When we tow the van it seems to make the freelander sit down a bit. We have checked hitch weight and we are at 100kg and it’s only a little 2 berth van. The freelander has a 100,000 on the clock, do the springs loose their spring ?

Perfectly normal to sit down a bit with a caravan on, as long as its not on the bump stops. I've 91000 miles on mine now but not at a stage where I feel the springs or shocks need replaced. Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Cheers, thanks. I guess looking for problems that aren’t there.

Don't forget the leverage of the tow ball distance in relation to the rear axle. Probably another 30% on the rear axle & a bit removed from the front axle.

Rear axle load on the Freelander is not a lot. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

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It’s well worth using a weighbridge to see how your trailer affects axle weights. I put my FL2 through unladen and got 1150 kg on the front axle and 850 on the rear. I then hooked up my twin axle trailer, more or less fully laden, with a nose weight of 90 kg. On the weighbridge the front axle was now 1130 kg, and the rear axle 960 kg. The trailer axle weights were 550 kg (front) and 660 kg (rear). Note that the sum of the differences on the axles, i.e. 20 kg less on the front and 110 kg more on the rear equalled the nose weight, which is what you’d expect as the noseweight has to be reflected somewhere in the total weight. The total weight of the trailer was thus 1300 kg, i.e. front axle (550) plus rear axle (660) plus noseweight(90).

Also, while noseweight on a single axle trailer won’t vary much when attached to cars whose tow bar heights may vary, a twin axle is very different and I had to get a spacer from the trailer manufacturer, Brian James, to raise the hitch height on the A frame of the trailer to better match the tow ball height on the FL2. Prior to that it was impossible to get the noseweight below 100 kg and there was a huge imbalance between the weight on the front axle of the trailer - 470 kg - and the rear - 740 kg.

P.S. I’d have thought that if it’s a small caravan you must be right at the limit of your hitch at 100 kg so it might be worth trying to reposition stuff in the 'van to get the noseweight down to 75-80 kg?

P.P.S. This is the car, with fully loaded trailer, but without the hitch spacer so a noseweight of 100 kg. It really doesn’t alter how the car sits at all. Slightly down at the back, but not a lot.

Hi, not sure if I'm reading your post correctly ? But the nose weight limit on the FL2 is 150kg. Most caravan chassis though are rated at 100kg .

In answer to the original question, my 13 reg HSE doesn't hardly alter the ride height , my caravan is 1500kg fully loaded and puts 100kg of nose weight on the towbar 2007 TD4 XS The work horse that earns its up keep
2013 SD4 HSE The posh one for towing the caravan
1973 Triumph Stag I bought in 2009 and restored.

I was just making the point that a noseweight of 100 kg is quite probably at the limit of the hitch on the caravan and that it might be advisable to bring it down a bit rather than run at the limit. This has nothing to do with the 150 kg capacity of the FL2.

Morning, I don’t think we are very heavy over all. We have no awning, front locker has gas fresh water hoses and waste water hoses. It’s a 460 coachman so only bed/bunks at the front and a shower room at the rear.

You need to be within the regulations for your country, but in Australia you can have up to 350kg. It is a completely impractical limit.

Based on SimonJ rear axle load increase of 22%, let's round up to 25%, you would have 438kg on the rear axle. Rear axle maximum of 1360 kg less unladen weight of 850kg, less 438kg. All that is left is 72kg. Useless!

Some of the actual towbars have a lower capacity & they are not suitable in Australia.



We don't tow, but I did a spreadsheet & weighed every last item we put in the car down to the power cables for phones, floor mats, fire extinguishers, 6th wheel plus 3kg extra for each of the larger tyres for example.

Our car never looked anywhere near full, but we were over the payload. It's frightening how quickly it all adds up. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18