Towbar and part numbers

[Roulston]

Ji all, I haver been offered a new Landrover branded tow bar part number: RAA607.

I have an SVX station wagon. The doco with the towbar states it is for a crewcab or cab chassis.

Will this fit my station wagon? I can't see why not. And will i have to loose the rear step? The compatibility with the step might be the model number incompatibility.

At $298 the prirce is better than the $650 I have been quoted by Hayman Reece.

Regards, Tony

[KarlB]

I suspect there are a couple of issues here. Firstly the part number says it is a 'UK towbar' and would almost certainly be non-compliant in Australia and could not legally be used for towing on Australian roads. As far as I am aware RAA does not stand for "Rover Australia Accessory". There are many Land Rover genuine parts that use the letters RAA including floor mats, light covers, and winch assemblies. You may get away with using it in Australia but the problem is if you have an accident as your vehicle would be technically unroadworthy for towing. This would have both legal and insurance implications. You could get an engineers certificate for the towbar to address this issue (assuming the engineer is happy with it). Second issue is fitting it. This may be possible with modification (others would be more expert on this than me) but again any modification would, to makes its use compliant, require an engineers certificate to verify that it meets Australian design specs. To me, the risk and the hassle of modification, to save $352, just doesn't add up. I am sure others may have a counter view.

Cheers
KarlB

[Ivan]

Just fitted a genuine LR Australia tow bar to my wifes 90. From memory it was about $260 (actualy just checked and it was $269.50) from Austral Land Rover in Brisbane. Fitting is very simple.
Four bolts through the rear crossmember and two bolts into what were the tie down points at the rear.
BTW you do have to lose the rear step.
This is the receiver type hitch not like the ones from the UK (Oh and it's plated to Australian compliance (ADR's?)).

HTH

Ivan

[P38ace]

Just been through this and had to wade through a lot of BS.

RAA608 is the OE part for the Australian 2011MY 110 Wagon, 2" receiver hitch type. With this you get to keep the step but it's not compatible with long range tanks.

I paid $435 for a Hayman Reece R2490 which appears exactly the same as the OE both in looks and rating. HR had 2 other bar designs for the wagon to choose from, which looked like they'd also fit but I wanted the OE style as it's unobtrusive and doesn't affect departure angle.

LRA had no stock of RAA608 and were apparently waiting for a slow boat from the UK. I was of the opinion that HR made the LR item but was assured this was not the case. It was going to cost $515 eventually. Both of these prices were the best I could find. These are supply only prices and don't include the electrics or fitting. It's a simple enough install but not worth the effort to save a couple of hundred $$, unless you like the satisfaction gained from doing it yourself. And I guess that is why we buy defenders ! Bear in mind the wiring colours in the factory harness connector plug don't match the standard Australian colours.

I don't think RAA607 will fit. The rear chassis on the tray-backs is different.

[KarlB]

I had a talk to a LR spare parts fella I know casually and he reckons the part numbers do relate to Au towbars, so I was wrong. However to complicate the matter, he felt the same number could well apply to a non-compliant 'UK' towbars as LRA seems to simply substitute an Australian compliant part (sometimes with the same number) for a non-compliant one when they receive an order. He didn't know what the particular cab-chassis towbar would look like but said that he had seen older cab-chassis towbars that extended further out from the vehicle than that fitted to a 110 so would compromise departure angle more. He also said that as far as he knew the Au compliant towbars were made in Australia but he didn't believe by Hayman Reece.

Cheers
KarlB

[P38ace]

Spotting the difference between UK and AU spec is easy. 2" Receiver Hitch is not a UK fitment on any LR model, or indeed any other UK vehicle that I'm aware of.