Tested: Ritter Tow Hitch

We’ve discussed the problem with Land Rover Discovery tow hitches before.

The standard Z-shaped hitch, which locks into a receiver under the rear bumper, doesn’t allow the spare wheel to be wound down without removing it completely. And if you happen to have a 3500kg-laden caravan on the tongue, that means unhitching the van, often in very inconvenient circumstances.

This issue was addressed in the latest Discovery 4 with a modified hitch that allows the spare wheel to squeak past – providing it’s of regular size – but the hitch still hangs very low for off-road use, preserving the original Disco 3’s original, irreverent nick-name of ‘The Plough’.

First to the rescue was NSW 4X4 specialists Mitchell Bros, who developed their Hi-Rise Tow Hitch that bolts onto the Discovery’s existing tow bar mounting points.

I’ve been using a Mitch Hitch for nearly two years on my Discovery 3, hauling everything from our own compact Jayco Expanda Outback to large tandem caravans weighing three tonnes and more and apart from some annoying hitch ‘rattle’ it has done its job superbly.

It has delivered a much better rear departure angle than the standard L-R hitch and, being higher-mounted it’s much easier to reach to connect and disconnect a caravan.

But the Mitchell Bros Hitch protrudes quite a long way from the middle of the back bumper, even without a tongue fitted, so your shins are a regular target. Meanwhile, to be honest, it looks a bit ugly sticking out from the Disco’s otherwise very clean rear end.

The other problem I found with the standard 3500kg-rated Land-Rover tongue fitted correct way up, is that the Mitch Hitch raises the draw bar of most on-road caravans too high, so they tow ‘tail down’, which is not an ideal situation.

I solved this with an adjustable drop-hitch but this technically is not 3500kg rated, so I was never truly comfortable with this arrangement for towing heavy on-road caravans.

But now Melbourne Land Rover specialists Ritter have come up with a solution that addresses all these issues.

Developed by the Ritter Technical Team, the ADR-certified Ritter Tow Hitch is designed to fit all D3, D4 and RR Sport models, offering an engineered and 3.5 tonne rated receiver and tongue package that protrudes only half as far as a Mitch Hitch, but gives a similar departure angle, while allowing full access to the vehicle’s spare tyre.

The receiver’s major point of difference to all others on the market is that the tongue is inserted vertically into its double-walled receiver, not horizontally as with virtually all other hitches and is held in placed by a standard bolt and split pin arrangement.

The tongue itself features rugged welded steel braces on each side to ensure there’s no chance of it bending under load and the whole device appears to be very well engineered and is nicely finished in black enamel. As it protrudes far less with the tongued removed, it’s also a more aesthetic solution.

Does it work? Well I’ve just completed a 4000km towing trip to Queensland and back with a 18ft Kokoda Bunka van caravan with an ATM of 2390kg behind me and it performed beautifully.

With the Ritter Hitch tongue and a standard 50mm ball, the Kokoda sat very slightly tail-down with the Discovery’s air suspension at its normal travelling height, yet was perfectly level for overnight stops at loading level without unhitching.

At Caloundra, I also hitched up a new Australian Off Road Aurora luxury caravan using as standard Hitchmaster DO-35 pin and coupling and in this case the heavier van sat perfectly level in travel mode behind the Disco, as though made for it.

In both cases the clearance beneath the lowest part of the Ritter hitch was up to 50mm greater than the standard D3 factory hitch, although the actual ball height difference was around half that, greatly adding to the off-road ability of the rig.

With production versions available from early-2015 (we tested a prototype) the Ritter Tow Hitch costs $990 including fitting, which takes about an hour. This makes it around $40 more than Ritter charges to supply and fit a Mitch Hitch. This is around $120 more than the alternative for D3 owners of fitting the later D4 factory hitch, but it’s a much better solution for serious off-road work, where clearance is critical.

Apart from the cost, the only other downside of the Ritter Hitch is that the vertical receiver doesn’t allow standard weight distribution bars like those made by Hayman-Reese to be fitted. However as Land-Rover specifically warns against using these because of conflict with the computer that controls the D3, D4 and RR Sport’s self-levelling air suspension, you shouldn’t be thinking of using them anyway!

Further details: Ritter Australia