I was interested and a bit surprised to learn that the non-deployable towbar in the UK from LR for the L405 is what I think of as a US-style "receiver hitch".

I had always thought that this style of towbar was historically prohibited in the UK (or maybe more widely across the EU).

Does anyone know whether this is correct and (presumably) that the rules were relaxed so that these are (now) legal for sale in the UK? If so, when were the rules changed?

Thanks! 2016 SDV8 AB

For non commercial vehicles made since the late 1990s ( 1998 I think), all towbar designs have to be Type Approved by the towbar manufacture before they can be sold. This involves proving the design meets various strength & dimension requirements.

The Receiver hitch was never prohibited in the UK / Eu, but was never Type Approved for various Land Rover vehicles - probably because Land Rover already a design that was acceptable to the market & they didn't want to pay for additional approvals. Aftermarket manufacturers probably couldn;t justify the cost either.

The Discovery 2 is certainly 1 where it wasn't Type Approved for the Eu, even though it was marketed in the US.

However, LR Type Approved the receiver hitch design for the D3 & later, L322 RR & later in addition to other designs ( probably because they had a different set of owners with more sensible accountants by then - lol) Paul,
2001 Discovery 2 TD5, 211,000 miles & climbing
2006 FFRR TDV8 Vogue 145,000 miles & climbing
Member of Midland (Land) Rover Owners Club, www.mroc.co.uk

The L322 was exactly the same.....

A 2” square receiver on the car - though the ‘removeable’ towbar for the L322 bolted into that and had a kind of upside down cup arrangement - whereas the farmers / drop plate one fitted directly into the receiver.

That said - the removeable piece is very different in construction to the US equivalents in that its a solid piece whereas the generic US hitches are hollow.

The LR one looks the same as US spec as either side of the receiver is a flat plate with a circular hole - those holes are for the cross chains used in the US - each side of the trailer draw bar there is a chain - these are crossed underneath the hitch & attached to the vehicle - the idea being that if the hitch fails, the chains ‘catch’ the draw bar before it hits the road.

On my L405 with a deployable tow bar there is nowhere for me to attach the chains on my US boat trailer so I have one less safety device.

I don’t think the 2” reciever system was illegal as such, but in the EU everything needs to be type approved as a complete system so manufacturers went their own way - I expect it would still be illegal to use anything other than the L405 towbar adapter in the reciever as it’s not type approved