[VAC] Re: Brake Control _ Newbie Question

["Christopher H. Dow" <dow@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> I responded particularly to your message because of the Rover connection.

Heh.  I know of one other Range Rover owner who is actively seeking an
Airstream, and another Defender 110 owner who is being pestered by his
wife to get one.  We'll soon be crawling out of the woodwork!  There's
another guy who tows his Land Rover behind an Airstream moho.

> My trailer comes with a Reese load-equalizing hitch, and I've read enough
> in the manual and the archives to know what this does in terms of balancing
> the laod from the trailer across both axles of the tow vehicle.

I have one of those, and the adjustment makes a huge difference.  
Tighter is not necessarily better, at least by my experience.

> I've also read the Range Rover manual enough to know that Rover does not
> recommend load-equalizing hitches. I think I've figured out why -- the
> Range Rover has its very own load equalizing system built into the
> suspension, a "self-leveling unit".

I'm not sure that it's really really the same as a load-equalizing
system, as that uses tension under the main connection to pull the load
distribution around.  I'd try it with and without.  The folks at Solihul
(the town in the UK where Land Rovers are made) usually know what they
are saying, but not always.  

> So, does your Defender have this handy dandy thing? If so, do you use a
> load-equalizing hitch or count th internals to take care of things?

No, it doesn't.  The Defender is for the most part a slightly updated
old Land Rover a la The Gods Must Be Crazy.  The only real difference
between it and and a 1958 Series II 109 is the coil springs and the V8. 
Many of the body panels are even the same!

> BTW, I'd really rather use the Rover if I can because it gets much better
> gas mileage - though, perhaps, towing the a/s will even this out. I'm
> really looking at riding the backroads down to the beach or maybe poking my
> way down to Cajun country for a week, rather than doing 75 up and down
> I-95. What do you think?

I think it will do it, and due to the abismal aerodynamics of all Land
Rover products, you may not notice much of a mileage drop on flat
ground.  I think I mentioned that there is  no difference on the
Defender with the trailer on flat ground.  Not that the mileage was that
great to begin with.  You should probably try towing it with each
vehicle and see which one feels better.  I found that towing a trailer
and driving a car are very different activities--the former being much
more stressful--and that might change the way you feel if one feels much
better as a puller.  If you're sticking to back roads, then you won't
have the problems that I had on I5 in CA where the trucks were passing
me with about a 20MPH difference and the trailer was being pushed by
their bow wave and pulled by the vacuum behind them.  That was really
awful.  In fact, a friend of mine no longer tows his bambi on the big
freeways for that very reason.  I think that's a feature rather than a
bug, though, as I like the feel of smaller highways more than freeways.

Good luck, and I'm glad you're getting a brake controller!
C