LR3 Travel Trailer Towing Experience

[toddjb122]

Nice picture! The rover looks good with a trailer behind it. But couldn't you have found a camper in glossy black?


Look forward to hearing the highway reports once you have some miles on these trailers.

 

[schafari]

I have now towed my new Starcraft 215 travel trailer a few times, with over 600 miles done. I just cannot believe what a great tow vehicle the LR3 is. Many had me worried needlessly. Two adults, three young young kids, and a 3400lb trailer. No problems, even on one trip with extreme wind. Frankly, the wind doesn't bother the set up at all. Either do passing or being passed by semis.

The only thing that I would have liked, is a big diesel option. The V8 does good, but going into a headwind in can stay between 3k and 4k pretty regularily.

 

[garyferrer]

I'm a contractor in Vancouver and use my LR3 to tow regularly. I tow a 10ft Wells Cargo trailer for tools and a 10 ft hydrolic dump trailer. Both can easily exceed 5-7k lbs and the LR3 has no problems towing. It's a rock solid platform, I was pleasantly surprised.

Gary.

 

[zurler]

I have an 06 HSE and just purchased a Forest River Flagstaff 26DS Ultra Light. ~4300lbs empty with a tongue weight of 449 empty. I put a single DrawTite anti-sway bar hanging of a custom built 8 inch lift ball mount. I must say the unit tows extremely well with no sway,,, even in high wind or semi pass situations. Was a bit worried how well it would do however i was very pleasantly surprised. Gas mileage is another thing however did not expect much there while towing.

 

[SKLau]

My setup for towing

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"I got the 06 HSE, pulling an Airstream 25 International... The weight of the trailer is around 5300lbs... I'm using a Reese weight distributing/anti sway hitch. So far it is working really well. I'll post a photo tomorrow, when I get the LR3 back from getting the winch and a bar installed...

Nick - Modacad 11-25-2006"

Has anyone heard any update from Modacad on how has the WDH performed for him since then? As many of us have pointed out that the LR3 manual says that WDH should not be used (without giving any reason). It would be very useful if anyone who has the actual experience of using a WDH on LR3 share his findings with everyone.

 

[Kenjengrif]

I have an 05 HSE and tow a 19' Airstream Bambi- weighs around 3600 pounds with no problems.

My only trouble was when looking for a brake controller wiring harness and having the store clerk tell me "nothing works for Rovers- and we don't even attempt to install anything on them"

After a little research I bought the Prodigy controller and the Ford F150 harness- snapped it in, and moved on.

 

[SKLau]

Kenjengrif, I also use a Prodigy and it works great. BTW, do you use a WDH or only a friction sway control? I am currently using a EZ LIFT friciton sway control and interested in hearing from fellow LR3ers who have actual experience in comparing the performance of WDH vs friction sway control on LR3 for towing TTs and HTTs.

 

[arbourstone]

Hi,

I have a V8 LR3 and recently took delivery of a 19ft travel trailer. The dealership and the maintenance book both strongly suggest not to use stabilzer bars as the air suspension already compensates. I have had no issues with towing the trailer, however in Alberta's high altitudes and steep terrains, the LR3 has seemed a bit asthmaticy - oftem staying fourth gear for long periods of time on not-too-steep highways. Not ever having towed before, perhaps this is normal? Would love to find some kind of aerodynamic spoiler to put on the roof when going into strong headwinds!

 

[Kenjengrif]

SKLau- I don't use a WDH or a sway control. Haven't noticed much sway, but the trailer seems fairly short.

Based on the manual, I stayed away from the WDH, but I sure would like to know why LR says not to use one.

 

[SKLau]

Kenjengrif, I tow a 24 feet HTT with a weight of about 4500# using my 2005 V8 LR3. I found that there is a significant difference in the sway behavior with or without the friction sway control bar. However, I am still not totally happy with the friction sway control system particularly when there are cross winds. I find I have to keep my speed at 50 mph or below to avoid the "white knuckle" driving experience.

I understand that even though the automatic air suspension system on the LR3 does a good job in leveling the traile/truck system, it does not tranfer part of the trailer weight to the front truck axle like what a WDH system does. With the help of some towing experts on the RV NET.com, I did a calculation and it showed that with my HTT hooked up to the truck, more than 790 lbs of load is added to the rear axle of my truck while the front axle is now about 220 lbs lighter. As a result of this change, the steering and handling of the truck could thus be adversly affected. This plus the other fact that the manual for the frcition sway control bar specifies that the bar should be removed when the road is wet make me want to seriously assess the possibility of using a WDH.

Like many others, I too have not been able to get a reasonable explanation from Land Rover on why we cannot use the WDH on LR3. After numerous attempts trying to find the right people from LR for help, the best I could get directly from LR was that they have not tested the WDH on this truck and therefore we should not use it (humm....). I have also heard from some people (not directly from LR) that a WDH system would interfere with the automatic air leveling system. The question I have is then there are many other trucks on the market that also have automatic air leveling systems, so how come there's no problem with these trucks with using the WDH? Again, I have not heard any reasonablle explanation to this.

So far I could only find two cases from people who have described their actual experience in using a WDH on LR3. The posting from FloridaLR here is apparently saying that after a short trial, he did feel it impacted the smoothness of his ride. However, another person said on the RV Net.com that he was getting great performance with a WDH on his LR3 after thousands of mile. So, what is the verdict? I welcome the comments from anyone.