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nebc100

Member Since: 08 Mar 2019

Location: Altlinster

Posts: 415

Hello,
Sorry to hear your problems!!
Have you had the same problem towing something else?
I regularly tow my horses (combined weight of 2700kg!!) and the D5 has never caused any problem. In december i towed for 15 hours straight (with breaks of course) on all sirts of roads and in weather from sun to rain storm to wind and the d5 towed as well as the d3 that I had before.
Post #26997 27th Feb 2020 6:26 am
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al cope

Member Since: 02 Jan 2019

Location: Oldbury

Posts: 372

I cant say I have - our 'van is a T/A, at 7.9Mtrs long, 8ft wide and 1800Kg, and in France last year I pushed up to almost 70 a couple of times without any issues (dropped back down to around 62 after passing trucks). I agree with some of the comments that the D5 does have a "lighter" feel to it and tows differently, but thats the fact, it is lighter in itself. Having had D3 and D4 we have "sort of" been spoiled. Just look around over the summer (towing season) and see how many big T/A 'van are being towed on much smaller/lighter towcars and think how they must feel

Al

Now gone - D5 HSE 2Ltr in Corris with black roof, black & dynamic packs & 22" black alloys, a bit of a change after 2 D3's and 2 D4's
Post #26998 27th Feb 2020 7:57 am
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Russell

Member Since: 26 Jun 2016

Location: Lydd

Posts: 1109

We also have a large twin axle 8 foot wide van, and tow all over with it. Yes it does tow different to the D3, D4 but it is lighter and come to think about it the D4 towed different to the D3.
The one thing I have noticed is that if I put heavy bikes on the back of the van it does affect the towing, if i leave the bikes off or put a light road bike on the back it is a lot better. The other thing I have found is the nose weight has to be at the higher level

Namib Orange 1st Edition with black roof and wheels.
Privacy, tow bar, drive pack, surround camera, heated front & rear seats, auto dim door mirrors, side steps, remote Pro, RSE, arm rest fridge dash cam front and rear.
Post #27008 27th Feb 2020 5:15 pm
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al cope

Member Since: 02 Jan 2019

Location: Oldbury

Posts: 372

@ Russ - by putting your bikes on the back of the 'van you lighten the noseweight (back down, front up), so to compensate and get the noseweight back up, you move load in the 'van forward - but to my mind that then means having heavier items (bikes at the back, load at the front) at each end, which if the 'van started to sway would exasperate the sway (think pendulem). I was always told to try and keep the heavy stuff down low and in the middle of the 'van, which is why I've never understodd the bike carriers on the back of caravans.

Al

Now gone - D5 HSE 2Ltr in Corris with black roof, black & dynamic packs & 22" black alloys, a bit of a change after 2 D3's and 2 D4's
Post #27012 28th Feb 2020 8:26 am
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mordred1973

Member Since: 08 Jan 2019

Location: Northamptonshire

Posts: 758

heaviest thing we have at rear of caravan is the 5 camping chairs, since they sit nicely under the rear seat. Awnging is normally over the front axle and the rest is "all about". In general behind the D5 I need to keep the noseweight as high as I can then all is well. Behind the old XC60 (550kg lighter car same caravan) didn't have that worry, which I think is down the the fact the XC60 had rock hard suspension and 40 profile tyres, compared to the soft suspension and high profile tyres on the D5.

2023 D300 Metropolitan, Hakuba Silver, Low Range, Solar screen, Deployable towbar, FBH, sidesteps.
Post #27020 28th Feb 2020 4:35 pm
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pdes

Member Since: 11 Oct 2016

Location: Cambridge

Posts: 233

nebc100 wrote:
Hello,
Sorry to hear your problems!!
Have you had the same problem towing something else?
I regularly tow my horses (combined weight of 2700kg!!) and the D5 has never caused any problem. In december i towed for 15 hours straight (with breaks of course) on all sirts of roads and in weather from sun to rain storm to wind and the d5 towed as well as the d3 that I had before.

Hi, yes this caravan is a newer one so I have had the same issues with two vans of the same size.

I think the issue is apparent/magnified by the length of the van causing an exaggerated pendulum effect. There are some excellent YouTube videos demonstrating this. I would still have expected the electronic wizardry to compensate. I think a horse box has much less mass at the back and almost all the weight centred around the axles so should be inherently more stable.

Cheers

D5 HSE SDi6, 2019, Santorini Black, privacy glass, HUD, loads of gizmos!! 😃😃😃
Series 1, 1953, 86"
Post #27021 28th Feb 2020 4:48 pm
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nebc100

Member Since: 08 Mar 2019

Location: Altlinster

Posts: 415

Maybe the mass is over the wheels better, but the mass is moving around because the horses are moving. Take 2 friesian horse with a mass of 700kg each arguing with eachother in the back, and you feel it!! 😁

I have towed a caravan with my d5, but i have also towed a d3 on a flatbed with it, and it handled it really well. Just as well as my RRS.
Post #27024 28th Feb 2020 5:42 pm
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Russell

Member Since: 26 Jun 2016

Location: Lydd

Posts: 1109

al cope wrote:
@ Russ - by putting your bikes on the back of the 'van you lighten the noseweight (back down, front up), so to compensate and get the noseweight back up, you move load in the 'van forward - but to my mind that then means having heavier items (bikes at the back, load at the front) at each end, which if the 'van started to sway would exasperate the sway (think pendulem). I was always told to try and keep the heavy stuff down low and in the middle of the 'van, which is why I've never understodd the bike carriers on the back of caravans.

