Thread: Can a Disco 4 tow a van with 350kg ball weight... I think not fit for purpose..

Originally Posted by haydent

taking the gonads off takes appx 47kg off the rear axle

That's some big gonads!

I suspect a missing decimal point.

Originally Posted by Graeme

I suspect a missing decimal point.

nope, they are 32kg themselves, and then due to the offset behind the axle, contribute 47kg to it

Suggestion for lowering GVM and Rear Axle load when towing a van

From my recollection they didn't look to weigh anything like 16kg each, but I didn't remove them and weigh them.

Before our last trip I weighed the car and van, very disturbing rear axle weight but won't go into that but what I did find interesting was that even with self leveling suspension when the van was hooked up it removed 100kg from the front axle and put it onto the rear.
You would expect weight transfer if a car sagged on the rear and lifted the front but not when the car is still level, I hate to imagine what happens to the average Ute that tows with the rear down 3 inches and the front pointing to the sky
Asa side note I didn't think weight distribution hitch could be used on a LR with air suspension

Self-levelling won't affect weight transfer.
To set a WDH, before lowering the coupling onto the ball, open a door, press the raise switch, lower the van onto the ball then set the WDH to raise the rear perhaps half-way to levelling the car. The lower switch can then be pressed then the door closed to remain at normal height. That ensures that the WDH isn't set too high.

Originally Posted by Graeme

From my recollection they didn't look to weigh anything like 16kg each, but I didn't remove them and weigh them.

I did and they are dense as f

Originally Posted by discomatt69

Before our last trip I weighed the car and van, very disturbing rear axle weight but won't go into that but what I did find interesting was that even with self leveling suspension when the van was hooked up it removed 100kg from the front axle and put it onto the rear.
You would expect weight transfer if a car sagged on the rear and lifted the front but not when the car is still level, I hate to imagine what happens to the average Ute that tows with the rear down 3 inches and the front pointing to the sky
Asa side note I didn't think weight distribution hitch could be used on a LR with air suspension

all it does is change the towball weight, the same way this is done through normal mechanisms, a sagging car will actually have less weight on the rear axle than one that has air bag and is pumped level

Originally Posted by Graeme

Self-levelling won't affect weight transfer.
To set a WDH, before lowering the coupling onto the ball, open a door, press the raise switch, lower the van onto the ball then set the WDH to raise the rear perhaps half-way to levelling the car. The lower switch can then be pressed then the door closed to remain at normal height. That ensures that the WDH isn't set too high.

it does, ive seen it and can show you the yt video, ill get it after posting this, regards to your porcess i think that might be back to front, as if you start high, hitch up then lower you are acutally putting more load on the bars than you could put on manually, which might be deemed unsafe. in the beginning i would just have the car off, then lower hitch, and start car. but now i know what chain link i like to have them on, i just lower while running, let it level if it wants to and then just hitch the bars to my favourite chain link setting.

The Effect of 4 Corner Auto Leveling on a Weight Distribution System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj2oqAiltsk