Kiwi

Mitch, It's been a while since I dropped in and I was surprised to see that nobody had offered more advice regarding a van that appears to be susceptible to swaying. First stop is to check your weights to make sure you have the ball weight correct and haven't added any extras onto the rear of the van. If this is OK, I'd be keeping the speed down if you cannot use a WDH; at a given speed, even the best-balanced van can go into the death throes of swaying. If you follow forums such as caravanersforum.com you will have seen plenty of comment on the safety and stability benefits of WDHs. You will also find plenty of stuff about LR and the incompatibility of its self-levelling suspension with WDHs. It might be worthwhile going there and searching the topics. I've taken the liberty of copying a post by Collyn Rivers, one of very few people who can speak with authority on this sort of stuff. I hope it helps. Michael Re: Weight distribution hitches by Collyn Rivers » Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:06 am RockyLizard I appreciate your kind comments but you have misunderstood part of what I am saying. That is that there is no way in this universe that placing a heavy mass on the towbar of that LR will not reduce the mass over the front wheels. That mass simply HAS to lever it up - and there is no possible way to overcome that but force it back down by a WDH or a heavy mass up front. If one is not prepared to accept that, I am wasting my time attempting to communicate. I am talking facts not opinions. The LR has extremely sophisticated effectively constant height interdependant suspension that takes the information it needs to operate from its running height etc. That system cannot cope with the WDH attempting to alter that height via an external mechanisms. Where a few people are losing the plot is that it is not that the LR does not need a WDH when there is a heavy overhung load, but rather that it cannot cope with having one. As LR and LR owners are no more immune to the Laws of Physics as other beings it can only be assumed (from an engineering standpoint) that their recomendations relate only to pulling heavy trailers at low speeds. It cannot be too strongly stressed that LR (as opposed to LR dealers) do not claim the product does not need a WDH. It states that a WDH may not be used. And that is a totally different statement, that people misconstrue. For a more complete understanding of the above do please read my comprehensive explantion on the Articles section of my website http://www.caravanandmotorhomebooks.com. That article (originally in Caravan World last year) has now been read and favourably commented on by suspension experts all over the world including the RV industry body in Australia. Consider this - it has even been commented on favourably by one of Australia's leading suspension engineers - his engineer Dad designed the Land Rover. I do not propose to argue its validity on this forum. Collyn Author/publisher of books and articles in RV and solar areas.

I'm not sure that there's a lot of cause for wonder, Adam. It was a legitimate posting by Banka Banka in the face of a threat to turn Kedron and Bushtracker owners away from their facility. There's only one way to do that and it is to the KOG's credit that we can read it here and form our own opinions. In contrast, the BT company site (not to be confused with the BOG site) is carefully sanitised by its company administrator who dismisses Banka Banka by suggesting that the Bushtracker owner was probably a secondhand van owner. That says a lot about the company's opinion of people who buy its product secondhand. I wonder how many of them are happy to be seen in such a poor light? Michael

The short answer is to dump the jerry cans and perhaps add a long-range fuel tank to your tug if needed. Then keep your forward water tank half-full while looking for a long-term solution (moving a water tank might be the answer but you should throw it back at Kedron for advice first). Don't ignore the ball load limit - it's there for a reason - apart from legalities/insurance. Michael

What is it about you LR owners? We ran into one in a remote camp who was bemoaning the loss of a suspension part along the way. He was pretty good-humoured and philosophical about it, suggesting that rather than go back and look for his lost component, he should press on and keep an eye out for one that had fallen off the last LR to pass that way. :confused: Michael

John, Sounds familiar. Remove the ceiling module sections and reach up through the hole to the fan. If it is loose, i.e., moves up and down, post again and I'll tell you what the problem is likely to be and how to fix it. Given that your van is only three months old, you will probably find that Dometic will choose to replace the whole unit. Michael