Travel trailer towing - first experience

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

LR3 Lee

New Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2019
Posts
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Indianapolis
The last couple of months I've been engrossed in researching travel trailers, the RV lifestyle, and towing with an LR3. The travel trailer I purchased is 4,700 lbs unloaded, with a dry hitch weight of 490 lbs, 2 axles, and 24' 9" overall length. I've scanned many forums and saw people who were towing larger and heavier travel trailers. I've also read many examples of people using different hitches, some using weight distribution, etc. It's all very confusing, but here are some details on my first experience.

I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to buy the RV until I inspected it, and I left the hitch setup as the big unknown. I have the Land Rover hitch (with the 770lb rating), trailer wiring, and I installed a brake controller (very easy to do). I had a receiver with a 2" drop, and figured with where that ends up on the LR3, that it would be too low, and we were correct. The RV guys and I discussed getting a receiver with a taller riser, but they had the heads to some used weight distribution hitches around which set the height well. By using this though, it will put the ball further away from the rear axle of the vehicle by roughly 10 inches or so. With the LR3 running, we set the trailer on the ball and the vehicle leveled back out. Because I had this big WD head, I could now add sway control, so we put on a Husky dual friction unit on one side.

Driving back was my first experience towing at speed. The highway has a 70mph speed limit and it was an extremely windy day - gusts up to 45mph. Let me just say that it was completely white knuckle. After the first 20 minutes I pulled off just to peel my hands off the wheel and inspect everything. I've towed a lot of super sketchy things in my days of working on a farm, but I was really surprised by this experience.

The second half of the trip was much better. The winds calmed down and I was able to relax my grip and almost drive normal. I think it was mainly due to the winds subsiding, but also getting used to the feel of being pushed around.

Obviously I would like to improve this situation. The options I'm thinking of are:
1. Crank the adjustment on the sway bar to see if that improves sway control. I didn't have a wrench with me at the time to do that
2. Add a second sway bar
3. Add tongue weight
4. ? - don't say get a different vehicle because that's not happening

Suggestions?
 

jwest

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Posts
2,041
Reaction score
409
Location
Seattle WA
i think you need to research this more with people who use a full air suspension vehicle and towing. The clubtouareg forum has tons of people doing that and it's essentially an identical situation in terms of suspension and vehicle size/wheelbase. I had one so I am familiar.

You should also look into the other potentially much better hitch made by...i forget lol... it's a more high tech design. it'll come to me, it's also roughly $1500-$2000 !

Also, I towed a 7x12 tandem loaded to max or little more, roughly 7900 lbs, from NC, to DC, IL, MO, WA. Only a bumper pull large ball and brake controller. Never really felt "white knuckle" so I'd really like to know more why you felt that way or how it felt.
 

jwest

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Posts
2,041
Reaction score
409
Location
Seattle WA
it's very possible you shouldn't be trying to use the WD but only use some sway controller. The air struts do the leveling. WD is for steel springs that cannot do any more than just sag/resist based on their strength.

However, several years ago we test towed a 23 or 25' airstream and i cannot remember if they wanted to try a WD or not.
 

jaamrode

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Posts
104
Reaction score
25
I tow basically what you just bought with the LR3. When you start getting into longer lengths The area that wind is blowing against the side of the trailer is huge. It starts to become the tail waging the dog pretty easily, since the wheel base of the Rover is pretty short. There isn’t much you can really do to fix this in the wind. I also find going much over 65mph it starts to get dicey if the road isn’t completely smooth.

A 7x12 enclosed box trailer has about 1/3 the side surface area than a 24’ travel trailer so there is no comparison there when talking about wind.

I use an Andersen Hitch, that seems to work pretty well.
 

jwest

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Posts
2,041
Reaction score
409
Location
Seattle WA
I tow basically what you just bought with the LR3. When you start getting into longer lengths The area that wind is blowing against the side of the trailer is huge. It starts to become the tail waging the dog pretty easily, since the wheel base of the Rover is pretty short. There isn’t much you can really do to fix this in the wind. I also find going much over 65mph it starts to get dicey if the road isn’t completely smooth.

A 7x12 enclosed box trailer has about 1/3 the side surface area than a 24’ travel trailer so there is no comparison there when talking about wind.

I use an Andersen Hitch, that seems to work pretty well.

Yeah, the surface area, true and also it's frontal area, massively more than my low rider designed trailer with barely 5-6 interior height. That's a lot of why it's pretty awesome to tow.

I remembered the awesome hitch designer https://www.propridehitch.com/

Andersen by the way, last year graffiti painted all over some national monuments in the Moab area....then lied about it. So they are basically a never buy in my book.
 

GSMblue

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2012
Posts
128
Reaction score
3
The LR3 is a very capable towing machine, but there are considerations.

1. It is a short wheelbase vehicle so towing a long trailer is not a great idea
2. Land Rover never really got their heads around USA towing so they say not to use a WD hitch.
3. Air suspension is a funny thing, you will need to do some research as to how it plays with a WD hitch
4. You will need some kind of sway management device. Either an anti-sway bar or a WD hitch with anti-sway built in like the Equalizer, Blue Ox or Andersen (I am on the boycott there too).
5. Have a look at airforums.com there are a few people towing with LR3/sports

Disclosure: I have a 25ft airstream and I don't tow it with the LR3, but with my 2013 Expedition EL. The tongue weight is about 850lbs and the trailer GCWR is 7300lbs. I use a pro pride 3p hitch, similar to the Hensley hitch. Another rabbit hole right there!

Good luck!
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
36,223
Posts
217,601
Members
30,474
Latest member
sawcut
Top