Erm.....

Is that not actually a westfalia tow bar remounted in the wrong place. The plate under the square seems to be identical to the one on the westfalias. Which maybe why your hitch doesn’t fit.

As said this could be so it clears the exhausts! It’s a good 3-4” higher than it should be, which means that the tow ball will sit in the wrong place with any standard adaptor. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Grizzly

You're going to hate me for this but, take off the bumper etc and let us have some photos of the bar as it is and perhaps we can see why the thing is higher than usual.

I agree with NMJ that it looks like a Westphalia and is too high, but it does appear to have a hole in the bottom plate where there perhaps shouldn't be. That may be because you could not fit the securing bolt in the original hole, it should be horizontal as on ours.

One other thing at the moment. Here in the UK bars now have to be approved for the vehicle and towing capacity, any changes should, I believe, be designed and certified. You can bet the insurers here and in Australia would love an excuse to avoid a payout, even if you were not towing it could mean they see a mod that could affect the vehicle. They really are like that!! (along the lines of "Fitment of a non type approved towbar on a vehicle registered on or after 1st August 1998 could result in prosecution and in the event of an accident the vehicles insurance could be invalidated")

Hope this helps

Richard

The following are pictures of my genuine Westfalia tongue as supplied with the car. You can see what I meant about cutting a V in the end as the genuine has recess cut in. I dont actually use it as I have a Tregg off road hitch on a Reece tongue

Grizzly

Edited as I missed the photo add.

Hold the bumper removal

This is a link to the armature/car part and fitting of a Westphalia unit for the FF.

https://www.pfjones.co.uk/westfalia_fitting/323074.pdf


Have a look underneath and you should see two tubes at the outer ends going forwards to mountings near the rear subframe mountings. They are fixed by a bolt at the front. The rear mounts fit directly onto the cross member at the rear. Yours appears to be some inches further rearwards. If you look at the photo below, it appears ours is further forwards. In that position the boot floor/wheel well comes down and makes it impossible to raise the tow bar armature. Moving it rearwards could allow that but what fixings/mod/butchery would be required only the installer could tell. It looks as if your whole armature is back and down from the photos you have posted.




Sorry can't turn it correctly, (I'll practice)

A few more photos from your FF instal may help someone assist better.

A link to discussions on tow bar installs and mods on

http://www.tracktrailerforums.com/index.php?topic=1256.0

gives some insight to follow on your local rules. They seem to suggest/agree any mods could b*****r your insurance.

Worst comes to worst, run the FF into a fitting centre for inspection and then sit down at the cost of a new unit. It may also be that as your exhaust may not be standard that could raise further problems, but I hope that is not the case.

Let us know how you get on.

Richard

Last edited by rjff on 15th May 2018 12:37pm. Edited 2 times in total

Glenn, chase up Pete (rar110) and have a look at his L322. Peter is in Brissie, too. Ron B. VK2OTC
2003 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

Thanks all, you've been a great help. I've dug around under the vehicle when I got home tonight and it's definitely a Westfalia towbar - you can see the Westfalia details on some of the photos I've taken that I've shared here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c3rx01orGg2fLEBH3

Now I'm starting to believe what has been suggested in that to fit that (what appears to be) RRS exhaust they've raised the mounting position of the towbar - which means basically nothing would fit apart from some custom job

.. and now it gets even more interesting. On Thursday she's going in to the mechanics to get some aftermarket warranty work done - part of which is to replace that exhaust with the factory exhaust (because that exhaust is poorly mounted and rattling a bit under .. large throttle ). Be interesting to see if they have to adjust the towbar as well. I will pre-warn them if they haven't noticed that already.

[edit]
Richard I just saw your last post, I'll try and have a look tomorrow night underneath and see if I can how they've mounted the tow receiver differently to yours. Alas I've just got home, dived under the truck to get some photos (link above, photos probably not very clear what you are looking at) and then dived into bed so it'll have to wait until tomorrow evening before I get another chance to look - and then as I said, she's going to get the exhaust put back to factory on Thursday/Friday this week Hopefully that'll help in the long run...
Thanks again, you've been immensely helpful
[/edit]

Good for you on the exhaust.

Here if a stealer sells something that is not fit for purpose, or perhaps modified inappropriately, you may be able to require them to fix it and chuck in a new bumper as it was not of satisfactory quality when they sold it. All depends on your consumer law and the minefield that is. Worth a try over there perhaps.

Richard

Nothing like kicking a stealer if they're in the wrong though

edit by R.

Just seen you edit and would like to say many thanks for your kind comments, happy to be of help.

On the fitting link for the car part, page 37 gives the diagram of the part as manufactured, any deviation should be made good I feel, by the selling dealer. Same should apply to the bumper.

Let us know what happens.

Cheers

Richard
(endedit)

Get them to move the bar to the right place while they are under there!! Then all you have to do is get the correct wastfalia attachment.

I would then look for an Un damaged rear valance. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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The tow-bar must have been modified to be raised so no longer certified. Get another from a wreckers.

Glenn as suggested by Ron above, you’re welcome to have a look at mine. I’m in Wynnum. ______________________________
Vogue tdv8 08MY poverty pack - wow

I agree with Graeme. ______________________________
Vogue tdv8 08MY poverty pack - wow

Thanks again all, she's with the mechanic now getting the exhaust fitted so I will see what condition she's in when she comes back.

Thanks for the offer rar110, I will take you up on it once I get her back

I bought a brand new westfalia tow bar for my L322 (here in the UK) Same as your pictures

And the hitch wouldn't go in far enough to get the pin through.

A lot of head scratching, and it turned out to be a bit of excess over weld on the back of the drop plate 90 degree reinforcement was stopping it going back in.

Measure the distance from the pin hole to the edge of the square hole, then draw it on the removable tow bar. There was quite a bit of excess to grind off. I'll upload a pic later.

Worth a check......

Best wishes
Glen Previously......
Series 1 80, Series 3 88, Turbo 90, 300tdi 90, 110's with 200, 300, TD5
TD5 Disco, Disco 3, 200Tdi Disco - probably the best vehicle Landrover ever made,
Now 3x FFRR, some would say I should have learned by now......

Pics of where I had to grind off the weld over-run on the reinforcing.
I actually bought 2 hitches from separate sources a time apart, and they both had too much weld that needed grinding off.

I also cut off the bottom tow ball mount holes, as I didn't need it that low, it looks much better and less overhang to ground out

ok well finally got the Rangie back from the mechanics for the after-market warranty work on the exhaust / reversing sensors / etc... the exhaust is now nice and shiny and looks like this:





Now to try and sort out the towing hitch.

Thanks for all the advice guys but it really doesn't look like it's anything to do with the tongue going in far enough as the hitch is too high to mount any towing tongue.

Looking at the towing hitch I really cannot see anything that looks like its been hacked or adjusted.

I will contact rar110 and see if we can organise a time to compare vehicles. Photo's to come...

*EDIT: Apologies, not sure why that photo has shown up upside-down. I've looked at it in 2 different image viewers on my PC and its the right way up...