[img]Hi there
this is a question in regards to Freelander 2 Suspesion. Last Christmas our family had an outback holiday where we covered 9000 km of Aussie outback and coastline.

It was our first full family holiday in the FL2 and I think every record heatwave followed us from town to town we often had days from 48 to 52°. The car was faultless and absolutely ate up the hot gruelling gravel outback roads. I actually couldn't wait to drive each day as the FL2 made these roads so much fun to drive on.

My main question is around around my pod trailer. They’re a trailer with galvanised frame and a poly body and weigh about 300 KG's dry. Can't say I am into dragging 2 tonne of camping gear around behind me. I guess Loaded the trailer weighs about 500 – 650 kg wet. Depends how much water I have in the water tanks. I think the FL2 have a 2 ton towing capacity. The rear suspension with a car full of people and gear not to mention the trailer makes the rear very saggy.

I thought to myself when I got home the first thing I was going to do was get air shocks or possible airbags to help take the load on the resuspension. To my surprise, there does not seem to be an option, the only thing 2 suspension specialist offered me was to put stiffer springs on, which I am reluctant to do, as I love the ride around town when the car is not loaded.

Has anybody heard of any solutions for this?





Last edited by Novarover on 29th May 2014 11:26 am. Edited 3 times in total

Unfortunately I think it will never happen. There isn't much leeway available with the FL2 suspension. You are right about the ride being great when not loaded down and any change would probably ruin it for the majority of use. On another note, I have always wanted one of those Pod trailers because of the light weight. They look pretty good too. I wanted the racks with my ultra light roof tent on it and the slide out kitchen. I think the longer draw bar version might have a lower towball weight or is it the other way around?

Hi Mikehzz
I can highly recommend these pod trailers they are tough, light and extremely dust in weatherproof.

I would definitely go with the longer draw as they handle so much better, reversing is much easier with the longer draw. Our trailer handled like a dream you would hardly know was on the back. At times we would be doing speeds of up to 120 km/h on the gravel roads and every now and then a cattle grid (which are everywhere out there) would sneak up on you, most were pretty good but the odd one would launch both car and trailer airborne and not once did the trailer pose a threat. These trailers are big enough to carry enough camping gear for a family and still stay lite enough that you don't have to wind up your jockey wheel just to hitch the trailer onto the ball. One man can generally push a manoeuvre the trailer around most sites.

We camp very nomadic, generally not staying in the one spot for any more than two nights, this setup suited us extremely well as we could be set up and ready for bed in 10 minutes.

The roads in the outback are terribly gruelling and the amount of stones and rocks that fly from beneath your car in hit the trailer is incredible. Despite having a stone deflector at the front of the trailer, out of the thousands of rocks thrown into it, hundreds ricochet into the back of your car, on the last 50 km of unsealed road one rock managed to sneak a little high then most and shatter my rear tailgate window.At first it was heart breaking to see the amount of stone chips to the rear of the car paintwork,enjoying and seeing this great country this is what I brought the car for and one just gets over it.

I live near the ocean and it wouldn't take long for a conventional metal trailer to start rusting from the amount of paint in galvanising removed from the aggressiveness of these roads. My water tank shield underneath the trailer looks like it's been attacked with the ball pain hammer.

With a trailer like you have it will be very easy to get to much weight on the pin, need to get more weight over the trailer axle.

Mate, I've done nearly all the roads out there, shredded a few tyres and clocked up nearly 200,000kms. My car looks like it has been in a war zone so I know exactly what you are saying. Cheers.

Giday Novarova and Mike
Here is a photo of the stone deflector on my camper and it is very effective , I have traveled many ks on dirt/gravel roads on both Eyre and York Peninsulars ,Flinders Ranges,Oodnadatta Track and many tracks in the Northern Territory and only have 2 small dings in my tailgate and they both appeared after a trip to the supermarket car park . Also there is a scale now available from towsafe that measures the ball weight of your trailer ,availabe on the dreaded evil bay .

Click image to enlarge

Hi Aussie Battler
Do you have the problem of your freelander getting soggy in the rear end when the trailer is attached ????

Have you got a close pic of your stone deflector?

The answer to the first question is that I find very little difference in the way the vechicle drives weather it is towing or not .As you can see by the photo the rear is down but the front has not lifted . I did not have my scale for the ball weight then but I suspect that it probably was about the max as the yellow tank has 70ltr of fuel and the box has a generator ,tools and assorted camping gear. The draw bar is quite long and I think that probably helps by keeping the weight on the trailer axle and smoothing the ride ,also I dont have a pack rack on top which may help .
Second question ,I will get some photos of the stone guard and post them in my gallery and let you know when ,should be later tomorrow . The camper is a sunset made in Ballarat chect their web site there may be a few shots there Doug

Click image to enlarge

Looks tail heavy to me, the front is high.

hi i have 2010 freelander 2 td4 - we have just purchased a 2011 tvan (canning) dry weight 975kg - all up 1500kg - the ball weight is 137kg - i had to get a high rise hitch for the draw bar to be level - towed the tvan home to newcastle from canberra and had no trouble towing it (to register the tvan in nsw i had to obtain a weigh bridge ticket which was 1008kg (only water in the tank no jerrys or extra gear on board) - the freelander has a dual battery system with a 100amp hour agm battery (30kg)mounted in the luggage compartment - the rear of the freelander was only slightly lower but the handling was neutral.

dave 2010 HSE TD4 Ipanema Sand - almond interior

Hi Shelby
would you have any pics of your Hi rise hitch on your freelander,I was looking for one.
General my freelander handles well with the trailer . it just when it a full family loaded rear compartment and full trailer, she loosed a little hight in the rear, as well all know freelanders can't afford to loose any height, Id love a set of rear air adjustable shocks if anyone knows of one that fits.

Dear Gentlemen, all this talk about excessive hitch nose weight and wanting to beef up the rear springs!
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Take a look at the towbar mechanical design, there are fixing bolts working 'in shear' ; start overloading the towbar manufacturers design and you are risking shearing the bolts in half.
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Please just get those trailers properly in balance with the proper hitch weight.
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My Freelie is the best caravan tug that I've ever had in 40 years!
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Kind regards from Fred
. 2010GS Auto ex Celeb, Santorini Black, 2011 facelift , spoiler, spats, mudflaps, LED footwell lamps, Witter detach,
Other cars:-
1958 & 1959 Austin J40 Pedal Cars under restoration (I make many J40 parts)
If you have an Austin J40 or Pathfinder Pedal Car looking for a new home pls PM me.
2009 Meriva

hi novarover - i believe you are also in newcastle - please email me on david.cochrane1@bigpond.com and i will give you my address and phone numbers

shelby 2010 HSE TD4 Ipanema Sand - almond interior

Dear Fredastaire

I fully understand what you're saying, and believe you me I transfer as much weight behind the axles of the trailer as I can in order to take the weight off the hitch.
But there is a big difference between towing a trailer down deep ruts and crevices and over sand dunes then towing a nicely balanced caravan along the public road.
Due to the length of caravans one has more opportunity to finally balance the weight distribution to the front hitch.

I'm not sure over in Europe if this style of trailers are as popular as they are he in Australia. But these off-road camping trailers are extremely popular here in Australia and in order to successfully take them off road there cannot be too much overhang behind the axles as they just simply bottom out.

Check out this website of an Australian magazine http://www.campertraileraustralia.com.au that specialises in reviewing these trailers and see some of the places we drag these trailers to see this huge country.