Have any of you ever towed an Airstream travel trailer with your Discovery? I am going to buy one and want some first-hand experience. I pull a small travel trailer now but I understand an Airstream is a little easier to pull.

Please let me know if any of you do this kind of thing with your Disco.

rover_lover

 

I never pulled one with my Rover, but my parents had several Airstreams over the years and I can tell you from that experience you'll see a big reduction in wind resistance. A regular box-shaped trailer feels like you're towing a parachute by comparison. I don't remember much about gas mileage difference, but I would assume there's some savings there as well.

 

What year is your Disco, what is the tongue weight of the trailer and the trailers overall weight???

 

Tom,

I have a 98 Disc Anv Ed and we are on our second Airstream. The first was a 65 Caravel that we restored and we are now restoring a 67 Safari. I just pulled the Safari (3200lbs) from San Diego to Fredericksburg VA and my rover has 146K on the original tranny and motor. The Caravel was much lighter at around 2200lbs so we did notuse the trailer brakes and I towed that camper all over the Sierras and the Rockies in every weather condition.

If you are thinking of towing one of the newer Airstreams they are much heavier so make sure you watch the total weight and use one of the newer brake controllers.

 

Disco tow limitations are a 350# tongue weight and 5000# trailer weight. If you are pulling with a 4.6 you will certainly pull easier. make sure your tranny fluid is fairly new before a long tow,

 

From the RAVE cd, 2003 DII

Technical Data
TOWING WEIGHTS
NOTE: The maximum roof rack load when using the approved roof bar and cross rail roof rack
system allows for the weight of the cross rails. However, if an alternative roof rack system is to be
used, the weight of the roof rack system must be included as part of the load weight.
Vehicle, trailer and tow hitch loads
Maximum permissible towed weights On-road Off-road
Unbraked trailers 750 kg (1653 lb) 750 kg (1653 lb)
Trailers with overrun brakes 3500 kg (7716 lb) 1000 kg (2204 lb)
Roof rack load 50 kg (110 lb) 30 kg (66 lb)
Maximum trailer weight Maximum vehicle load Maximum tow
hitch load
2000 kg (2 tons) All vehicles loaded to gross
vehicle weight
150 kg (330 lb)
Maximum trailer weight
(trailers with overrun brakes)
Vehicle loading limit when
pulling max trailer weight
Maximum tow
hitch load
Coil spring rear suspension vehicles
3500 kg (3.4 tons)
Driver, and one passenger
(or equivalent load)
250 kg (551 lb)
Self-levelling rear suspension
vehicles 3500 kg (3.4 tons)
Driver, plus four passengers
(or equivalent load stowed
forward of luggage comp.)
250 kg (551 lb)

 

If you don't have rear air suspension you may want to consider supplemental airbags to help keep things level and prevent premature spring sag/front end lightness. I'd personally use a brake controller and hydraulic brakes on anything over 2000lbs.

I've used my parents Titan to tow both hydraulic and surge braked trailers and I can tell you that surge brakes really suck, they throw you around a fair bit and I really wouldn't want that with a disco since the Titan is significantly more stable on the road already and it was spooky at times... (of course the trailer had a full Disco II wreck on it so there was a lot of weight).

 

Do you know what kind of air bags work good on the Disco II with rear coils? I haul my 250 lb. motorcycle on a 80 lb. motorcycle carrier. That is the maximum weight recomended by the factory. It sags in the rear. I would also like to haul car trailers and travel trailers with it.

Thank you,
Willie

 

The supplemental aftermarketair springs are a great! idea. Iinstalled them on my Grand Cherokee so I could carry my 270# dirtbike ona hitch mounted rear carrier (just hangs off the back across the vehicle)...made a huge improvement in how the vehicle handles with that much weight hanging off the hitch. I've even had a 520# sportbike back there with no problems. The carrier itself weighs 80#, so that's 600# total...good thing the maxtongue weight is 750#. Before Installing them I drove 250mi with the dirtbike on the back of the Jeep and it was pretty hairy at times. With the air springs you barely notice the extra weight back there.

Go to www.airliftcompany.com for more info. However, they do not list Land Rover in thier catalog, so I made an enquiry and they told me if I measure the coil springs they may very well have some air bags to fit inside but that they would not offer a warranty since they do not list them in the catalog. I'm guessing they'd probably be fine and that they just haven't tested the application...Land Rovers aren't so common.

I will definitely be installing them on my Discovery after I swap out the onboard compressor and gauge from the Jeep. I would go so far as to say these are a must! if you are planning on towing some weight.

Though I'm a little dissapointed in the lower 551#max tounge weight of the Discovery...the hitch design does not look as strong as the Jeep's hitch, but should be fine for the dirtbike. Though I'm hoping to carry a 470# sportbike on it...I'll be right at the max [sm=smiley3.gif]

 

Firestone makes a kit for Land Rovers the kit number is 4121. I wonder if they would be ok for offroading.

Willie