The fact I thought I seen a WDH set up on the RRS that passed me is what has me wondering. As I said the car seemed as tho it had no weight at all on the front and from what I have read it's the classic symptoms that a WDH are supposed to address, the only difference is the air suspension make the whole set up sit level which would make the use of a WDH seem not needed.
I should add that before I left Darwin my whole suspension set up had been replaced , all new arms top and bottom plus full wheel alignment by the LR guru. All 4 air struts had been replaced less than 5000ks before that.
Cheers Bulletman

[Tombie]

Bulletman, if you tow like this regularly, take a look at the Superpro rear sway bar links.

They’re adjustable and length can be set to make the rear more stable. It makes a significant difference to the handling of the back end of the vehicle.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Some of the newer vans have "adornments" under the A arm, the van manufacturers name usually, this may be what you saw?? My RRS tows 3.1T and pretty much doesnt know its there unless it really windy.

[p38brickus]

Hi guys. I have no knowledge of D3 etc but I have had 2 Range Rover Sports. My first one was a 2008 TDV8. What a car! I bought a 25 foot van and when I read the RRS book it said don't use WDH. I have had a lot of experience towing with big vans and different makes so I'm aware of issues. I must admit when I started driving the RRS with the 25 footer I was very wary for about 40kms but then relaxed and haven't thought about it since. My second RRS is a 2011 TDV6 and I tow another 25 footer. Been to Darwin from Gippsland, onto the Barkley H/Way and back through NSW and Vic. Forrest Beach FNQ and up to Cooktown several times. The van has never stepped out of line in all wind conditions. My only suggestion is that I have run 20" or 22" wheels and they are 10" wide. Maybe you Disco guys are running 18" or 19" wheels and narrower tyres. Hope this helps.

181367

181368

[ytt105]

Bulletman

In one of your posts you say that the van towed fine, without WHD, when fully loaded 3500kg. But when only about 2900 - 3000kg it was a bit 'iffy'.

Your post states that the towball weight at low load was only 210kg, where it was probably much higher when fully loaded.

I think this is a bit low for a near 3ton load and could be the cause of your problems.

The other suggestion I have is check your REAR control arm bushes. I had a D3 which was fine in 95% of corners, but in one corner near home it was terrible. Replace rear bushes and it was cured!

Regards
Trevor

[Bulletman]

Bulletman

In one of your posts you say that the van towed fine, without WHD, when fully loaded 3500kg. But when only about 2900 - 3000kg it was a bit 'iffy'.

Your post states that the towball weight at low load was only 210kg, where it was probably much higher when fully loaded.

I think this is a bit low for a near 3ton load and could be the cause of your problems.

The other suggestion I have is check your REAR control arm bushes. I had a D3 which was fine in 95% of corners, but in one corner near home it was terrible. Replace rear bushes and it was cured!

Regards
Trevor
I'm confident that when we left Darwin my tow ball weight was close to 350kg. I did weigh it and was 330kg and I then added an extra 9kg gas bottle then some fire wood which sits on a frame on the draw bar .
Personally I would have thought 210kg being about 6 - 7% ball weight without consulting a calculator would be fine.

The 1 thing I am unsure of is I know the D4 has trailer sway assist , the video of 1 towing a defender on you tube is interesting as it says it cuts in above 50mph so approx 80kmh. I don't see any mention of this for a D3 and this was why in my OP I was interested if anyone with a D3 had tried the WDH. I know the D3 has DSC but that never cut in at all when I was towing but maybe that is speed relevant BUT it's recommended to turn it off when on sand so I assumed it wasn't speed activated it was some sort of sensor activated when stability issues were detected.

Anyway I will look at the rear sway bar bushes when we get back home and then go from there. Hopefully the trip back tomorrow is less windy and I can just simply blame strong cross winds and leave it at that after checking a few things recommended in this thread.
Cheers Bulletman

[Bulletman]

Well an update, towed the van home today with little to no cross wind and it was steady as a rock. No trouble cruising on 90-95. It's looking more like the wind on the way down was probably far stronger than what we realised.
Anyway some interesting points mentioned so will look at Tombie suggestion and see how things go in the future.

Thanks and cheers Bulletman