Al

Al I fully agree with your comments and am well aware of that. However the likes of Swift etc who put them on the back of vans don't account for people who do not take this into account.

Namib Orange 1st Edition with black roof and wheels.
Privacy, tow bar, drive pack, surround camera, heated front & rear seats, auto dim door mirrors, side steps, remote Pro, RSE, arm rest fridge dash cam front and rear.
Post #27025 28th Feb 2020 8:03 pm
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Smarty

Member Since: 16 Apr 2025

Location: South West

Posts: 3

D5 Towing & Driving Instability

Hello everyone, I'm a newbie on this forum so apologies for diving in without formally introducing myself as I couldn't find an option to do this. Apologies to the moderator(s) and everyone else for my lack of ability to find a way.

So, here goes. I'm a long time LR nut having had these cars over the last 40 years: series 2A SWB petrol 1972, RR Vogue V8 1984, Disco 1 1993, Disco 1.5 1997, Disco 2 TD5 2003, Disco 4 TDv6 2010, Disco 5 TDv6 2018. The reason for my post is that I recently purchased a D5 HSE with 78k miles on the clock and have encountered a weird issue that takes some explaining.

I purchased the D5 1.5 weeks ago and drove it 100mls home (solo) from the dealer having never driven a D5 before. I noticed the car was frequently slightly moving / rocking sideways in a lateral motion deviating a few mm across the road surface from a straight line - this is in the middle lane of the m/way, so it was not completely stable at 70mph. I was looking for some way of describing the movement and I can only describe it as micro-tramlining creating a persistent minor yawing motion which is not as good a description as pdes’s below. So referencing Disco 5 forum member pdes’s description below:

“…….without the caravan What surprised me was the amount of lateral movement I experienced in the front seat. It was just a feeling of rythmic sideways motion and this was on a motorway. Under normal circumstances, I would just put this down to the characteristics of the car and a suspension system that differed from the D4. However, given the discussion here, it made me wonder if this was a contributing factor the the issues some of us have experienced. If I could feel some lateral movement in the front seats, this could be magnified at the towball and hence transferred to the caravan”,

…..the movement described above is exactly what I experienced. Having checked the tyre pressures once at home and cold they were 49psi front and 37psi rear. Which is a strong indication that the front & rear wheels had been swapped at some point before I collected the car from the dealers – which I assumed was to give more tread depth at the rear than the front which I understand is best practise on AWD vehicles. So, after some investigation I reset the pressures cold to those recommended of 34psi front / 37psi rear for “light load” on my next journey containing 2 people, 2 medium sized suitcases and 1 medium size dog in the boot covering 180mls each way mainly on the m/way. In a nutshell this improved the micro-tramlining by around 90% compared to the original journey so a lot less noticeable and more comfortable for the occupants. However, during both journeys I kept getting a “Traction Reduced” warning on the dash which was easily cancelled by pressing “OK”. I subsequently performed an in-depth diagnostic check for fault codes and didn’t find anything. Road conditions in both directions were very dry and ambient temp of mid-teens degC, so traction would have been at a premium. This indicates to me there is a problem with incorrect detection of wheel speeds between all 4 corners by the traction control system which could be causing the centre diff lock unit to have an instantaneous but very temporary lock up – hence the in-frequent dash warnings. I say this as I’m sure a lot of the members will know that if the old-style centre diff lock is engaged when driving on a dry tarmac road the transmission winds up to the point that one of the wheels with the least traction will skip on the road surface to release the transmission wind-up. Having experienced this first-hand many years ago I know that it makes the vehicle hop which is what I believe is causing the micro-tramlining as the car is being moved a few mm across the road surface to release the wind-up resulting in the miniscule sideways movement as described by pdes above. Having inspected the vehicle at length the only other item that may contribute to this phenomenon on my car is that the front tyres are Safy M06 make and the rears are Pirelli Scorpions so there could be an issue with a mis-match of the tyre makes i.e. one is cheapos and one premium causing a problem with the TC system even though they are all showing completely the same overall even wear. If my theory is correct then this miniscule lateral sideways movement of the car would manifest itself through the car to the caravan / trailer thus magnifying the yawing movement due to the distance from the rear axle to the hitch point and beyond through the trailer drawbar.
I appreciate this may sound a bit abstract but the fact that this issue is not consistent with caravan make / model, hitch type, trailer nose weight (although the higher nose weight is clearly increasing the rear axle loading so having the effect of reducing the rear axle movement across the road surface by damping it out due to increased friction), overall trailer weight, wheel sizes or pressures there has to be a more fundamental issue generated by the vehicle as the trailers wouldn’t cause the issue unless all of the them have a common problem which is very unlikely due to different types, ages loading balance etc and it is only overall length of the longer ones that shows any consistency in terms of potentially being an issue which of course ties in with them being worse due to the additional leverage.
I don’t know if this helps in any way to understand the problem but there is clearly an outside influence at work here beyond normal influences of towing a trailer where the D4 was completely rock solid at doing the job. I hope I haven’t bored you all with the theory as I’m only trying to help solve what appears to be an unsolvable problem and appreciate it is a long shot but all of the many posts clearly indicate there really is a serious problem with the towing performance of the D5 which I appear to have without even towing a trailer and this needs ironing out by LR.
Post #39924 19th Apr 2025 9:21 pm
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Wolfpack

