I'm hopefully close to buying my first Landrover -- I have my eye on a 300 Tdi Discovery. I want it mainly for towing, but I would also like to explore some green lanes.
That said, I suspect that the requirements of towing and off-roading are incompatible because a towbar significantly reduces the departure angle. To those who use towbar-fitted Discos, does the towbar present significant problems in reality? Is there a towbar available for the Disco that is either quickly detachable or that folds out of the way when not in use?
IMHO you will not find it a problem on green lanes (although I haven't done much green laning). I would question whether any lane that has such big holes should be driven in the first place.
That said, I have smacked my towbar many times (including four times on the water run at Billing this year on the concrete slipway). It's never left me stranded and so far there is no sign of the chassis or towbar suffering any damage from it.
Of equal (again IMO) concern is the front plastic valance. I've smacked that just as many times, which is why there isn't much left of it. You might want to budget for a more robust front bumper without all the low hanging plastic.
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i
Tim Hobbs wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Thanks for your insight. It's reassuring to know that you can get away with occasionally grounding the towbar. However, I'd be happier if I could stow it out of harms way when not in use. Thanks also for the comment about the front valance.
FWIW, I'm not only worried about the odd "hole". The standard ball height is seventeen inches. From that subtract two inches for the ball and (say) five inches for the rest of the hitch casting and bracketry. You're left with only ten inches of clearance behind the rear bumper. I have a mental image of driving in three to four inch ruts and grounding at the start of uphill sections and at the end of downhill ones (i.e. where the approach and departure angles really matter).
Just measured mine, and there is exactly 13 inches to the bottom of the drop plate. Mine is a Witter bar, which I think is the genuine part of that vintage.
Funnily enough I've only ever caught mine on departure from downslopes, not approaches to upslopes. This is probably due to greater suspension compression when the vehicle drops than when powering uphill.
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i
I've got a Dixon-Bate adjustable height towbar on mine and it grounds all the time - usually when you least expect it. Having said that it's never actually been the cause of me getting stuck ... I can do that on my own :-)
I've got a detachable tow bar on mine but it's a 200tdi 1993. It may be that some 300's need type approval and the detatchables don't sell enough to warrant type approval. I got mine from Scorpion Racing. I know Southdown do a different type of detachable incorporating a tank guard.
Thanks for that. AIUI, only the very latest 300's need type approval because TA was introduced at "S" reg. I'll check out Scorpion and Southdown later.
On or around Sat, 25 Oct 2003 18:45:58 GMT, Geoff Lane enlightened us thusly:
well, I've a deeper-than usual drop-plate on the 110 for towing small trailers, and it's still a fair bit higher than the diff. I did ground it a couple of times on a recent green lane exercise though, and the 110 has similar rear overhang to the disco. You could always have a modified dixon-bate style sliding one, where the fixed part is relatively high and have a longer sliding part which drops down below the fixed part to allow a low hitch height for caravans etc. It wouldn't be hard to invent such. Then for off-roading, you'd either slide the hitch up or pull the pin and remove it. I made an adapter for the sliding dixon-bate on the disco which uses 2 pins and extends up behind the bumper to mount a NATO hitch - tested it the other week with the 110 on the trailer, no problems... but the DB on our disco already extends below the normal hitch plate, so this wouldn't solve your problem.
On or around Sun, 26 Oct 2003 14:57:02 GMT, Geoff Lane enlightened us thusly:
let me know if you find anything good, or if you want my assistance designing or making an alternative sliding hitch :-) Might look into that for the 110, some to that, in place of the fixed drop-plate it has now.
Austin Shackles wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I've done a little more research into the Scorpion and Southdown solutions, together with something that Witter describe as "Adjustable/Retractable".
AIUI:
The Witter unit has a permanent drop plate onto which a sliding assembly is mounted. Even with the towball in the fully retracted position, Witter tell me that the drop plate is still there to dig furrows.
Scorpion describe their unit as a permanent box section that fits close to the rear cross-member. Onto this, you fit a removable drop plate and towball. Scorpion advised me to fit "Anderson" (?sp) connectors to let me detach the towing electrics with the drop plate.
The Southdown unit looks like a very meaty tank guard with two longditudinal flanges onto which you fit a removable drop plate. I assume that you can use the same electrical arrangements as Scorpion suggest.
None of these units are type-approved, and so (except for commercials) can't be used for "S"-reg and later. Scorpion say they intend to seek type approval, but can't give any idea of timescales.
FWIW, I also rang some towbar retailers. All told me that you can't get towbars for the Disco that won't turn the car into a plough off-road (they hadn't heard of Scorpion or Southdown).
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