Thread: Disco II Weight Distribution Tow Bar Package RAA527

Chappy54
have beem told by LR dealers WDH should not be used on SLS have you used yours and how did it perform.
Bigmac1947

Originally Posted by Grumndriva

I have airbags on the rear of my coil sprung DII, and while with 20 psi in them the vehicle is quite level with my 2.7 tonne caravan attached, they do not, in my experience at least, compensate for the reduction in weight on the front tyres caused by the 250 kg on the tow ball. Braking and handling are significantly impaired without the WDH.

Weight distribution is always important to vehicle handling, and only a WDH or a counter weight on the front can restore that.

My experience over 10,000 km plus suggests that the most stable result is achieved with the airbags at their lowest setting (around 5-7 psi) and using just enough tension on the WDH to re-level the vehicle. The difference with my rig is like chalk and cheese.

For urban panzer:

WDH are a US invention which we have adopted here because our caravans are built significantly heavier than European vans, due to the sort of roads we choose to use. Around 2.5 tonnes is pretty normal for a touring on-road van, and significantly more for a dirt road van like mine. Proper off-road touring vans like Bushtracker are often in the region of 3.5 tonnes loaded.

Cheers,
Terry

Gday Terry. My air bags help with steering and braking on my D2 V8 with my 2 tonn boat on the rear with 16-20 psi....but not as much I bet as with a WDH. Having said that the boat is set up pretty well.

Are you saying that in your case, apart from loading the vehicle itself, the air bags are pretty useless for your towing (although that minimum poundage does certainly provide assistance to the coils and causes less pitching I have found)?

Cheers

PS. My old man has towed vans a lot and stuff in the army and swears by WDH's as do others I know that use them with vans

BigMac,

I have replied to your Private Message. Most dealers will probably tell you that you can't use a WDH on a Disco or on a Disco with SLS. The handbook says that you can't use a WDH on the 'standard' towbar and refers to the RAA527. I believe that there is a lot of confusion out there because dealers weren't aware of the availability of the RAA527 kit and the mistaken belief about WDH and SLS but the end result is that you can use a WDH with the Disco as long as you use the 'heavy duty' towbar that comes with the RAA527 kit and it is Ok to use and you can use it on one with SLS. I have a copy of the technical advice from LR Tech (thanks to Sneigy who was a great help sorting this out) that confirms that you can use the RAA527 with SLS.

Cheers,

phil

have purchased disco with aircoil suspension brand new and am happy thank you for all of your help.
bigmac

Originally Posted by Chappy54

BigMac,

I have replied to your Private Message. Most dealers will probably tell you that you can't use a WDH on a Disco or on a Disco with SLS. The handbook says that you can't use a WDH on the 'standard' towbar and refers to the RAA527. I believe that there is a lot of confusion out there because dealers weren't aware of the availability of the RAA527 kit and the mistaken belief about WDH and SLS but the end result is that you can use a WDH with the Disco as long as you use the 'heavy duty' towbar that comes with the RAA527 kit and it is Ok to use and you can use it on one with SLS. I have a copy of the technical advice from LR Tech (thanks to Sneigy who was a great help sorting this out) that confirms that you can use the RAA527 with SLS.

Cheers,

phil

Phil, thanks for the info. Personally I already have access to the entire 750lb WDH head, arms, A frame brackets etc. Do you have any information or part numbers on ONLY the part that bolts permanently to the vehicle, the receiver and associated arms etc? Even though I have (I must be nuts) towed a 30ft internal tri-axle van that weighs about 3800kg with about 350kg nose weight on the standard receiver, I'd love to be able to upgrade to a heavy duty receiver.

Hi
Has anyone actually used a WDH on the standard LR tow bar, If so was it ok or did it do damage. I intend to try our WDH on lowish tension to tow a 1.5-2.0 t van. I have just coil suspension, no ace. Will remove all tension prior to sharp manouvering, ie backing into tight camp spots etc. Your thoughts and experiances will be most welcome.

The van is a pig to tow without the hitch, I have towed it with a Holden Rodeo using the WDH and it was much better behaved. The Van is loaded correctly with good light truck tyres. Hopefully I can get away with using the WDH and avoid any damage???

Originally Posted by winaje

Phil, thanks for the info. Personally I already have access to the entire 750lb WDH head, arms, A frame brackets etc. Do you have any information or part numbers on ONLY the part that bolts permanently to the vehicle, the receiver and associated arms etc? Even though I have (I must be nuts) towed a 30ft internal tri-axle van that weighs about 3800kg with about 350kg nose weight on the standard receiver, I'd love to be able to upgrade to a heavy duty receiver.

Will,
The part number that is for this kit (RAA527) is an entire WDH kit, which includes the towbar assembly that attaches/bolts to the vehicle & then all the arms, chains brckets, tongue etc etc. It would be cheaper for you to purchase a Discovery 2 towbar from Hayman Reece direct as they make the towbar assembly anyway.
They just put together a kit which worked out to be cheaper, than buying the WDH hitch & then the towbar assembly as 2 seperate components.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by adonuff

Hi
Has anyone actually used a WDH on the standard LR tow bar, If so was it ok or did it do damage. I intend to try our WDH on lowish tension to tow a 1.5-2.0 t van. I have just coil suspension, no ace. Will remove all tension prior to sharp manouvering, ie backing into tight camp spots etc. Your thoughts and experiances will be most welcome.

Adonuff,

I use a Hayman Reese WDH in the standard Disco receiver with my 2.7 tonne van. I also do not disconnect the WDH when backing into sites etc, but then I don't use a huge amount of tension on the chains. I am not suggesting that you follow my example, but I have had no ill effects so far at least, and that includes a lot of km on some pretty rough roads. The van is much bigger and much heavier than the Disco. There is a picture of the rig in my post on the Show Us Your D2 thread.

Ozscott,

Sorry for not replying sooner: I didn't see your question until now. I don't think the bags are useless, especially with the long range fuel tanks fitted. It is just that I have found that the rig handles and brakes much better using the WDH (transferring weight to the front wheels) than just levelling with the air bags.