Towing - Who has towed what?

[morrisdl]

Sorry to revive and old thread, but i found this in my search results (for "override low power audio mode") and could not resist posting:

 

[martyjuly]

How much of a rise do you use in your hitch to tow the boats and car trailers? The factory hitch on the LR3 is set so low that I think I will need a 5-6 inch raise to get to the tongue on my car trailer. That excedes the two inch limit stated in the manual.

 

[huelsmma]

When I was searching this last summer...I found people using a solid shank 2 1/2 inch rise which gave a 4" drop and flipped it over giving me the rise I needed for a 6000lb boat. Just have to be careful with not overloading the tongue down.

 

[vinnysca]

Bought a 27ft 1972 Airstream Overlander this past weekend. After reading many posts about not using the LR3 with trailers using a LOAD DISTRIBUTION HITCH/stabilizer bar, I just decided that it was worth the gamble. Drove 1,000 miles round trip, hauling the Airstream, (which was filled with 40 gallons of water in its tank, PLUS 4 grown adults in the Landy with all our JUNK in our TRUNK (LOL), doing a constant 65 mph most of the way on the highway...NEVER did I get a suspension fault or any warnings what-so-ever. It performed flawlessly despite the Airstreams gross weight of 6,200 lbs.

Only thing I discovered after encountering a torrential rainstorm in NY, was my floor was soaked entirely with water! Ah, must be the notorious drain tube clog problem! So, my Landy has an appt next week at my dealer in Bedford, NH not only for its 30 month maintenance schedule, but for this recent problem. My maintenance guy told me over the phone that a drain tube clog is the likely problem, especially with a heavy downpour. Ran it today in the carwash and it didn't leak at all.

Anyway, here are a few pics...

http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx179/vinnysca/Airstream/IMG00427-20100724-1603.jpg

http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx179/vinnysca/Airstream/DSC00366.jpg

http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx179/vinnysca/Airstream/DSC00325.jpg

http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx179/vinnysca/Airstream/DSC00382.jpg

 

[jpljpl]

That looks awesome! I dont know much about the Airstreams, but I was under the impression that the older/classic ones are actually alot lighter than the newer ones.

Any ideas on what it weighes? How about tongue weight?

 

[vinnysca]

That looks awesome! I dont know much about the Airstreams, but I was under the impression that the older/classic ones are actually alot lighter than the newer ones.

Any ideas on what it weighes? How about tongue weight?

The GROSS weight of this 72' A/S is 6200 lbs. Tongue weight is 550 lbs. BUT, it came with a Load Distribution Hitch which lessens the tongue weight, which goes below the LR3's tongue weight max.

The LR3 tows this A/S without any problems! Straight as an arrow! I credit the Airstream's LDH and swaybars of course!

Vince.

 

[horacioad]

I pull a 5000# dry weight 21' boat all over lake country here in WI. I bet I have an aditional 1000# worth of fuel and misc. crap in the boat. I had no problems at all with the LR, actually is a beautiful easy pull even on steep hills. I get about 13 mpg average pulling the boat as long as I have a light foot. I have a 5" rise hitch with a 2" ball in order to bring my trailer level. That puts about 500# tongue weight.

 

[jpljpl]

Glad to see/hear about all of these positive towing stories.

I just bought a bought a boat (Scout SF 185), and it's pretty light. Boat + motor + trailer probably weigh 2500lbs, and then figure another 500lbs of 'stuff'. The trailer that came with the boat didnt have breaks though... I towed it home with our F-250 which we use to tow a racecar, no sweat.

I havent tried to tow yet with the LR3. The wiring harness and hitch reciever just showed up, so I'll be wiring things up this weekend. Boat is already in the water in a slip, but I might pull it out and just take it for a test tow. I'm not to keen on towing ~3k lbs without trailer brakes... esp with my family in the car for a trip.

So the test tow might be right to the trailer shop to either have them put brakes on my existing trailer, or swap trailers for one with breaks already.

I was able to get the newer tow-bar as well, which doesnt hang down as far as the previous design. Hopefully I can bet by with flipping a 2" drop hitch, and getting a decent tongue weight.

I'll post pics once I get everything sorted.

 

[dantheman1]

I towed a 6'x12' uhaul trailer last weekend (the one with 2 axles). I installed the towing electrics a year ago, really simple installation. I have the drop down hitch, but a 2 1/4" raised drawbar did the trick (3" drop i believe). With a 2" ball, gave me a total of 18" from ground to the ball, trailer came out perfectly level. With the trailer fully packed, the lr3 drove great. Didn't even notice it back there. It's just a shame that LR charges a ridiculous amount for the towing electrics and hitch. The new style hitch that doesn't hang down is about $400.

 

[beantmt]

Towed my parents' 1988 (big and heavy) Marlin 21' boat up and down about 60 miles (round trip) a 5-8% grade mountain. It goes from about 5500' elevation to 8500' over about 12 miles. I couldn't find exactly numbers on the weight of the boat. My dad told me it was around 5500lbs. The trailer does not have electric brakes.

I got about 6.5 MPG round trip, but everything went pretty smoothly. Sport mode was used full-time. Some manual shifting while going up and mostly manual shifting while going down.

Brakes got hot when my dad was driving (he tows faster, ~65mph in the straights, and didn't quite have a feel for the LR3 gears and manual shifting--he drives bigger trucks). I also noticed some sway while he was driving. He did say it towed a lot better than his Ford Expedition, though. Even after they had installed air bags to help improve the Expedition's towing. I'm pretty sure he used a weight distribution hitch on the Expedition, also.

I towed at about ~50-55mph (in the straights) and didn't notice any real sway. One annoying thing (that might be normal--I haven't towed much) is that to downshift from 2nd to 1st gear I had to get below 2k RPMs, then I could speed up again while in 1st. This was a bit of a pain when going down the steeper parts of the mountain.

Anyway, I just wanted to report that I was mostly happy with the towing experience. I don't think I would want to tow anything much bigger up and down a mountain that steep. RPMs were up to around 6500-7000k a few times while going quite slowly up the mountain.