Anyone have towing experience with an older Range Rover?

[atropa]

Looking for some advice, recently bought a 2005 Range Rover for towing with but I am having trouble getting the trailer to sit level when it's hitched up.
The tow receiver on my previous car was a good 3-4 inches higher than on the Range Rover and the trailer just slipped right on, whereas when hitching up to the Range Rover we're having to force the front of the trailer right down to get them connected. Once connected, the front of the trailer seems to be being pulled slightly downward by the back of the car.
Had been told by a few people that automatic air suspension would adjust the height of the car to get the trailer level but this doesn't seem to be the case. We can manually adjust the air suspension to level it but the owners manual indicates that the suspension would lower again automatically if we go above 30mph.
Is there something I'm missing here, or do I need to replace the tow receiver on the car with a longer one?
Should say I obviously have not had a horse in the back yet and won't until I'm confident it's sorted.

 

[soloequestrian]

I'd say there is something wrong with the suspension. To be fair, it's an old RR so there is probably something wrong with everything (and I'm a fan of them). I had two P38s that I towed with and didn't have a problem with the trailer being level - the air suspension was just great for hitching up and unhitching! I'm pretty sure the car knew when it had a trailer on and didn't lower itself at faster speeds.

 

[atropa]

I'd say there is something wrong with the suspension. To be fair, it's an old RR so there is probably something wrong with everything (and I'm a fan of them). I had two P38s that I towed with and didn't have a problem with the trailer being level - the air suspension was just great for hitching up and unhitching! I'm pretty sure the car knew when it had a trailer on and didn't lower itself at faster speeds.

Thanks, so when you hitched your trailer up to the car did the air suspension adjust automatically without you having to touch it? We were under the impression that this is what would happen but it didn't seem to. The car definitely knew the trailer was hitched, we were able to manually adjust the air suspension to level it but the owners manual did seem to suggest the suspension would lower again automatically if we went above a certain speed.. perhaps that's not the case if the car knows you had something on the back?

 

[soloequestrian]

I'm reliably informed by my husband, who can remember this kind of stuff, that there was a button to press to stop the lowering. I think we just had the tow ball at the appropriate height for the normal suspension level.

 

[atropa]

I'm reliably informed by my husband, who can remember this kind of stuff, that there was a button to press to stop the lowering. I think we just had the tow ball at the appropriate height for the normal suspension level.

Thanks very much, there is a lock setting on the suspension, I'll take another look at that tomorrow.

 

[Farmer Chalk]

It depends what height your tow ball is set at? Is it a fixed plate type tow bar or a swan neck type one. If it’s the former then you can buy plates that have a variety of bolt holes so you can set the height of the tow ball to the required height...

The air suspension is really only set up for access height, normal height or off road settings and not for towing. using those settings makes it far easier to hitch up but the car will attempt to return to normal height setting upon driving off....

 

[Annagain]

You can lift the suspension to hitch up but it will go back to normal height. You may need to adjust the height of the tow bar - we had to on the Discovery we had before. It was too high and the trailer felt very wobbly. Does it feel ok when it's towing? I'd try it without and if it feels ok empty then (carefully) with a horse in as the weight might change how it feels.

 

[atropa]

It depends what height your tow ball is set at? Is it a fixed plate type tow bar or a swan neck type one. If it’s the former then you can buy plates that have a variety of bolt holes so you can set the height of the tow ball to the required height...

The air suspension is really only set up for access height, normal height or off road settings and not for towing. using those settings makes it far easier to hitch up but the car will attempt to return to normal height setting upon driving off....

You can lift the suspension to hitch up but it will go back to normal height. You may need to adjust the height of the tow bar - we had to on the Discovery we had before. It was too high and the trailer felt very wobbly. Does it feel ok when it's towing? I'd try it without and if it feels ok empty then (carefully) with a horse in as the weight might change how it feels.

Thank you both, we have done some work on it yesterday and discovered off road height is indeed good for hitching up.
The towbar attached to the RR is a detachable one with no height adjustment so we are changing it to a drop plate one in order to raise the height. There are also plenty of people who seriously advise against towing with detachable towbars so that puts my mind at ease about that.
Also took the empty trailer to be serviced yesterday and noticed as we unhitched it that the car noticeable dropped in height at the back, so there does seem to be some kind of automatic suspension adjustment going on.

I think changing to the higher hitch will be the thing that fully solves the problem.

 

[Farmer Chalk]

Excellent news.... there are a number of tow bar manufacturers who do kits for the RR. Land Rover themselves do an excellent kit but Island 4x4 sell different versions...

https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/accessories-bars-towing-electrics-c-144_164_3118.html

I also support your thoughts re detachable tow bars.... I personally don’t like them and have fixed versions on our tow cars....

The suspension only moves because there are height and level sensors on the car...when you attach a trailer the car recognises the additional weight on the rear axle... as such it inflates the rear suspension airbags to get the car level again...

likewise when you unhitch the trailer the back of the car would naturally go up in the air because the weight is removed...the car recognises this and then vents that additional air from the rear suspension to get the car level again... this is why you see the car levelling itself....

The trick when hitching up is to lower the car to access mode first.. the car will drop on its haunches.. reverse the car so the trailer can be hitched and then when the ball is attached you can raise the rear of the car.... it saves you with a work out trying to raise the trailer using the jockey wheel...

 

[Hanno Verian]

Hi there if its a P38, then the suspension will automatically lower when you exceed about 40/50 mph, this is to lower it and stiffen the ride for the motorway. There is an overide for towing, I think its a button on the centre console, if you have the owners manual it will tell you in that, if not I would google both the problem and look for a downloadable pdf of the owners manual which is available free. There are all sorts of Landrover owners forums that can give you more detailed advice.

I had a P38 for a couple of years ten-fifteen years ago (the petrol one) it was fabulous for towing in all conditions absolutely rock steady as long as you drove sensibly and a huge boot for tack and horsey kit/picnic etc.

What Farmer Chalk says rings a bell

 

[atropa]

Hi there if its a P38, then the suspension will automatically lower when you exceed about 40/50 mph, this is to lower it and stiffen the ride for the motorway. There is an overide for towing, I think its a button on the centre console, if you have the owners manual it will tell you in that, if not I would google both the problem and look for a downloadable pdf of the owners manual which is available free. There are all sorts of Landrover owners forums that can give you more detailed advice.

I had a P38 for a couple of years ten-fifteen years ago (the petrol one) it was fabulous for towing in all conditions absolutely rock steady as long as you drove sensibly and a huge boot for tack and horsey kit/picnic etc.

What Farmer Chalk says rings a bell

Thanks, its an L322 rather than a P38. Doesn't seem to be a button on the dash for that but we do seem to have the suspension sorted and just need to get the hitch replaced now to be golden.