Thread: tow hitch problem

Originally Posted by Allkar

Hi,

This is now 2016 and our tow hitch fell out last month just like yours did. I am in correspondence with Landrover and it is proving very difficult. Consumer Affairs have suggested to take this to VCAT. I will will explore this option. Landrover just don,t want to know about it. Their CRC is absolutely useless.

Hi, I have recently had the Land Rover standard towbar fitted to my Freelander 2. It's created problems for me because it is too low.

I've read this thread and the other carefully but can't work out whether my new towbar is at the same risk as yours or not. Do you know if the one I've had installed is the same design and therefore at the same risk as yours?

Originally Posted by Allkar

Hi,
This is now 2016 and our tow hitch fell out last month just like yours did. I am in correspondence with Landrover and it is proving very difficult. Consumer Affairs have suggested to take this to VCAT. I will will explore this option. Landrover just don,t want to know about it. Their CRC is absolutely useless.

Other than the hitch, or some component of the hitch actually breaking, the only way that I can see for the hitch to possibly "fall out" is if it was not correctly installed in the first place.

Unfortunately, it would seem that it is easy to "incorrectly install" the hitch due possibly to poor quality control when these components are manufactured / assembled. My hitch "fell out" twice after I did not have it correctly installed, before I realized what the problem was. Luckily, both times it occurred in my back yard, once when I gave the hitch a good rattle by hand immediately after installing it, and once when I was in the process of attaching a trailer.



When you are inserting the tow hitch into the vehicle, the "locking pin" is in the "retracted" position. As you push the hitch fully up into the housing, the "trigger pin" strikes the top of the housing, and the "locking pin" pops out into the "extended" position, thereby locking the hitch securely in place.

The problem that I found was that the "locking pin" was not fully extending, and in fact was only just catching the tip of this pin on the lip of the hole it is meant to go into. Obviously, it did not take much movement for the entire hitch to drop out when this occurred. It did not matter what I tried, I could not get the "locking pin" to fully extend into the hole it is meant to sit in.

After some investigation, I discovered that the entire hitch assembly was not going up far enough in the housing to allow the "locking pin" to line up properly with its intended resting position and go all the way home. I cleaned out the top of the inside of the housing as best I could, and this still did not fix the problem. So I then dressed up the very top of the hitch with an angle grinder. Did not remove much - probably not much more than the thickness of the paint really - and it did the trick. The hitch now goes up into the housing just that little bit further, and the "locking pin" fully engages every time without fail.



I don't know if there was a casting problem, or maybe just too much paint (possibly inside the top of the housing - you can't see up in there). But I have had no problems with the hitch since doing this, and I use it regularly.

It is quite easy to check whether the "locking pin" has gone fully "home" when installing the hitch. Simply run your hand around the back of the housing - you will feel the hole that the "locking pin" should be sitting in. If the pin is fully "home" - you will not be able to push your finger into this hole, as the tapered end of the pin will be about flush with the outside edge of this hole. If you can put your finger inside the hole, the "locking pin" is not fully engaged.

Earlier in this thread, somebody posted that you cannot remove the "key" unless the locking pin has fully extended. This is not true. I can turn and remove the key on mine as long as the "trigger pin" has been pushed down. The position of the "locking pin" has no effect on whether or not the key can be removed.

Even though I have had no further problems, I have to agree with the comments of many that the overall design concept of the tow hitch is pretty poor. An earlier post on here along the lines of "an over qualified engineer standing with it in his hand and admiring how pretty his design looked" came across to me as a pretty appropriate description.

Hope this helps. Mine is not the only vehicle that I have known of with exactly the same issue.

Certainly not relevant for everyone, but I bought my D4 6 months old and it had seen plenty of red dust. One of the many things I had to clean out was the workings of the hitch receiver.
Looked cleanish on the outside but the dust had settled inside the housing (there was a good 5 or 6mm just sitting in it!), had delubed (is that a word?) its mechanism and was stopping the locking pin extending properly in the nice spring loaded way it normally should. It would just drop out because of this.
Pretty easy to open it up - remove the little silver cover, clean it out and lube it up.
David

Originally Posted by l00kin4

Certainly not relevant for everyone, but I bought my D4 6 months old and it had seen plenty of red dust. One of the many things I had to clean out was the workings of the hitch receiver.
Looked cleanish on the outside but the dust had settled inside the housing (there was a good 5 or 6mm just sitting in it!), had delubed (is that a word?) its mechanism and was stopping the locking pin extending properly in the nice spring loaded way it normally should. It would just drop out because of this.
Pretty easy to open it up - remove the little silver cover, clean it out and lube it up.
David

There is a red plug provided to seal the hole when receiver is removed to stop this. It lives in the foam mount in the LHS compartment in the back.

Ah I see... not the same as mine at all.... please ignore my earlier ignorant question.

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

There is a red plug provided to seal the hole when receiver is removed to stop this. It lives in the foam mount in the LHS compartment in the back.

Lost the red plug from mine about a week after I bought it.

After a bit of a drive along a couple of beaches and over some dunes north of Perth, the plug was never seen again.

Originally Posted by BMKal

Lost the red plug from mine about a week after I bought it.



After a bit of a drive along a couple of beaches and over some dunes north of Perth, the plug was never seen again.

There is a clip on it that needs encouragement to be engaged. Same designer as receiver...........

CRC type lubricants are the worst you can apply.They attract dust and make the problem worse.
Either get Graphite powder or a Dry Film lubricant(normaly Teflon based).They lubricate exceptionaly well without attracting dust.
Andrew