Towing - I Have Not Done My Homework...

[powershift]

It looks nice and I'm sure it hauls pretty good. I just got off the freeway doing my first pass to 90 MPH and it had a whole lot left on the table. Lots of power down low in the RPM range for pulling. Lots of traction too.

I've driven in a lot of wind and you can be sure an LR4 with a 20' trailer is not on my go to list of vehicles to drive in 40 MPH winds. Even in my car with no trailer I need to steer into the wind to keep it straight. I've seen RV's and trailers try to handle wind and while you may not have a problem with it most people do. Its obvious when there is a problem because they are all over the road.

 

[itsaguything]

“never towed a trailer before”.
If I may suggest, meaning no disrespect, That you attend a 1 day course on towing, with both practical and theoretical components to the course?

There are many without experience on the road that are a risk to themselves and others.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

Towed with mine for the first time. No problem. All the towing equipment was DIY. Happy it worked out.

 

[timc930]

I’ve towed a heavy u-haul car trailer loaded with a BMW X5 for 500ish miles with no problems what so ever and no hitch ball reversal. I’ve also towed several other smaller cars (e46’s). I can’t imagine what your towing will exceed the weight of the X5 and car trailer combined.

Regarding ball reversal I’ll look more closely next time may not be a bad idea with the U-Haul car trailers.

Trans/Diffs/xfer/engine oil and cooling system is good to make sure it’s somewhat fresh when towing as it looks like you’ve done.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

Day 3 of hauling heaving furniture and household items in a 6'x12' U-Haul trailer. Everything seemed to be going just fine, but today I looked at my bolt-on receiver and it looked like the bolts had loosened. I put Loctite on them when I installed them, but there was a gap between where the bolt-on unit attached to the stock receiver. It just didn't look right to me. I got a jack, jack-stand, and tire chocks and jacked up the tongue of the trailer to take weight off of the receiver and was able to tighten the bolts by about a full-turn. Feel better about it now but, boy, that spooked me. I was half thinking about leaving well enough alone since I wasn't having any problems. To me, it just didn't seem right and the last thing I needed was to dump a loaded trailer because the bolts snapped off due to a sudden jarring impact.

What I find hard to believer is the stock removable receiver hitch is held in place with a single retractable pin and yet it is stamped to be able to handle 770 lbs. That's a lot of trust in a single connection point. What if it fails?

@Rover Range turned me on to a Class IV receiver by Safarigard in the past. I think that's the way I will go in the future if I decide to do any serious hauling w/ the LR4.

 

[ftillier]

Assuming it's hardened steel equivalent to a grade 8 bolt, and a shear strength of 60% of tensile strength (150,000 psi), that 1/2" pin could hold 17000 lbs. Even low carbon steel would give you shear strength over 7000 lbs. Vibrations won't loosen the pin, unlike bolt on solutions. I'm impressed with the OEM hitch setup, though it does seem to put the stinger a bit low. The Safariguard style have the advantage that they raise the receiver, but then it's permanently sticking out the back end.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

Ready to drop off the empty U-Haul trailer tomorrow morning. Was a local move of 6 miles each way (12 round trip). Half the time, the trailer was fully-loaded. The other half, it was empty. There were also some errands that I needed to run and I couldn't drop the trailer, as U-Haul had it tagged and there was no tongue jack. My best recollection is those were the same, about 50/50.

Overall, I'd say the LR4 did fine. It's not like a big diesel pickup that can haul the 6'x12' trailer I had by employing overpowering body size and engine strength. Still, it does the job.

 

[ktm525]

That's not really towing. Trouble begins on fast multi-lane highways at speed with grades and crosswinds. That will expose weaknesses in your setup.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

@ktm525 I'm not sure I ever will do any "real" towing. Towing around a U-Haul trailer full of heavy furniture and household items demonstrated the LR4 is up to the task. My concern is wear and tear. Next move, I'll just rent a big U-Haul truck. No need to expose my personal vehicle to breakdown and costly repairs. Not worth it.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

Used the LR4 to pull a utility trailer around the property. I recently hand cleared a huge blackberry mound that had grown onto the roof and into the side of a 100 plus year old outbuilding. I decided to put the LR4 to work as a farm vehicle. It did great. I kept it in elevated off-road height the entire time to help navigate the fields I was crossing with the utility trailer loaded with blackberry vines. Felt good to put the LR4 to real work, utilizing its off-road and towing capabilities. The trailer is 5' x 9' and weighs around 1,000 lbs. They offered me the larger 12' x 6', twin-axle, model that weighed over 2,000 lbs. but I told them that I wanted to keep it light since I was going across grassy fields. Normally the equipment ends up being more capable to the task than I am. The smaller trailer worked fine. By the end of the day, I was too exhausted to move.