can i tow?

[Blatman]

A man with old Ford Sierra  with drum brakes is towing 700kg legally  A man towing his overweight  westy with landrover discovery equipped  with bigger and better  brakes is towing illegaly , if both cars had to stop quickly i would take my chance with the discover? but as you say he would be braking the law!

My version of that has Sierra mans weedy drum brakes being backed up by the trailers own braking system, meaning that the Sierra brakes are operating well withing their design parameters. And I'm sure the Sierra was tested by Ford in the developement stage to cope with 5 people, a boot full of luggage and a caravan. Towing a Westfield on a trailer is hardly arduous duty, even for a drum braked Sierra.

On my Minno, you can *definitley* feel the trailer brakes working and helping to retard the outfit. I tow with a Mondeo, with drum rear brakes, BTW...

Discovery man has no help from his A-Framed/dollied Westfield brakes so he may well be exerting more forces on the Disco's towing equipment than it is designed to accept. Land Rover and the tow bar manufacturers have probably assumed that any towing will be done with equipment that meets the current specs and laws, so they're not expecting to have to build in a safety margin for 500+Kg's of unbraked metal...

And yes, I realise that an incident probably unlikely, BUT the guidelines and laws exist for a reason, and in this case it isn't about revenue generation...

[Toby Mack]

and don't take towing figures as gospel when deciding which car is better for towing. My old Saab 9000 was a much heavier car than my present Mondeo. it was also more powerful (2L turbo vs 2L NA) and had a higher towing weight (1800kg vs 1500kg). However the mondeo is a MUCH better car for towing.

I would hazzard a guess that a mondeo might even be better than a disco because it has much firmer suspension so the hitch cannot push the back of the car round so much (that was the problem with the Saab and it's soft suspension).

Blatman is right, the trailer brakes do the majority of the stopping, not the car brakes, the car should just be providing stability to the hitch, for which you need decent suspension! (although a heavy car does help)