SO... this happened yesterday. Only about a block from the busiest intersection in town.

Heads up for all of you who haul trailers, that LR3 towball receiver gizmo can be a real pain in the butt. Make sure it is latched properly. Also, be sure to use your safety chains as they saved my bacon on this one.

Note: the picture was taken after I removed one of the chains, there was not enough slack to undo the remaining chain. To gain the slack I needed, I dropped the air.

 

Glad everything was okay - how close did it come to contacting the vehicle? Were your safety break-away brakes working (haha maybe 10% of trailers I've ever seen have a good battery in there).

Hm not to sound like a douche (but you had to know this was coming....)

It's not really a "gizmo" - it gives a CLEAR indication if it's correctly locked or not (the red inner plastic warning ring will show). For everyones sake here, can you confirm 110% that it was fully and correctly locked when this happened? Did something break or did it just release?

I studied mine when I first got it (I have the 2nd generation, there are 3 I believe) and it looked like it would be difficult to get an inadvertent release.

I've had the LR3 GVWR over 11klbs and towed everything from 24' boats to big horse trailers with no problems (on the range rover sport and LR3).


I will say one thing, if I get a "soft" click when I install the hitch receiver , I'll take it off and throw it back into the slot till I get a HARD locking click in one motion, then of course I'll kick it / stand on it a few times. The green lever should immediately pop in and cover the red area fully when it seats.

Hope you can trust the rig again next time! Were you with anyone?

 

haha, yeah I realize it is a technical marvel; being able to remove the one piece that always hangs up when off roading.

No damage to anything (the snow and ice kept the road rash to a minimum and I don't think the trailer contacted the rear of the Rover).

The safety chains held, the break away did not engage as the cable is longer than the chains. I was thinking to shorten the chains a bit so that the tongue of the trailer doesn't actually touch the ground if this were to happen again (not that I really see it happening again).

My mom was in the vehicle with me. My brother-in-law happened upon the scene by chance to help me line up the hitch after I got it back on the leg.

It was certainly operator error. But, with that said, I did haul a trailer for a short time the day before and made two short trips in town before losing the "gizmo" on trip three. I believe that it was just barely latched and all it took was a good bump (icy pot holes) to jiggle it free.

And yes, I kicked it a few times before hooking anything up. Apparently it is not a good load test method and the best practice would be to visually inspect the locking pin (there is clear line of sight to see the pin engaged in the hole - at least in my case where no spare tire is mounted under the vehicle).

And, if anyone out there doesn't trust "the gizmo" or for any reason doesn't want to use it, there are a few aftermarket options to replace it.

 

Wow that's intense - and yeah I didn't even think about the cable actuator for the brakes, duh. Things would need to be really bad for that to happen.


There's HUGE threads over on the UK forums about problems with the hitch receiver HOWEVER it's the other design and all of the trailers use the stupid swan neck thing. I believe trailering over there is a totally different deal, much the same thing as throwing a Christmas tree on the roof. Every little Citroen and minivan has a tow bar and they pull some insane campers. Over here it's frowned upon if you tow a 2-horse aluminum trailer with anything less than a dually.

There's a local LR3 with a Uhaul trailer hitch installed (big ugly black bar that sits under the rear bumper from one side of vehicle to the other). I'm fairly sure the Uhaul place told her she didn't have a trailer hitch, not knowing about the removable design. I find it totally ironic that it's now BLOCKING the factory hitch receptacle and that all she needed was the receiver unit from the dealer.

FWIW none of the aftermarket conventional designs offer the factory tow rating. I think the curt / uhaul ones are 600/6000 so nearly 2000lbs less than factory which is a huge deal for me. I'm fairly sure the Donzi loaded with 50gal fuel and food/water/etc for a weekend plus us was right at 6000lbs. Our Featherlite horse trailer is about 3500 with stuff in the changing room, 1600lb horse so over 5100 but throw another horse and you're well over 6, plus most want 10-15% safety margin (though obviously LR built in some margins into the factory specs). The 6 number would just be limiting to me, even though most loads are right at it - offers no margins is all.

I've actually started leaving mine in for stupid people in parking lots, not paying attention in stop-go traffic, etc. I got a 16,000lbs solid steel tow bar 1-3/4" rise I think, puts most trailers perfectly level. You would NOT want to hit that with a car though.