OEM hitch receiver, or aftermarket?

[bbyer]

Attached are pictures of the original LR3 hitch and the newer LR4 hitch. Both work on either vehicle.
The newer LR4 hitch is less long and apparently has an improved locking mechanism.

Regardless of which one you use, remove it when not in use as when sitting inside somewhere, it is not subject to rusting or freezing itself to the vehicle.

For real off road trail use, I would be using the bolted in place bumper level Rhino hitch.

It you are driving an LR3 with the incandescent tail light bulbs, I would suggest the trailer have matching incandescent bulbs in its lights. That avoids the funny flickering you get when you mix the two - also the trailer program will engage in the LR3 which among other things, disables the backup sensors.

 

[bbyer]

For equal time and all, below are some Rhino hitch pictures which is for real off road use. The factory hitch I regard as more for U-Haul type trailers.

 

[cperez]

For equal time and all, below are some Rhino hitch pictures which is for real off road use. The factory hitch I regard as more for U-Haul type trailers.

I have a Rhino and really like it. Have you ever used it during a recovery situation where you pulled someone out of trouble or got pulled out yourself? I know that one of its attachment points is the cast factory recovery point on the rear. I just wonder if anyone has used it to get yanked out of trouble. I have not and would probably recheck the torque values afterward if I did, just to be careful.

 

[Matt1t]

@bbyer, I like the looks of that hitch. I just went with an aftermarket hitch. I pull a small trailer and that's about it. I watched the video on installing the tail light harness. Seems straight forward. I will look to pick one up shortly.

 

[bbyer]

@bbyer, I like the looks of that hitch. I just went with an aftermarket hitch. I pull a small trailer and that's about it. I watched the video on installing the tail light harness. Seems straight forward. I will look to pick one up shortly.

If you have an LR3, the electrical system on the 3 prefers that the trailer have the incandescent bulb type tail lights. If an LR4, I gather that LED tail lights in the trailer work OK with the 4.

Part of what the tail light harness is designed to do is let the vehicle know that a trailer (or something) is attached. That is why you want to use a harness that is either genuine LR or from a supplier who understands that LR stuff.

In addition to the rear backup sensors being disabled, I understand some other things occur to the transmission shift pattern and the braking plus a little trailer light symbol illuminates in the instrument cluster. Illumination is good I understand.

The owners manual has a section on what changes when a trailer is attached.

Below is a link to a number of LR3 files (wiring diagrams etc) on the trailer hookup as well as the electric brake hookup and the location under the panel for the control. I expect the 4 is about the same.

https://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=4497

 

[Matt Weiss]

i bought the generic LR4 one on ebay for $46 bucks and towed plenty for years (jeeps, firewood, etc..) I'm more worried about the Land Rover breaking than the tow hitch breaking.