Search the Community

(Disclaimer: Pardon us if this question has been asked before. We've used the search function, but came up with nothing...either it isn't there, or the search engine couldn't find it. ) We're trying to come up with an appropriate tow vehicle for an Elite II carrying most of the options. We thought we'd get the F150 until we test drove it and realized that it was WAY longer than anything we wanted to negotiate around parking lots and cities. Our current car is a VW GTI, so you can imagine how big a change anything larger will be. We are a one car family since, other than travel, we put no miles on our vehicles, so it doesn't make sense to keep a tow vehicle AND another car. We particularly want a vehicle with as much of the new driver assist technology as possible, to help us deal with the bigger vehicle, trailer, and our aging reflexes. So, we've looked at a lot of SUVs (at least the ones smaller than a truck!), and have found the Audi Q7 and the Land Rover Discovery. The Audi is mostly off of our list because it doesn't have a spare, and we don't want to deal with trying to tow with a flat run-flat tire, or finding the Audi-specific tires that fit their rims. We did a fair amount of research on the towing capabilities of both, and found that both of them have something in the owner's manual that indicates that the hitch ball can't be more than 6.5" from the linch pin on the hitch receiver. This basically means that you have to buy their hitch, which has a 2" rise, nowhere near enough to get up to the Ollie's coupler height. We can't find any rise hitches with less than 8.5" from ball to linch pin. Seems like a deal breaker, but the wording in the Discovery manual made it sound more like a recommendation than a necessity, so we asked the dealer to float it up their service chain to see what they had to say about it. (They clearly don't have many customers who do any serious towing with these, based on their inability to answer questions and the fact that they never order spec Discoveries with the tow package.) We were wondering if anyone here tows with a Discovery, or has looked at it seriously, or has any thoughts about it. The only other options we see as possibilities, and they're not out yet, are the new 2020 Mercedes GLE 450, and possibly the new 2020 Lincoln Aviator. Thanks for your input and suggestions!! -Kathryn and Chad (my silent partner)