Thread: Load Equalising Bars - How to use them?

Originally Posted by harlie

Mark – it makes no difference what spring medium is present. It’s not actually about lifting the rear as some here claim, it is about shifting weight back to the front to give the front spring, shocks and steering the weight and rate they are designed for. It ALSO (importantly) provides a strong torsion bond between the car chassis and trailer/van chassis. This second point is what improves the handling and reduces the enormous weight transfer (trailer to rear of car) under emergency braking. (If it was a 5th wheel this weight transfer would be absorbed partially by the front - that's another story of huge leverage advantages)

When I originally test drove a Disco 2 (mid 2000), I arrived at Austral LR at Newsted with a 3t boat. Like the car - now would like to see how it tows. When I returned with salesman as passenger the then sales manager pulled me into his office and admitted that LDH should not be used on SLS D2. Why (I have posted this before) Inadequate (factory) tow bar - the LDH can put too much stress through the tow bar, because the SLS keeps levelling and it’s hard to monitor how much force is being applied. The answer (from Austral LR when I purchased my car) was to fit the Full Hayman Reece Bar and no surprise, underneath it looks like the Disco 1 towbar. Same goes for D3 & RRS (I looked at upgrading) – that (factory) hitch receiver is apparently cast and a few have snapped off – and when I considered it there was no replacement bar. So the “No LDH warning” is because of the receiver not because of the air suspension. Notice there is no warning about RRC vouge or P38A (or dare i say it Prado Grande). Air springs theoretically would benefit more, by nature the air spring has a greater travel/kg to coil & leaf. And if one was to measure air pressure on a “level D3” with large van attached I would expect the rear would be nearly maxed out, and we would be very surprised by how little is in the front.

Mate you are obviously happy with how your D2 tows, understandably too - out of the box (with SLS) in my opinion it eats the Jap vehicles for handling – I believe that at the time one of the 4*4 mags agreed too. I too am of the opinion that my 2000 SLS equipped D2 tows a 3t boat nicely – but with a LDH it tows superbly, to the point where I think I could say it handles through bends and over sh*t roads at highway speeds better than the car on it’s own – must add to that statement that all my trailers have shocks on each wheel. Just seems to slow down heaps on the hills. Can't wait for the return of my reflashed ECU????

And p38arover was asking about using a LDH with a P38a.

Cheers
Simon

Ahhh yes mate i did make the mistake of saying "leaf Sprung" and i should have just said sprung.

Very interesting what you say about yours, I was told over the phone by LR Australia to not use the WDH with SLS because the lifting action tricks the air SLS that there is already suficience air in the bags, i could understand this as explained and made very good sense.
Away from the LR but same thing is we took delivery of 2 new Ali 45 ft trailers at work, we lock them onto compactors so to be loaded, when we lock on 2 binder arms engage the sides with 2 buffer cylinders pushing the trailer to keep it tight. When the trailer is full and we unlock it (22t load) the trailer is coming down and sitting on a concrete wall under it until the SLS readjusts the hight. The engineers have aknowledged we have a problem with the trailer beeing fooled into thinking it is still at ride height thus no air beeing pumped in to keep the presure up.

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

And p38arover was asking about using a LDH with a P38a.

Cheers
Simon

Yes, and we tried to answer.
What followed was "beyond expectation"..

Originally Posted by RonMcGr

Ron,

There should be hooks on the caravan draw bar that the bars sit in.

Thank Ron. I looked and found the brackets and fitted them as per your pic. I wasn't sure whether to use 2 or 4 bars so I opted for 2.

Originally Posted by BigJon

That size van ( I assume it is the one you have posted pics of previously) should tow behind the P38 without bars (I am also assuming it is empty).
Just make sure you have appropriate ball weight and the Rangie suspension locked at one height.

Yes, that was the van.

I towed it behind my daughter's 300Tdi Disco. I needed the room in the Disco for load carrying - she has a cargo barrier.

I found the Disco overheats when towing up long hills - up to the top of the white area on the temp gauge but not into the red (I'd stop before that) - so I guess the radiator needs to come out.

The Disco is a slug up hills with a caravan. I don't think I could tow one around Oz on holidays! Fuel consumption was 14 litres/100 from Dubbo to Sydney - more that the Nissan Civilian bus when loaded (it uses 13 litres/100km).

I'll try the van with the P38A before I take it to Cooma.

From the short trip in with the van and a few trips with the Civilian, Elisabeth and I are convinced that caravanning is not a pleasure and the Civilian would be better - and neither are as good as driving to a motel and sleeping there!

Ron

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

And p38arover was asking about using a LDH with a P38a.

Actually, I didn't specify the vehicle. I arrived at Dubbo with the Disco and found the WDH stuff with the van so I thought I should use them.

Empty, the van is so nose heavy that it is near impossible to lift the draw bar.

When I coupled it to the Disco, the Disco dropped 2 cm at the rear wheel arch. Adding 2 bars only lifted the Disco by 0.5 cm.

I once towed a car trailer loaded with an XC Falcon wagon 4WD with my FJ55 LC. The trailer was very tail heavy and I was inexperienced. Going down into Mooney Mooney, the trailer got up such a sway that it came around and dented the side of the Cruiser - true! (unfortunately, my son isn't here to confirm it). I don't know how we missed hitting other cars but it must have scared the living daylights out of them.

Originally Posted by p38arover

From the short trip in with the van and a few trips with the Civilian, Elisabeth and I are convinced that caravanning is not a pleasure and the Civilian would be better - and neither are as good as driving to a motel and sleeping there!

Ron

Hi Ron,
I used to love my rusty Toyota Coaster - better than tents, sleeping in the back of the Land Rover, caravans, camping areas and caravan parks and cheaper than motels and with the bonus of inexpensive registration when registered as a Motorhome. So much so I've now got another one from west of the sandstone curtain to rebuild with my fitout....and run on lpg.
If you can keep the Civilian for touring you'll find it comfortable and economical. It should qualify for the lpg conversion subsidy if a motorhome too I believe.
A friend has a Mazda bus motorhome, 351 Cleveland, 5 speed dual range gearbox, runs on gas and surprises people when he passes them uphill towing a loaded car trailer.
Good you worked out the sway bar setup for the van.
See you in Cooma,
Regards,
Bob

Cheers
Simon