Thread: Defender Tow Bar Query

i have a hayman reece towbar with a removeable tounge and it has not bottomed out on serious stuff

my fuel tank hits more 110 ltr longrange tank i dont see the hassle but im more concerned with the fuel tank grounding than the towbar

Originally Posted by solmanic

I need to fit a tow bar to my 02MY 110 - have been putting it off but realise I can't keep borrowing other people's rigs. Most people seem to sell the standard Hayman Reece bar with the removable tongue. I have had one on a previous Defender and always thought the sub-cross member was a bit superfluous as well as adding weight and reducing departure angle.

The Pommy LR magazines are full of tow-balls that fit directly to the rear cross-member which seems to make more sense to me. Less additional weight and the ability to slide the tongue higher or lower depending on the height of the trailer arm.

Does anybody sell this type of towbar in Australia with ADR compliance? Has anybody had experience with this type of bar? I am not looking to tow mega-tons (just a decent box-trailer with 500-700kg of stuff - no more than 1 tonne) but don't want to risk busting my chassis either. I would like the ability to remove the ball when not in use or replace it with a hook-type recovery point if that's possible.

Any thoughts appreciated - and photos if you have them.

Pre-Defender Australian 110s were fitted with a Hayman Reece towbar mounted directly on the crossmember with the receiver vertical instead of horizontal. I don't know why the change, and certainly it would fit the current Defender, but I suspect it does not meet ADRs, although I have no idea why.
John

I have a towball that bolts to the rear crossmember of a defender/county that doesn't have the square tube receiver nor extra bar. You are welcome to it for $20.

It's in my garage in Brisbane and I will be there this weekend (currently living in melbourne).

I got rid of it because the previous owner had backed into something with it and it had creased the rear crossmember. I therefore thought that the mounting system was not real strong and upgraded to the hayman reese style for my camper trailer (quite heavy).

PM me if you are interested. Sorry no pics.

This the County tow bar:



Oh, the odd bolt in the rear face was one I added to stop it rattling - but it wasn't the source of the rattle, that was a duff A-frame ball joint.

Ron

Originally Posted by p38arover

Oh, the odd bolt in the rear face was one I added to stop it rattling - but it wasn't the source of the rattle, that was a duff A-frame ball joint.

Ron

Mine has a bolt there for the same reason - and it WAS the rattle. Also stops the odd clunk when towing.

Note that I also have a slightly twisted rear crossmember (done by previous owner) but this is the result of the towbar hitting the ground not towing. I regularly tow 2.5 tonnes (probably occasionally more, but not legally as my trailer only has override brakes) without any problems.
John

The reason for the fully braced tow bars on Defenders vs just mounting off the cross member on 110's is that Land Rover in their infinite wisdom took out all the bracing and strength in the rear cross member and made it as weak as pi$$.
A bracing/reinforcing kit is available to be retrofitted and is available from Land Rover to reinforce the rear cross member, but as to whether it as strong as it was in the 110 County days....who knows ?

That's kind of what I was afraid of. I used to have a bolt-on tow bar on a Series III but when I mentioned this type of thing to a gut at TJM he was sceptical about the rear cross-member's strength.

Like I say though, it is for towing up to a maximum of 1 tonne and only occasionally. Rattles don't bother me as most of the time if I can remove the tongue I will.

Originally Posted by solmanic

.....most of the time if I can remove the tongue I will.

WOW.....DUDE...!!
thats one trick id like you to teach me......
i would really like to try that out on the wife some days........!!