Another victim of the parking brake phenomenon. Mine activated on the interstate at 70+. I had it towed to the dealer nearby and the diagnosis was that the parking brake wiring was misrouted and the vibration activated it. Who was the mechanical genius who misrouted the wiring? Yep, yours truly.

 

I'd tend to agree with the others, except no one is really combining the element of front wheel/steering wheel shake. That's generally a guaranteed symptom of FRONT brake/rotor overheat - which I've experienced while towing ~25k lbs going down cumberland in an F350 lol. Eventually one slight touch of the brakes and the steering would flop all over the place, rotors were probably red hot - I'd be a dead man if anything had happened to those trailer brakes!

 

so apparently after1 week f sitting I get back. take the rear wheels off inspect the EBC pads and hardware and nothing. I made a couple adjustments on the pads and went for a 60 mile drive. nothing. like it never happened. no smell or anything. I assume the LR3 isn't made for towing all the time. weird

 

Did you read my reply?


The fact that you suffered steering wheel shake and have no REAR brake damage isn't surprising to me at all. The symptoms have to match the diagnosis.

As far as towing capabilities - the LR3 is one of the best vehicles (at least SUV) ever designed for towing - and in its current price point, nothing on the planet will touch it, at least not with a correctly functioning air suspension system. Maybe the diesel excursions shouldn't count.

Is there any more information you can give me? Tow rig setup details etc? Is your weight distribution on the trailer okay? Do you have some kind of extreme tongue weight or negative tongue weight that may cause stability issues? Even so - the IBF-frame rovers are incredibly tolerant of mis-loaded trailers.

If someone held a gun to my head right now, I'd say you made an unusually hard stop at some point early in your trip (not a bad thing, just maybe worse than you would have done un-loaded for the past couple months..) and a FRONT pad may have become stuck on a pin. Eventually the friction would create a nasty smell and WOULD throw the steering wheel around a good amount.

If you cycle the brakes a few times, the pin will usually unlock from the pad and you'll be fine.

That's just my guess though.

Is your trailer brake controller setup working well? Obviously your brake effort should "feel" as if there's no trailer there. Many set gain to the point it locks up the trailer brakes, then back off a bit. I usually tweak mine so traffic and stop-lights feel good with no residual pull on the hitch.

FWIW I've towed a 5500lb boat and a horse trailer @ ~6500+lbs with zero issues, both of which are usually during longer trips.