Is the removable tow hitch on Disco 3 too dangerous? what replacements are there?

[Stealthylandy]

Hi Fellow Discovery Owners
To introduce myself: I bought my first land rover 4 years ago, a 2001 series 2 Discovery TD5 in dark red. It was a great little car, catered well for our growing family, towed the (matching) horse float, caravan, trailer etc and only had to have minor repairs.
Until I wrote it off at the beginning of May, on a wet morning with 4 kids in the car, slid of the road, went end over end through a fence and into a farmers paddock. No panel uncrushed except for the drivers door. I completely crumpled the left hand side and had to drag kids out of an upside down vehicle. We all walked away, with only minor injuries to the child in the 6th seat in the back.
This sadly necessitated a new vehicle, and with our budget it was a choice of disco 3 or Land Cruiser with 350000 odd on the clock. We chose the Discovery, and found a Gold TDV6 2005 Disco 3 .
This car has come with a removable towing hitch and electric brake controller, but no towball/tongue. When I googled to find a replacement, I opened a new can of worms. Apparently there have been lots of problems with these removable hitches spontaneously detaching, and losing the trailer completely. As I tow our precious horses regularly, this is a nightmare too terrifying to consider. I have had enough near death experiences to last a lifetime .
I have spoken to our local Land Rover dealership, and they checked the VIN and said as this vehicle has no recalls on it, there is no problem. As I understand it, there has been a major recall in the UK and Land Rover replaced the hitches with fixed ones.
So, where to from here? What are my options? Do I keep pushing for Land Rover to replace my hitch (my engineer husband assessed it, and said the locking pin was worn) or do we need to pay for a replacement out of our (very empty) pockets? If so, what do we buy? My float is 999kg tare weight, and with two horses on is about 1800kg We also tow a Jayco caravan of about 1400kg, and a box trailer loaded to its 750kg unbraked limit with firewood.
Do we get a Hayman Reese? Mitch hitch? The Recovery brand that's on eBay?
Please help us out!

[LRD414]

Welcome to D3 ownership and glad to hear you are all ok after what sounds like quite an extreme event.

Given your towing duties that seem to be varied & regular, my view would be definitely worth getting a Mitch Hitch. Couple of thread links below provide details and history. The so-called Recovery Hitch is a copy and some owners have reported negative features in comparison to the original Mitch Hitch.

For the removable tongue, with your range of towing duties, you may need a couple or an adjustable one in order to get the draw bar level for each trailer (unless they all have similar draw bar heights). The Mitch Hitch is quite high off the ground but a drop tongue will handle a lower draw bar.

In my opinion the Mitch Hitch is worth the money. Once fitted it is very easy to use compared to the factory unit and is virtually maintenance free. You do need to heed the installation instructions regarding proper bolt torquing procedure on fitting and then after initial towing duty but that's it.

Thread Links:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...tch-hitch.html
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...tch-hitch.html
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...ise-hitch.html

Regards,
Scott

[LandyAndy]

Welcome Aboard.
The recalls will be UK market specific,Australia has a different hitch.We havent had many if any reports of failures here,more reports of off-road damage to them.
We dont like the hitches,due to the low ground clearance and they fiddly fit/remove.
The D3 hitch is a problem as when you get a flat tyre you cannot remove the spare with the trailer hitched up.You can get the D4 version which will allow the tyre changing with trailer hitched,plus it gives a bit better ground clearance.They are interchangeable and come up for sale by those who have fitted a Mitch Hitch.
Any "reece" style tounge will fit,you will need to run them "upside down" to keep the trailer drawbar level which is OK,buy the tounge that suits the height you need.
The Mitch hitch is used for off-road towing to give the clearance the factory hitches dont offer,the D3 factory hitch is known as a plough,the D4 is shorter.Beware there is a copy of the Mitch Hitch that is considered to be inferior to the real thing.The Mitch Hitch is a permanent fit,ie not easy to fit/remove each time you need it.
Andrew

[Tombie]

Welcome.

Just to clarify there aren't "lots" of instances of them detaching.

But go the Mitch Hitch - you'll appreciate it more.

[Narangga]

It is great that you are still with us to be able to post on the forum! I trust the children haven't been too worried foĺlowing the accident.

The Mitch Hitch is quite easy to fit and I would be surprised if it proved too difficult for your husband to do. It will prove to give you peace of mind when towing each of those three 'trailers' although the box trailer will find the height of the mitch hitch to be higher than the previous Discovery.

All in all it will be well worth the investment to upgrade to that over the standard factory unit.

[Graeme]

The D3 hitch is weak by design whereas the D4 is not. Safety chains can be attached to the towing eye if concerned about a D3/D4 hitch detaching. However new D4 hitches are expensive so people often ask a lot of money for used ones discarded when an off-road hitch is fitted which then sways the financial argument towards an off-road hitch even when the D4 hitch would be acceptable.

[Stealthylandy]

So do the Mitch Hitches ever come up second hand? I guess not. Hubby's Commodore engine just blew up last Sunday and it appears that its un-economical to replace it, so we are now looking for a replacement vehicle for him... this on top of our already "fine line" economics means that every penny needs turning twice before spending it!!
It also appears that the new Mitch Hitch doesn't include a tongue and ball either? So we would still need to purchase them? and buy the Mitch hitch for $740 as well as the fitting kit for $121?

[LRD414]

So do the Mitch Hitches ever come up second hand? I guess not. It also appears that the new Mitch Hitch doesn't include a tongue and ball either? So we would still need to purchase them? and buy the Mitch hitch for $740 as well as the fitting kit for $121?

I got mine 2nd hand from this forum and I have seen others here but perhaps not all that often. I think it was ~$500.
Correct, no tongue/ball supplied.
Fitting kit not required unless refitting a 2nd hand one. The new purchase includes the fitting bolts and bush.

Scott

[BMKal]

So do the Mitch Hitches ever come up second hand? I guess not. Hubby's Commodore engine just blew up last Sunday and it appears that its un-economical to replace it, so we are now looking for a replacement vehicle for him... this on top of our already "fine line" economics means that every penny needs turning twice before spending it!!
It also appears that the new Mitch Hitch doesn't include a tongue and ball either? So we would still need to purchase them? and buy the Mitch hitch for $740 as well as the fitting kit for $121?

There's a genuine second hand Mitch Hitch for sale in Canberra for $350 at the moment on Land Rover Owners Club facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LROCA/permalink/10156707467320467/'sale_post_id=10156707467320467

[Stuart02]

My experience is that the factory hitches become problematic when you want to take them off and put them back on regularly, when crud gets in. I'm certainly not going to argue with an engineer (!) but when they're in properly the fit is very neat and they simply don't budge. It would have to have been taken on and off a /lot/ of times for that pin at the back to be showing any sign of wear. If you're towing regularly I'd be getting it attached properly (you won't be able to lock it and remove the key if it's not completely seated) and just leave it there until you can afford a D4 hitch or Mitch Hitch. If the heaviest thing you tow is the loaded float at 2t you're /well/ within the limits of the hitch. And as mentioned there's the safety chain back up.

You can usually pick up a 3500kg rated Ark tongue and ball from BCF for around or less than $100 (no I don't have 100 bucks in my pocket right now either!) which will fit a D4 hitch as well. Get the shorter tongue so (if you get a D4 hitch) it doesn't interfere with your spare.