hi everyone,i'm after a bit of help,was hoping to sell my tow bar and its cross member that bolts under the vehicle but iv'e hit a huge snag,, i was under the range this morning trying to get measurements for the fellow member so he can notify the courier company the ins and outs,but it turns out the under carriage( the part where the tow bar is connected to, that bolts under the vehicle) is both bolted and welded to chassis, if you can image being the under vehicle at the rear the furthest part being near the back wheel and nearest being the bumper,you're facing heads up ,the furthest part of this contraption is bolted onto the vehicle but the nearest part is welded to the back cross bumper member,where you have the towing eye and it also supports the two hook that my exhaust is attached to,looks like this was all done at factory thus why i have these little red keys in a compartment in the rear of the range under one of the compartment near to where all the relays and some fuses are,,,i'm really off as i wanted this off my vehicle,because one i don't tow anything and two i thought by taking this extra dead weight (40/50 kg) off the car it would make it lighter...iv'e also had a guy that does motor mechanics from his home come have a look and he came to the same conclusion,all that can be taken off,which has already been taken off,, is the heavy bendy bit that protrudes from the back that you attach what ever your towing too.( swan neck )...if any one can or has seen or dealt with this issue before please let me know,or if anyone that has one that was there when they bought the vehicle could perhaps have a look at theirs and help me out.....
regards steve

this is what yours should look like,



the keys are for the swan neck tow bar.. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

ALSO take into account if you take of the towbar you need some parts to get the exhaust and the bumper back up

as you can see on the picure above, the tow hook is part of the bumper fixing

so actually without the missing parts you are not able refit your bumper

And if you did take it off completely and were able to refit the rear bumper would you a) ever be able to resell it, and b) Invalidate your insurance by making the car non-standard and possibly losing vehicle crash integrity?

PaulTyrer



Member Since: 22 Jul 2013
Location: Devizes, Wiltshire
Posts: 62

United Kingdom 2003 Range Rover Vogue 4.4 V8 Epsom Green
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And if you did take it off completely and were able to refit the rear bumper would you a) ever be able to resell it, and b) Invalidate your insurance by making the car non-standard and possibly losing vehicle crash integrity?

Current: 2003 4.4 Petrol
Past:
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thanks for your eply
wow i never realised that... ... is that gospel,,you aint joking about are you.?

stan wrote:

this is what yours should look like,



the keys are for the swan neck tow bar..

yeah that's the one,see where the tow eye is,you have like a flat plate that goes vertical,well that's welded to the metal cross member part under my rear bumper..and either side of it you have these hooks with rubber hangers that the rear exhaust box is attached too...but yeah that's the baby that's attached under my vogue...its looking more and more like i will have to just leave it there....thank you for your help

I'm not 100% sure, but I would think that if you take off what is in effect (possibly?) a structural member from the car (if it does in fact support the rear bumper) then if you are rear-ended the insurance company may not cover you. I'd check first.

The other point I was making is that for resale value, you may not want to tow anything but what happens when you sell it on and it has no towbar fitted? and also, is 40-50kg on a car that weighs almost 2600Kg really going to make that much difference?

true say paultyrer..you have a very valid point there,,thank you ..thanks everyone for helping us out,the member on here who was willing to buy the tow and its assembly has been informed of the situation...a lesson learnt about running to easy conclusion on my behalf..

Sorry to jump this thread, looking at towing with my FFRR.

From what your discussing, I take it I've already got most of the tow bar fitted, I've a bracket like the one in Stan's picture,
so all I need to buy is the swan neck and electrics ????? Three things in a blokes life his dog,his car and a Cornish pasty,nothing else matters.

2010 Range Rover Vogue SE Santorini Black, Arabica Aniline seats

Previous cars
1973 Mini 1000
1971 Hillman Avenger
1975 Chrysler Sunbeam
1981 Ford Cortina
1985 Volvo 340
1989 VW Golf
1989 Volvo 240
1991 Volvo 240
1991 Jaguar Soveriegn
1996 BMW 730
2003 Honda CRV
1999 Jaguar Soveriegn
2003 Range Rover HSE Epson Green with Sand trim.

A towbar is an accessory that may or may not be fitted to a car by choice.
It is certainly not welded on, it is bolted on and I certainly question whether it affects the mounting of the rear bumper.
As for the structural integrity of the car there is no way having a towbar fitted or not in any way affects this.
There are probably about equal numbers, or thereabouts, of FFRR's running around with and without towbars fitted with no problems whatsoever.

When a towbar is fitted to an L322 you remove the two rear bumper brackets and replace with the tow armature which has new brackets as part of it.

If you don't have the old bumper brackets to replace with then you can't take the armature off to sell.

^^ As Martin says if you dont have the brackets which were removed in order to fit the tow bar then you will have an incomplete car

the brackets which bolt back on in place of the tow bar contain the exhaust hangers and towing eye.

If you want to be more discreet about the fact it has had a tow bar fitted then i suggest just removing either the farmers hitch part of the bar or the detachable ball receiver, leaving the armature still on the car with just the 2" receiver. Most non full fattians wont know what that is....... However such is the design of the car that having a tow hitch fitted should not really be a deterrent to a potential purchaser as the car is perfectly capable of towing pretty much anything.  There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Martin wrote:

When a towbar is fitted to an L322 you remove the two rear bumper brackets and replace with the tow armature which has new brackets as part of it.

If you don't have the old bumper brackets to replace with then you can't take the armature off to sell.

Sorry to correct you Martin but the brackets are exhaust brackets and an emergency towing eye, nothing to do with the fitting of the rear bumper sir

You are indeed correct, typed in a rush

This may help, it's a link to the Installation Instructions on ToPIx :- http://topix.landrover.jlrext.com/topix/co...tabs=false