Member Since: 25 May 2019

Location: Norfolk, UK

Posts: 383

Apologies if this has no bearing on your particular issue.

I found (counter intuitively) that 285/40 R22 tyres were more prone to lateral sway on roads with heavy lorry tramlines. Changing the wheel to 20” with 255/55 R20 tyres made a noticeable improvement.

I cannot fully explain this and it may be there is a structural anomaly with the car (design) that allows such minor changes to have an impact. But this may have relevance to your different tyres situation!

What I know is that when the highway authority resurfaced a long section of road near where I live ….the sway stopped …..and restarted on exiting the new section. Switching to 20” made both sections ok.

My move to 20” was primarily motivated by the hardness of the daily rides of the 22” on our rural roads but also the acceptance that the local authority blew their entire budget on this road improvement and wouldn’t be doing the rest of the roads any time soon!!!

I would also add that when I changed for D4 to D5 I was a bit uncomfortable with the caravan tow. Again with no assumption this is the same as your experience I thought that the electronic steering wasn’t as ”immediate” as the traditional D4. There seemed to be a lag in response. I found myself correcting steering far more frequently than I did with the rocksteady D4. That was true driving solo as well. After 5 years driving a D5 I am a lot more use to it, but I have to say there are still moments, when towing, that I feel I have to pay more attention to what the D5 wants to do.

I know we shouldn’t…..but I STILL cannot take my eyes off the road with a D5 as much as with the D4. Which is a shame as I miss more of the scenery. When the wife says “look at that” I frequently reply “not tonight Josephine” …..which doubly annoys her as she feels I am not paying her enough attention and her name isn’t Josephine.
Post #39926 20th Apr 2025 9:16 am
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Smarty

Member Since: 16 Apr 2025

Location: South West

Posts: 3

D5 Towing & Driving Instability

@Wolfpack - thanks for the feed back as you have confirmed the car is susceptible to the tyre equipment that is fitted at the time. Well, my car is also on 20" 255/55 tyres so really this shouldn't be an issue. I'm going on a long m/way trip later next week so will see if putting it in Sport mode makes any difference as I'm told when in this mode the suspension is tightened up a bit but don't actually know, so time will tell. I've already tried this on local roads but didn't detect any improvement.

Having swapped in a rather (very) tired 2010 D4 (148k) i'm quite disappointed in the steering and ride on the D5 as I expected it to be noticeably smoother all around - which it isn't, especially as my D4 was rock steady no matter what you did with it. I don't believe the lower weight is of any importance in this respect as it should track dead straight no matter what like any modern car should.

I can see me having to take it in to my local favourite indie to go through it with a fine tooth comb if I can't fathom it out for myself. The first thing will be to replace the cheapo tyres and then check the tracking to eliminate any misalignment between front an back axles.

I notice that this topic was started some time ago so it would be really nice if any of the other posters who have had trouble towing ever found a fix.
Post #39927 20th Apr 2025 3:13 pm
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Wolfpack

Member Since: 25 May 2019

Location: Norfolk, UK

Posts: 383

Will be interested to hear how you get on in sports mode.

I’ve always assumed it just held up the gear change “a bit longer”
Post #39929 20th Apr 2025 6:34 pm
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Smarty

Member Since: 16 Apr 2025

Location: South West

Posts: 3

D5 Towing & Driving Instability

I tried sport mode on my local roads and it seemed to react quicker to small throttle inputs and definitely hung on to the gear(s) a bit longer (but not much) but if the throttle is used "softly" in "S" mode then it appeared to have the same behaviour as if it was in "D" which is good in a way as you then have a choice to utilise the benefit of "S" if you need it but if you don't then it still finds the highest gear quickly when trundling along when in traffic etc.

I'll trial it on the m/way next week and report back.
Post #39931 20th Apr 2025 7:57 pm
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nebc100 wrote:

al cope wrote:

D5 Towing & Driving Instability

D5 Towing & Driving Instability

D5 Towing & Driving Instability