Thread: In Sydney need advice instability when towing

Originally Posted by Glynhouse

Thanks Terry might just do that, we intended taking a week off from baby sitting from the 25th on and heading your way, will contact you if it works out.
It is not he wallowing that worries me it is the directional instability, and the sever wind affect, something we have not had before with other tow vehicles, is your Disco any less stable than your Touraeg Brett ? Direction wise and does it track in wheel ruts ?
Camped next to a guy with a Touraeg loves it tows a 22 foot van, unfortunately 2 guys with Discos here love the power but won't admit it but I get the feeling not much better than mine, a handful on the road.
The van does tow well behind other brands of tug, so it is Disco specific, will find out if we get up to Terry's

DD

Hi DD,

With the heavy weight the Touareg is much more stable. The float is wide and definitely not in the wheel tracks of either car.
My wife noticed the difference when she first towed with the disco. But the disco is more safe to set up and she hates the wdh....when taking it off it can be scary for a 60kg girl.
The Touareg only occasional tows the float now, and when we do use it, it is definitely more pleasurable. The disco is not painful, but requires more concentration.
Our 2.5 tonne caravan, behind the disco is perfectly fine with only a small amount of wallowing. When we towed it with the Touareg it does not have a wdh and feels about the same.
Either vehicle has no swaying.
I put it down to the heavy towball weight. It seems that the airbags cannot possible replace how a wdh hitch works.
Brett....

Originally Posted by TerryO

All be it our van is only 2.5 ton the D3 tows it well. So lets see how it tows your van and then may be fit my rims and tyres to your D3 and then see now your D3 handles with different tyres.

An opportunity to compare towing the van with newish shocks too.

The ride with the new Delphi shocks is way better than it was with the stuffed Koni's but I do not believe that they are as good as the standard OEM shocks even though both sets are made by the same company.

But yes that is some thing else that can be compared.

I concur re these shocks and the a/m Delphis are way so much better than worn-out LRs too in the area of general stability. My vehicle was so untidy with the LRs after 60K then became well-behaved again with the Delphis. I much preferred the genuine D3s for their better slow speed damping when new. D4's have more slow speed damping so for towing I would use them rather than D3s - some people even use D4 shocks when not towing!

Couple of things to think about , is the center of towball to tow bar attatchment the correct distance , ie the longer the moment from the original attatch point the more sway can be introduced by the van , is your towball weight included in your max gross wieght or max rear axle wieght , are the tyre pressres correct for the extra load . Al

Quick update, had the D3 out to Davis Performance Landys this week, they gave it the once over - very quickly, as a result it is having new rear shocks, the bushes on the rear sway bar, and front tie rod ends which weren't done when the new control arms were fitted and a good wheel alignment. They were appalled at the way it drove, so here's hoping.

Was a bit surprised at the cost, so went through this site carefully and have had 3 prices for the same work from folk recommended on here, and Davis were the most reasonable by quite a distance.

Going up to visit TerryO on the weekend but no real point in comparing vehicles till mine is fixed. But thanks all the same Terry the offer was much appreciated.

DD

I tow a 25ft 3.5t dirt road van with my D4, first experience was terrible, Disco was all over the place quite a scary experience, I hated it and so did the wife. Disco was nearly sold

I then changed a few things
1. Put a good set of A/T LT tyres 10 ply on the van and pumped to 50psi
2. Ran 50psi in the LT Continental Cross contact A/T on the car
3. Ran 35psi in the front

Difference in stability was amazing, just came back from a 2000km trip to Qld, sat on 90kmph without the scary stuff and even hit close 100 a couple of times and no issue, even with trucks passing.

But still feel the fleetingness of the airbags so you have to concentrate allot more.

I have ordered a new LC200 through the business as the deal was much better than LR could offer but will keep the disco for the wife, but the WDH on the LC with a van of my size will ride better from the tests drives I have done.

Still love my disco but..

I had quite the opposite situation when I towed our daughters Amarok on a car trailer from Myrtleford to Sheperton(145Ks) last Xmas, all up about 3.5tonne, 860kg trailer, 2.5 tonne Amarok with a full load of wood in the back, also the trailer had led lights so the car didn't recognise there was a trailer on the back.

Never had an issue, sat on 90kph and on the freeway 100kph, 46psi in the rear, 36psi front, trailer tyre pressurs were what ever the hire place put in, I was amazed how stable it was AND, as a bonus 15l/100k for the trip

Love our D4,

Baz.