Detachable Tow hitch + Tank gaurd

[Jonny Boaterboy]

I am trying to decide which detachable tow hitch+tank Guard to go for these are my choices so far

http://www.southdown4x4.co.uk/DetachableTowing.htm

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GUARDIAN-H-D-TANK-GUARD-DETACHABLE-recovery-eye-tow_W0QQitemZ110296399210QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item110296399210&_trkparms=72%3A1301|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

What do you think? does anyone recommend anther make? leaning towards the southdown at the moment only because the recovery attachment takes a high lift jack as well

Any bad points i should be aware of?

thanks

Jonny

[Range Rover Blues]

Southdown is a very good piece of kit, if a bit heavy.  Only thing I might suggest is that the Scorpion one allows the fitting of a USA standard tow hitch and they make a matching attachment for a front winch bumper.  The downside is how long the drop plate would be on a lifted RRC.

[Jonny Boaterboy]

Thanks RRB, i had a look at the scorpion one and it does look alot more adaptable but the southdown seems alot tougher and has the tank guard as well I know you can fit one with the scorpion system but the tow hitch also looks stronger on the southdown. The scorpion does look alot better though Ill see if i ca add the scorpion one to the pol see what people think

tar   

[Jonny Boaterboy]

Here's the scorpion one for you to look at

http://www.scorpionracing.co.uk/

And go to the "recovery and towing" on the left and then " towbars and accessories"

[Range Rover Blues]

Well I've got the SOuthdown, but it's over 30 kg and pulled the back of the car down a bit.  Given the all up weight is now about 2,300kg I have to be careful about what else I bolt on.

[J.D.]

Got a southdown one on mine and you don't notice it when you are towing, where as the single pin in the scorpion one tends to make the trailer rattle about a bit.

[Jonny Boaterboy]

Ummm RRB I do wonder about the weight side of things I am assuming the air suspension will level it out but I know when I loaded the boot up with 20 bags of cement (0.5 tonne) and had 3.5 tonne trailer on the back, overall weight of 6+ tonne even with the air, the nose was sitting up a little!

I guess 30kg on the bottom will increase the side slope I can traverse by 0.5%?  :-.

I'm glad you told me that JD, was a little worried that with the southdown it would clonk and rattle about, don't want that! I am leaning towards the southdown at the moment as they said they would do it for £292 all in including the recovery attachment.

   

[J.D.]

Yeah, for  while I had a type similar to the scrap iron racing one and the other thing that got me is the drop plate is only attached at the top, with a heavy trailer on and the tow ball on the bottom of the drop plate, there is a lot of leverage on the drop plate.

The other reason I like the Southdown one is I have three attachments, a tow bar, the recovery eye, and another towbar with a 9000lb winch bolted to it as a removable winch mount. I welded a tray up for the winch and used four tow bar bolts to attach it to the tow bar and cut the tow bar in half to make it look pretty. Can supply pics if you want.

[Jonny Boaterboy]

That would be great JD if you could send some pics of that. That was one of the reasons I liked the scorpion one as you could have a detachable winch as well. I think I am sold on the southdown now just got to raise the funds.... (off work with a shoulder repair at the moment so going hard on e-bay..... should have enough in a couple of weeks!)

[J.D.]

Yeah, can't do at the moment as the truck is on its way to Slough with a car trailer on the back to pick up a show car for the weekend and the winch mount is inside it.

Might get some picks of it in action at the weekend for you though.

[J.D.]

This is a pic of the tow bar attachment, its not on my truck but it is exactly the same.



The winch tray is 6mm steel, powdercoated, with the winch sat in it and Anderson pugs concealed in the rear bumper for the power leads. In this photo the winch tray would sit approx level with the rearmost of the two pins which attach the towbar to the tank guard. On the rear of the winch tray, next to the fairlead is a 3.5 tonne tow jaw to enable snatch blocking the winch and to keep the hook from whipping around. I have plasma cuttered off the bottom inch of the tow bar attachment just to line it up with the bottom of the winch tray, which roughly cuts the towbar attachment in half. It does weigh a lot to put it on there, but seeing as it gets used at every off road event (I do punch hunts).

Winch tray is attached with 4 x 24mm towbar bolts through the front of the tray (I figured as a 5 tonne tow jaw uses 4 x 19mm bolts, then 4 x 24mm bolts must be strong enough)

Its great for lowering the car into the hole, getting the punch and pulling it out, saves time in dropping in, punching the card and then dragging it through the hole with the front winch. Its easy to use with the in car controls, as you can seet the car with the front wheels to keep it in ruts.

At some point I will be really flash and mount a camera in the winch tray and wire it up to the DVD player in the car so you can see how the rope is lying on the winch.

[Range Rover Ron]

My Guardian does what it says on the tin!

[Range Rover Blues]

My southdown rattles, also you'll find as it's designed for the Disco that it sticks out behind the bumper and looks silly. I had the drop plate made shorter, ask them about it when you buy.

Johnny, when you had all that weight in, did you exceed the axle load? did you pump up the tyres? my LSE always sits level, even with 150kg on the towball :-k

[auf_wiedersehen_pet]

Well I've got the SOuthdown, but it's over 30 kg and pulled the back of the car down a bit.  Given the all up weight is now about 2,300kg

I collected a Southdown tank guard from the IOW for fellow MC'er Bambamjj. It is a seriously heavy bit of kit. If you are into hard core off roading then this is the one. If you ponce about (like me) it's overkill.

[Jonny Boaterboy]

RRB, I'm not sure about the Axel weights...... to be honest I don't know what the limits are  :-$ the Range Rover is about 2.5 tonne the trailer is about 850kg I had 20 bags of cement (0.5 tonne The max for the boot) and 3 tonne of sand in the trailer. (max for the Trailer is 3.5 tonne) On the weigh bridge it was 6+ tonne. So I guess I must have been over the max weight I should carry...... Made no odds to the Range Rover it pulled just the same as pulling 1 tonne  :shock: I'm on BFG AT 245/70/R16 and allways run the front at 40psi and rear at 50psi unless I'm off road, with all that weight the rear could have do with going up to 60psi but it was only for a couple of miles.

I think you can say if you want a diffrent length drop down plate, but he didn't say anything about the "width" So thanks for that defernightly don't want one that sticks out! Will have to try and stop it rattling though!

As for it been an over kill.... that's me all over, you never know there may be a high curb about!

 

[Range Rover Blues]

Max vehicle weighton a RRC is about 2,500kg or just over and 2,650 on the LSE, ay more and you're in serious bother if you have an accident.  That has to incllude the noseweightof the trailer at a max of 150kg on the RRC, any 50m ballhitch and about 100kg on most coupling heads I've seen.

[hairyasswelder]

3 ton of sand + 850kg  unlaiden weight of trailer = 3850kg
max tow weight 3500kg  :roll:
Slightly overweight  :oops: