Towing hitch rise and drop restrictions

[wbowner]

Hi,
I was reading the Mitch Hitch thread and was alerted to the very limited LR hitch restrictions which appear on p83 of my manual. I have a MY14 D4.

Basically you are limited or it is recommended that you do not exceed a 1" rise and a 2 3/8" drop( from the top of the tongue bar).

Basically hardly anything. With the location of the D4 hitch, even in the new ones like mine trying to keep the van level would be impossible.

I must admit I did not pick this up and I currently run with approx 100mm rise.

I guess the values in the handbook are recommended but probably for a reason.

What are other people using when using the standard removable LR draw bar.

Richard

[rufusking]

Hi Richard, yeah LR have been quoting this figures (including distance out from hitch pin) from the beginning. There are those who are concerned by insurance issues if there is an incident or an over zealous officer of the law or transport. Many have worked outside of these guidelines, the handbook uses terms such as "should" "recommend" so interpret that as you will. Do keep in mind that these figures apply to worst conditions including max load so if your towing a 2000kg load there is scope to be outside of these "recommended" dimensions. As an example for a relatively light offroad trailer this works for me, pintle mount with LR ball gives me a ball height of ~550mm.

[ScottD4]

Hasn't there been plenty of cases of the LR hitch simply falling out of the vehicle whilst travelling?

If that's the case this is hardly the vehicle to ignore the manufacturers recommendations I would have thought.

[rufusking]

Hasn't there been plenty of cases of the LR hitch simply falling out of the vehicle whilst travelling?

If that's the case this is hardly the vehicle to ignore the manufacturers recommendations I would have thought.

Have you been listening to Patrol owners or was it on "A Current Affair"?

[ScottD4]

Have you been listening to Patrol owners or was it on "A Current Affair"?

Did you see that little punctuation mark at the end of my first sentence... That is commonly referred to as a question mark.

I was trying to confirm whether it was true or not. Thanks for the response. From British Off Road:

Discovery 3/4 & Range Rover Sport - Hi Rise Tow Hitch


Suits Land Rover

Discovery 3, Discovery 4 &

Range Rover Sport to 2013

The new Recovery Tow Hitch replaces the Genuine towing attachment, which if you own or service, Discovery 3's, Discovery 4's and Range Rover Sports, will know the problems associated with the original equipment. Problems being;
Unable to remove the spare wheel with the tow attachment fitted.
When coupled to a trailer the trailer often doesn't tow level with the vehicle.
Hangs too low, especially when off road.
Difficult to remove, and can fall out without notice.

[Blue C]

Hi Richard
I had read the towing section of the handbook and so was aware of the LR recommendations when I decided I needed an aftermarket hitch sleeve (tongue) with a 40mm rise (to keep my camper level) and 40mm longer (to allow fitment of my Stone Stomper bracket to the hitch sleeve). I feel comfortable with this given my camper is around 1800kg and tow ball weight max ~200kg which is well within the max limits.
For what it's worth I haven't heard of any D4 tow bars dropping off (but do secure my safety chains to the rear recovery point with a rated shackle for peace of mind). Regards, David

[Epic pooh]

There are various reports, mainly from the UK, of failure of the towbar in one way or another. Around here there was someone who had the rear crossmember deform or some such thing and the bar fall out with a van attached, in the UK there are various instances of the bar rattling and detaching with heavy trailers. There is a LR service action about it in the UK, take a look on Disco3.co.uk DISCO3.CO.UK - View topic - Q393 - Detachable Tow Ball and Supplement - LR Sevice Action

Personally, I think "fall out without notice" is a bit rich, in my experience the original hitch is unproblematic if used within spec and maintained properly. For more than occasional towing, LR provide a fixed hitch (or use an aftermarket alternative).

[rufusking]

Flicking through the disco3 site the service action seems to be for the EU swan neck type towbar/ball. Wonder if the AU/NAS receiver is of different casting?

[Epic pooh]

The receiver point in the vehicle is the same for the swan neck and our type of hitches and this is the point of issue.

The LR fixed hitch and the aftermarket hitches have additional fixing points which is why they are recommended for those that do more than occasional towing. There are reports of our type falling out and there is an older thread about one falling out and damaging the rear crossmember and dropping a large van on the road.

Personally mine has been unproblematic (apart from the fact that it is the 'original plough') over nearly a decade, but I am only an occasional tower, rarely tow anything more than 1.5T, I remove the hitch when not in use, lubricate it and the channel in the vehicle and keep the plug in when nothing is fitted.

[mowog]

Hasn't there been plenty of cases of the LR hitch simply falling out of the vehicle whilst travelling?

If that's the case this is hardly the vehicle to ignore the manufacturers recommendations I would have thought.

There have been 2 cases that I have heard of where the hitch dropped out.

One was due to a casting fault that stopped the hitch locking correctly.
The other was user error where the hitch wasn't fitted correctly I can't recall the exact reasons.

Overall the failure rate of the D4 towing system is well below the count of other brands with cracked tow bars and hitches that fall off due to substandard bolts.