Thread: tow hitch problem

Cast steel actually not as brittle as cast iron but not as maleable as cold steel.
The tongue bit is HR and should be ok.

Originally Posted by discotwinturbo

Have sent again John by PM and email.

No hurry.....if it works for you please sing out.

Brett.....

Brett,

It sounds good to me, but I just first want to determine what the height of the D4 receiver is relative to the D3 part.

May be you know, (or may be someone else knows....) but if you don't I will go to my local LR dealer and measure up the D4 part. Looking at at the photo of Howards D4 hitch I reckon it might be about 40mm higher, but I'd like to know exactly what it is.

John ..

Originally Posted by CaverD3

Cast steel actually not as brittle as cast iron but not as maleable as cold steel.
The tongue bit is HR and should be ok.

It might also be SG (spheroidal graphite) cast iron which is very tough and fatique resistant. 40 years ago Ford were using hollow SG iron cast crank shafts in their Anglia and Cortina engines - and may be in other variants as well. I don't know if they still use it now.

Cheers
John

Originally Posted by NutoLR

Brett,

It sounds good to me, but I just first want to determine what the height of the D4 receiver is relative to the D3 part.

May be you know, (or may be someone else knows....) but if you don't I will go to my local LR dealer and measure up the D4 part. Looking at at the photo of Howards D4 hitch I reckon it might be about 40mm higher, but I'd like to know exactly what it is.

John ..

John,

The difference between the D3 hitch receiver (old longer type) and the newer short D4 type is exactly 50mm

Howard

3 months into a new D4 with the shortened hitch receiver. Previously, I towed with my D3 and never had any trouble.

I am now using my D3 hitch (treg hitch attached) on my D4 to tow a1.5 tonne camper. I get a shudder taking off from stationary. Feels like the hitch moves in the receiver.

Anyone know whether the receiver been modified/narrowed in width between Disco 3 and Disco 4?

M D3

Originally Posted by wardh

John,

The difference between the D3 hitch receiver (old longer type) and the newer short D4 type is exactly 50mm

Howard

Howard,

You've just saved me a trip to LR dealer tomorrow. Thanks for that.

Cheers
John ......

Originally Posted by NutoLR

Howard,

You've just saved me a trip to LR dealer tomorrow. Thanks for that.

Cheers
John ......

Glad I could help John, this forum has assisted me greatly over the years.

Cheers

Howard

Gday All,

After reading this thread I decided that its something that I should have a look at as we tow our camper trailer long distances when we travel, and I was very surprised to see that whole tongue assembley is held up into the tow bracket by the retractable pin.

We haven't done alot of towing, but you could certainly see some slight wear on the flat bottom of the pin, and as the square cut out that the pin sits on is alot bigger than the pin, you can see how not alot of wear could result in the pin working its way out and the whole tongue falling down.It doesn't even protrude all the way thru the square hole.

Wonder if some sort of rubber bush would help to stop it being able to work itself loose. Driving over the rough stuff would just increase the speed of wear I would think. Time to investige some options before the next major trip.

Thanks to all who have posted.

Cheers Ean