L322 RR for DD and light overland duty

[nick325i]

Nick--did you get the black 08 at British 4x4? If so, I hear you got a good one. Sam was gushing about it Friday when I got my oil changed.

I bought the white 08' from up there (from Auto Group, same overall company anyway) . Brett said it was a good one and I trust his opinion. It was only on the lot for a few days before I test drove and bought it the next day. They had a black 08' RRS that sold a few days before mine but I didn't hear about another black L322. If so there must be another good one out there.

 

[DougC]

That must have been the one Sam was talking about--I probably just wanted it to be black. Nice Classic!

 

[CeeDeeHR]

That dark grey one...which tire you have there? (those are stock 18" rims i guess)

 

[buyrovers]

Love the fullsize, great family haulers and in the snow it's unreal just point and go. Sold my 2010 with a lift and 33s a couple months ago but just bought a supercharged 08 and plan to do the same lift and tires.

 

[buyrovers]

Tires were so good it could drive upside down as shown here ...

 

[proper4wd]

I'd get the IID tool to disable the "auto level" feature on the rear suspension so that you can use a weight-distribution hitch properly.

This is really bad advice.

 

[99Discovery]

This is really bad advice.

And you would be correct......I guess I was dumber 1 year ago.

Now? I would probably wouldn't tow anything much heavier than a RRC with an L322. Sure, it'd match the 7700lb tow rating, but he's gonna come awfully close to the 550 tongue limit.

I'm not a fan of the hitch design on the modern rovers and it bothers me the engineers publish a great tow rating with a tongue weight that doesn't match the trailer load. Maybe they like light tongue weight across the pond, but I can't imagine hitching up without weight distribution or sway control a load that is nearly 8k with a 550lbs tongue weight.

Sounds like an accident waiting to happen, IMO.

 

[proper4wd]

It's under rated for tongue weight capacity I think. I just towed 750 miles round trip with about 8000 pounds. I am sure I had at least 700-800# of tongue weight. It was a dream to tow and extremely stable.

I think the tongue weight rating is a factor of GVW and having to keep the vehicle within a specific class in the UK. If they rated it for more than 7700lb towing or 550# tongue weight it would be in commercial/heavy vehicle territory.

Having installed the trailer hitch assembly on this vehicle myself I can assure you it is extremely heavy duty. The L322 setup is vastly superior to the LR3/Sport "quick hitch" setup.

I'm not an engineer, but based on the hitch design and construction itself, the weight of the tow vehicle (well over 6k with driver, fuel, gear) , load leveling air suspension, size of the brakes, I think it would be just fine for loads approaching 10k (properly loaded trailer).

Just about the only drawback is the wheelbase at 113 inches, but that's not too short for safe/stable towing IMO. Most of the regular cab short bed half ton trucks on the market today are about 120" wheelbase and are rated for 9k plus.

 

[lwg]

On my '10 L322 SC the hitch is built in and is very stout. The only issue I see is that it's kind of tucked under the truck. Good for off-road but might require an extension for towing.

On our LR3 a few years ago, I towed around 7500 lbs with prolly 800 tongue cross country. Towed great, only issue was lack of power going up big inclines. The '10 SC should remedy that issue.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk