Well I’ve only gone and done it. A 17MY 4.4 V8 AB in Loire blue with ivory interior. It’s an absolute stunner and should collect in two weeks.
My permagrin is restored having been in a D3 and D4 for the past 12 years and loved them to death, I now have the missing cylinders to pull my tintent. I can’t wait to pick her up but as I’ve been on the forums for 12 years, I know I need photographic evidence to support my claims.

Very, very nice  David

Please let me know if my comments upset you, I may wish to upset you again.

Nice

You will find towing a delight

Hopefully it already has a tow bar - otherwise you may be on for an unpleasant surprise

It doesn’t have a tow bar but I’m expecting it to be about £2k. It’s going to be quoted on Monday but I already have a £2k quote from Lookers. I’m expecting the dealer to give me a deal as the ticket price was agreed on the strength of a deal on the tow bar.

Interesting..... I’d expect 1k for a fixed removeable and 3k for an electric deployable - so not sure what 2k buys you

I was told £2k for the deployable but I’ll have to pay whatever the price is less the “deal”.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Very nice

Having moved over from Disco 4’s last September, the SDV8 is a gem, even in comparison to the SDV6 in the Disco’s

I didn’t bother with the electric tow bar, even when I could have got it fitted at the factory for <£900. Give me the robustness, reliability and flexibility of a fixed flange towbar anyday, especially when the electric bar has a hopeless limit of only 1 tonne when towing off road!! That’s half of what a Freelander was specced for!

Hi Red Merle, I was fisherman on the 3/4 forum and made loads of use of the immense knowledge over there. As can be seen here, the experience of people is what I find most useful. I fancied the deployable from a convenience point of view but the Westfalia detachable seems pretty good value should the dealer “forget” the deal I wanted. I don’t really want a tow bar on show but we’ll see what happens when they come back to me. Fingers crossed.

Some pics on this thread

Red Merle raises a valid concern depending on your use - however, it’s not been a problem foe me and the deployable one is

I’ve towed a very full trailer from the U.K. up into the Pyrenees twice now and the car had been faultless

I think the deployable is the least ugly option but the cost is pretty steep (in line with the LR policy). The detachable is the next best thing but not as hugely overpriced as my first choice. A fixed bar is possibly the strongest option but I don’t really like the look of all the metalwork which I think is messy. I’ll have a word with Dan at Duckworths to see what he would charge for the kit and see if it’s possible to either fit myself and get the dealer to enable or get my local Indy to fit. As ever it’s either too late or Sunday to get a definitive answer. Thanks for everyone’s advice on the subject as I now have a good idea what to show and what to hide from the wife.

I bought my Westfalia through Dan and got my local tow bar people to fit it for me.

Being a “receiver hitch” design, it’s like a Swiss Army knife, as there is a myriad of attachments you can buy to fit into the receiver. They seem to be unbelievably popular in the US, where you can attach anything from hand operated cranes to BBQ’s (seriously!).

There is a downside though, with the benefit of hindsight - receiver hitch rattle

Ask Dan to supply you with the later design (which I didn’t get!), which should have a screw thread to insert a bolt into the side of the hitch to then take the small amount of slack between the receiver and the hitch. I had to import a special “heavy duty anti-rattle clamp” from the US to retrospectively fix the problem.

Happy to send you a link that’ll tell you all about it if you’d like

The receiver tow bar sounds interesting. Yes please to the link.

Here is the receiver hitch clamp that I use to fix the rattle:

https://www.hitchclamp.com/collections/2-h...avy-duty-2

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Classy indeed, is the rear lav part of the “Royal Ascot” Autobiography spec?  David

Please let me know if my comments upset you, I may wish to upset you again.

If the roll fell off it would be a bit dangerous for anything hanging in the vicinity 😳