But there's no sensible place to store it in the car - so you either leave it fitted or at home in your garage - or at least I did one time It was on my garage floor in England and went to get my boat out of storage in Bordeaux..... fortunately the local MD had one in stock - but an expensive oversight.

What I do is put it in the recess on the right of the loadspace. The LR fitting instructions show it tied to the ring at the near right corner to stop it moving about, using the strap on the holder bag. That seems to require the bar to sit on the main floor of the loadspace, inconvenient for loading other things, and also if a loadspace liner is in place. So mine is tied to the ring with a length of rope attached to the strap on the holder.

The slight element of faff with it is that one needs to have a 16mm spanner/socket so that the anti-rattle bolt can be tightened, if one is very fastidious about exact torque settings then also a torque wrench. Some (earlier) hitches seem not to have that bolt, and one can tow without tightening the bolt, albeit with some noise from the bar moving in its socket. Only Range Rovers since 1988

What CS said! (Bottom of page 1)

And it gives a choice of towing fittings (mine’s a Dixon Bate combination tow ball and pin) and it means you can add a protective plate to stop your rear bumper getting damaged by the trailer’s draw bar.

I never remove it when not in use (its far for effective than the rear bumper), it’s always ready when I need it and besides, a proper tow bar never looks out of place on any Land Rover with a 3.5 tonne towing capacity I can see why people might might want to conceal the retractable one though

Quote:

it means you can add a protective plate to stop your rear bumper getting damaged by the trailer’s draw bar.

Or you can learn to reverse properly and use the camera

Quote:

I can see why people might might want to conceal the retractable one though

They do look a bit without a trailer attached

Actually, it’s more of a case of doing the final bit of manouvering of the draw bar of a laden, unbraked, trailer on a steeply sloping drive

Went to use mine today and the electric 7 pin socket has sieved up inside , I’m told there’s a remake for these but my local dealer isn’t very helpful , anyone shed any light on these please

It seems to be a 'known' problem that the electric socket can seize - I've heard of a few being done under warranty, but not sure outside of that.

Is your's 7 pin ? I thought they were all 13.

I’m asuming it’s a 7 -in as I can get it down to confirm iv found a part no of a service kit
VPLGT0138
Going to try and see if I can order it

Last edited by smartymarti on 4th Dec 2018 10:42am. Edited 1 time in total

Yours is an L405 ?

If so, your profile needs updating

Cheers totally forgot to update

I bought a deployable as a dealer fit as per post 3 on this thread. Since then I've towed my 2.5T caravan to Italy, France and Spain. It failed to lock when moving from Italy to France so I called LRA. They sent a guy to look who was from Essex but was doing the AA thing in France for a period of time. He checked it and found the sensor to be blown which confirmed the bar had locked. He said the bar had actually locked and the sensor couldn't confirm so, which is why I had messages on the screen. He assured me (In writing) that it was safe to use, which I did and it was. I have since had the whole thing changed and it's worked without fault since. It gets plenty of use and I haven't had any cause for concern since. I love it.

my local lr specialist has a full deployable system complete with fitting £700 if anyone is interested

Crap, I’m miles away, wonder if he would swap for a set of 4 style 8s

Looking to get all the parts for a deployable tow bar for our new l405, do you guys know if the extra battery bracket is included when you buy the actual tow bar part?