Hi everyone,

As some of you might have seen in my recent posts, last month I installed the OEM towbar and had it programmed so all of the fancy towing electronics work. And indeed everything does work. A coworker of mine let me hook up his trailer to test out the advanced tow assist. I followed the directions on the screen and after driving around the block the trailer was calibrated, and Advanced Tow Assist worked as advertised, as you can see in the picture below. I just played around with it for a few minutes, but didn't try to properly back up the trailer in a tight space or attempt to do any sophisticated maneuvers with Advanced Tow Assist activated. The Advanced Tow Assist will definitely come in handy, as our PCA autocross trailer that I'm in charge of towing is kept in a corner of a storage facility that requires a lot of maneuvering to back it in.

However, I have a question regarding the accuracy of the Advanced Tow Assist based on the hitch used. JLR recommends the hitch length to be no more than 6.9" between the ball and pin, and there really isn't any hitch other than the stupid expensive OEM one (VPLEY0116), which I am not paying over $500.00 for. Instead, I bought two hitches - one with a shank, and one with a shank. Neither line up with the red dot on the screen where the hitch ball is supposed to be. The shorter one appears to only be an inch or two off.

I guess what I'm trying to find out is if the longer shanked hitch will mess up the Advanced Tow Assist, or will not not make a difference? Would measuring the distance between the red dot to the center of the wheel be more accurate? Or should I not worry about it? I suppose it wouldn't be an issue if it is only off by a few inches and the car is able to calibrate the trailer.

Regardless, any feedback is appreciated. Cheers!

 

The ball position will have no impact as far as I can tell. The feature will be as useful regardless.

Spoiler: It's about as useful as a glass hammer.

My repeated efforts to glean anything of benefit from it have failed. I'm all for gadgets but this, much like the self parking feature I added, is not a feature you'll ever use in a real scenario. Definitely another plausible hypothesis is that I'm to stupid to make use of it.

The regular tow assist with the red dot in the camera is useful. I just mentally factor in the fact that the ball is a little beyond where it should be. The red dot is just a visual aid.

Trailer calibration will proceed as normal. Just drive straight for a bit after putting in trailer data and hooking up.

 

Nice Cincy

Can I ask a dumb question. I can’t figure out what “tap to align trailer” means (image above, left side of screen) or does the couple times I have used this function. Can you remind me? Nothing I tap on the screen or the button does anything at that point btw.

 

I honestly don't remember fully, but I think I pressed it and then you use the dial to adjust the trailer on the screen so it is inside the orange outline. I'll do it again on Friday when I pick up the trailer and let you know.

 

If you have lots of space to work in, "tap to align" straightens out your rig which allows you to start steering from a known orientation. Not very useful in my opinion.
As to the general usefulness, when it works, it's fabulous.
I once had to back our trailer 360' off a ferry. It was achieved with zero drama, and even got me a round of applause from the onlookers.

 

Well folks, after a weekend of towing our PCA trailer, I can definitely say that the Advanced Tow Assist works, but I wouldn't say it makes backing up easier per se. At least not in my circumstances. I deliberately backed the trailer up into my driveway twice using the Advanced Tow Assist and just doing it myself. Doing it myself was easily twice as fast as the Advanced Tow Assist. My driveway isn't as straight as it appears in the photo below, and required a lot more maneuvering than you'd expect, but I digress.

Also, I was very impressed with how well the P300 towed. It is a 10' trailer that weights roughly 2,000 lbs. when loaded with all of our equipment. Last year, I used my dad's old 2006 GMC Envoy with the 4.2L Vortec I6 to tow our trailer, as that was the only car I had access to with a hitch. The low end torque of the turbocharged I4 made towing a breeze, and felt significantly less stressed than the I6 Envoy despite being down two cylinders and less than half the displacement. Pushing the gear selector in S made it easier, too, but it had no issues in D. One thing that could be better is the size of the safety chain hooks. They're quite small, and mt anti-rattle pin that @nashvegas recommended got in the way, but I was able to finagle it in. I probably would rather have the P400 or the V8 if I was regularly towing 6000 lbs. or more, but the P300 did an excellent job - no issues getting up to highway speeds and it sat quite happily at 80 mph on the highway. If anyone has any reservations about towing with a P300, no need to worry whatsoever.

 

Love it. I echo your point on the chain hooks. I have the LR tow package on both the D5 and the D90 and for whatever reason they made the tow hooks in the Defender smaller which already meant me not being able to use a Uhaul trailer with the Defender as the hooks on the trailer's chains were too thick for the hook eyes on the tow bar. Other than that our P300 D90 has been flawless with towing. I will now venture in activating Advanced Tow Assist just for the fun of seeing it at work.