Ask the Question

beagle · Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 7 Location: Cambridge

I've got a twin axle horse trailer that I pull behind a Discovery. It's fitted with the Land Rover supplied tow bracket and a ball coupling fitted to the lowest set of holes on the bracket.

When the trailer(unladen) and car are coupled together on level ground the trailer sits slightly nose-up (by about 25mm).

This seems wrong to me as the trailer weight is already sitting more on the rear of the two axles, it's using up suspension travel and possibly affecting steering of the whole set-up. When I stick a ton of horse inside, it all sits down on the axles a bit more and the nose up attitude gets worse.

I can balance it to get the nose weight correct for the car and coupling but I'm still not happy with the way it sits.

I don't want to mess around with drop-plates and can probably gain the extra 25mm by fitting a different ball coupling with the centre of the ball closer to the height of the mounting holes, the land rover part has the ball nearly 80mm above the mounting holes and I have an old part where this ditance is closer to 50mm.

How critical is the height of the coupling, does it have to be spot-on or is there some lattitude in setting nose height for a trailer. Is it better to be slightly nose-down or nose-up?

I've had one accident towing horses and I don't want another so the trailer doesn't move till I'm certain I've got it right. (The accident was with another trailer that was spot-on for nose height and nose weight; we got caught in "tramlines" on one of our great arterial roads!).

Advice please.

wilko the vanman · Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 12 Location: lincolnshire

Can you not fit one of these adjustable height tow hitches that you can get from the likes of Towsure?
You dont have to keep undoing bolts as they use high tensile pins and over centre locking catches. Had one on my Transit recovery wagon for just the reasons you describe.
If you are a regular tower you might want to invest in stabilser system too. That will reduce the risk of your tramline accidents. Stabilisers aren't just for caravans they are for horses lives!!!