Below is a message that I posted sometime ago under an old (and long) thread. Since there has been limited response so far, I thought I may just edit and repost it as a separate thread so that it will no longer be buried in page 3 of the old thread in order to get some additional exposure .
I tow a 24 feet camping trailer with a weight of about 4500# using my 2005 V8 LR3. I am currently using an EZ-LIFT friction sway control system and 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 have often heard people said that the automatic air suspension system on the LR3 can level the trailer/truck system just as effectively as a WDH system. However, I have also been told that even though it does a good job in leveling the traile and truck, 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 found 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 weight change, the steering and handling of the truck could thus be adversly affected. This plus the other fact that the manual for the friction 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 Weight Distribution Hitch, such as the Equalizer WDH/sway control system or a Reese Dual Cam system, for improving my towing safety.
As we know, the LR3 manual says that a WDH should not be used on this truck. However, like many others, I have not been able to get a reasonable explanation from Land Rover on the reason why we should not 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 a year ago was that they have not tested the WDH on this truck and therefore all LR3ers 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 and make it confused. The question is then there are many other trucks on the market that also have automatic air leveling systems, so why there's no problem with these trucks? Again, I have not heard any reasonablle explanation for this.
It would thus be very helpful if some of our fellow LR3ers who have actually been towing with a WDH could share their experience with us. So far I have only found very few reports from people who have done that. The posting from a poster "FloridaLR" on this forum said that after a short 30 mile trial, he did feel it affected the smoothness of his ride and decided to remove it. However, another poster on the RV Net.com reported that he was getting great performance with a WDH on his LR3 after thousands of miles. So, what is the verdict?
I welcome the comments from anyone.
I tow a 24 feet camping trailer with a weight of about 4500# using my 2005 V8 LR3. I am currently using an EZ-LIFT friction sway control system and 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 have often heard people said that the automatic air suspension system on the LR3 can level the trailer/truck system just as effectively as a WDH system. However, I have also been told that even though it does a good job in leveling the traile and truck, 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 found 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 weight change, the steering and handling of the truck could thus be adversly affected. This plus the other fact that the manual for the friction 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 Weight Distribution Hitch, such as the Equalizer WDH/sway control system or a Reese Dual Cam system, for improving my towing safety.
As we know, the LR3 manual says that a WDH should not be used on this truck. However, like many others, I have not been able to get a reasonable explanation from Land Rover on the reason why we should not 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 a year ago was that they have not tested the WDH on this truck and therefore all LR3ers 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 and make it confused. The question is then there are many other trucks on the market that also have automatic air leveling systems, so why there's no problem with these trucks? Again, I have not heard any reasonablle explanation for this.
It would thus be very helpful if some of our fellow LR3ers who have actually been towing with a WDH could share their experience with us. So far I have only found very few reports from people who have done that. The posting from a poster "FloridaLR" on this forum said that after a short 30 mile trial, he did feel it affected the smoothness of his ride and decided to remove it. However, another poster on the RV Net.com reported that he was getting great performance with a WDH on his LR3 after thousands of miles. So, what is the verdict?
I welcome the comments from anyone.
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