disco 2 towing nightmare..........

Hi landy lovers.... i'm having real problems towing with my D2... any thing over 45/50 mph towing my caravan its starts to snake and is extreme dangerous...ive tryed to sort this out my self... i'll start at the front .. new track rod, new steering rod,.new(recon) steering box,. new upper and lower bushes(this was a mot advise so i had both sides done).. and now the rear.. complete new watts linkage bushes/bearings.... also tracking checked I have also dropped the ball hitch down on the plate to make the van more level... messed about with all the tyre pressures ect ..as you can apprecate i'm getting to the end of my tether... has any one got any ideas on what more im can do??... any help would be great.. many thanks stuart

Is the caravan level when hitched up?,is it loaded correctly with correct amount of weight on the hitch and also are you sure the problem is the discovery,have you tried towing the van with something else ?

Are you carrying any extra weight in the caravan?
If you are then you need to place the weight central.
To much weight inside the caravan at the rear will cause snake pendulum/snake effect.

Also measure height between the top of your rear wheels and the bottom of your rear wheel arch when hitched and unhitched try to make the distance the same.

You don't say how much experience of caravan towing you have, so excuse me if I'm preaching here but in addition to all the advice above I would also check the coupling, are you using an Alko hitch? If so I'd check the stabilising pads and make sure you are using the correct Alko towball which should be clean and free of any paint.

I would be surprised if it were the Disco at fault, I've towed big caravans with my old 300tdi and nothing steps out of line behind it.

Sounds like your van is not loaded as it should be, I tow a one and a half ton van with a disco2 no problems, its not your car, make sure all your heavy items are over van wheels, if your van is fitted with a stabiliser hitch I think the weight on it should not exceed 100kg , I have been towing for over 32 years with no problems.

i tow regularly the only time i have problems is when the van is hardly loaded the weekend trips with out kids heavier the van the better it tows.Has your caravan got the right tyres on it as new vans need to have correct tyres,axles suspension all set up for the correct tyres. Heard two real nasty stories both down to wrong tyres (one of the vans was straight from factory).

Hi landy lovers.. many thanks for all your thoughts... and its defo food for thought for me... we have had the caravan for three years now and i used to tow it with a mgztt.. with no problems what so ever??.. no change to the caravan at all.. i think im starting to think its the caravan mabe?? im gonna go for one of them alko anti snake hitch things and see if this works... there aint much more i can do to the car..... trouble is if you google the problem you seem to get a awful lot of horror storys about D2 being ****e as a tow car.... its a mystery (said toyah)

I had the exact same thing when i used my D2 for the first time.
Rangie towed it no probs at all but with the D2 it was just like you say, all over the place at anything above 50mph.

So i dropped the tow ball one hole down and its spot on again.
Caravans like to be slightly nose down

stuxj40 said:

Hi landy lovers.. many thanks for all your thoughts... and its defo food for thought for me... we have had the caravan for three years now and i used to tow it with a mgztt.. with no problems what so ever??.. no change to the caravan at all.. i think im starting to think its the caravan mabe?? im gonna go for one of them alko anti snake hitch things and see if this works... there aint much more i can do to the car..... trouble is if you google the problem you seem to get a awful lot of horror storys about D2 being ****e as a tow car.... its a mystery (said toyah)

Click to expand...

:director: Wot! Disco a ****e tow car, NO FCUKIN WAY!maybe people with money & no experience, eg. just got myself a brand new van & bought myself a Disco to tow it with, oops never even towed a farty little box trailer before , disaster, easy to blame the Disco

"Disco 2 ****e as a tow car"

stuxj40 said:

Hi landy lovers.. many thanks for all your thoughts... and its defo food for thought for me... we have had the caravan for three years now and i used to tow it with a mgztt.. with no problems what so ever??.. no change to the caravan at all.. i think im starting to think its the caravan mabe?? im gonna go for one of them alko anti snake hitch things and see if this works... there aint much more i can do to the car..... trouble is if you google the problem you seem to get a awful lot of horror storys about D2 being ****e as a tow car.... its a mystery (said toyah)

Click to expand...

I tow a 1500kg single axle Swift Utopia with mine and its easy to forget its there

HenryD said:

I tow a 1500kg single axle Swift Utopia with mine and its easy to forget its there

Click to expand...

been there done that yes did forget i was towing not funny

Yes also done that towing my avondale was in 3rd lane m5 when my lad said dad didnt we have a caravan when we left.had to nip in sharpish and slow down left me shaking.

cambridgecockney said:

Yes also done that towing my avondale was in 3rd lane m5 when my lad said dad didnt we have a caravan when we left.had to nip in sharpish and slow down left me shaking.

Click to expand...

funny that mines an avondale as well but was playing games with a boy racer :5biamwithstupid:

Iv been towing with my 2004 discovery 2 since 2006 twin wheel caravan haven't had much problems tows extremely well better then my wifes discovery 3 I'd say more likely caravan fault

I've towed our 1400 Kg Bailey single axle around 5,000 miles in the UK and France with my TD5 (SLS, ACE) and had absolutely no problems. Steady as a rock up to 70 mph (in France of course). Barely twitches when WVM passes at 90 leaving 2 foot clearance.

So D2 is NOT a bad tow car (much better than my preceding D1 V8) but there is clearly something wrong with your setup - towball height, noseweight, load distribution in caravan etc spring to mind.

As iansoady said. Those three are the most likely but if as you say the van towed ok behind your previous car main culprit is probably tow ball height. As said the caravan should be slightly nose down.

As has been said td5 great tow truck towed a large ifor williams with a john deere 10/20 complete with selectatilth howard 6 foot rorovator probably over the top weight wise but the air suspension keeps the back up and no dramas so sounds like the van is the cause.



Engineer

THE BUDDAH said:

Are you carrying any extra weight in the caravan?
If you are then you need to place the weight central.
To much weight inside the caravan at the rear will cause snake pendulum/snake effect.

Also measure height between the top of your rear wheels and the bottom of your rear wheel arch when hitched and unhitched try to make the distance the same.

Click to expand...

I repeat the qoute:

I tow every day HGV1 thoughout GB.

THE BUDDAH said:

I repeat the qoute:

I tow every day HGV1 thoughout GB.

Click to expand...

Towing HGV is different as your trailer wheels are at the rear, caravan wheels are central so you need different ratio at the front. Caravans are different. Next time you go flying past a caravan on the motorway have a look in your mirror