2010 Range Rover Supercharged

[*insertusernamehere*]

STACIA, I LOVE THIS, WHEN IS THE NEXT APPOINTMENT?! MAKE SURE TO CLEAR THE BACKSEATS..YOU KNOW...FOR THE LITTLE ONES

[Steve85]

Nice! Still have a soft spot for the brand even though I left right when BMW purchased them. I always liked that no matter how nice the RR got, underneath it remained a very capable off-roader...whether it needed to be or not. Also had no idea these were available with that much go-go!

[JPolen01]

I got cut off by one of these shooting a gap in traffic this morning. I thought of you immediately.

[Jake]

I got cut off by one of these shooting a gap in traffic this morning. I thought of you immediately.

I'm still getting the mirrors adjusted just so...

[Jake]

STACIA, I LOVE THIS, WHEN IS THE NEXT APPOINTMENT?! MAKE SURE TO CLEAR THE BACKSEATS..YOU KNOW...FOR THE LITTLE ONES

"It's currently an old British utility vehicle with two blown airbags and severe rod knock"

"........could be a nursery"

God I love John Mulaney.

In other news, I've put about 175 miles on this hulking thing and still like it. Nothing has broken. I received all of my towing gear last night so I got to work right away - the Ford is gone tomorrow and I need to make sure this can pull safely.

In a fit of "how can we nickel-and-dime you on your $100k SUV," Land Rover included the tow hitch but not the 7/4 pin plug required to, y'know, have a trailer with lights and/or brakes. The truck is pre-wired for it, but you have to buy the little kit and install it. A company called Atlantic British makes a kit for about $100 that took all of ten minutes to install. Pop a grommet out under the truck, thread the wiring up, use two bolts and four screws to attach the whole thing to the hitch, and plug it in to the wiring in the spare tire well.

Some people say the truck has to be coded to know it has a wiring harness back there, some say the 2010+ do not need that step. Guess I'll find out after work when I take the M3 to Mach V.

I also installed the brake controller. Thankfully, the 2010+ models are truly pre-wired with a Ford connector under the dash. Pre-2010 requires extending a wire from the spare tire well up to the dash, which, fuck that. I bought the same Tekonsha Prodigy P3 that I used with the Denali, and their harness with the Ford plug on the other end. A few Torx screws later, I had the under-dash plastic pulled down enough to find the plug. Super easy.

The hitch itself is tucked pretty far under the bumper on the Range Rover. The trailer should slip right over the ball still, but it will be very close to the bumper. I've heard this can help with stability but it's a bit annoying with my current hitch/ball setup.

[Senor_Taylor]

Now you're calling this a truck? When will it stop?

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[Jake]

Now you're calling this a truck? When will it stop?

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It has a transfer case and can ford 28" of standing water. Fight me.

[Senor_Taylor]

Now you're calling this a truck? When will it stop?

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It has a transfer case and can ford 28" of standing water. Fight me.

Do whatever you want. Doesn't mean I'll like it.

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[V1GiLaNtE]

can ford 28" of standing water.

Prove it.

[rherold9]

can ford 28" of standing water.

Prove it.

In 4 video proof

[*insertusernamehere*]

can ford 28" of standing water.

Prove it.

HA LOL

[Jake]

From page 123 of the owner's manual:



Find some water and let's go play.

[Ken]

For those who remember my old douchey rooomate Jason...Bourne (for real) - he took his parent's Range Rover off-roading and crossed a creek/river with no problem with water up to the doors. He's an idiot and it was definitely dumb but it worked. I remember him showing me the video because i called shenanigans.

[Steve85]

When I worked at the HQ in Lanham (mid 90s), techs would come in for a week of training, 4 days classroom and 1 day off-roading in Bowie, MD somewhere. We had a fleet of Discos and RRs (4.0 HSE) that we used. The course had an up-to-the-door muddy water pit that we would blast through. In the comfort of real leather and wood trim of course. These things are no joke off-road. We did a competitor compare one-time and it was laughable on what other SUVs in the market at the time got stuck on. Not sure if they still have it, but in a situation where it's still slipping, it will try to extend the air suspension into and extreme mode looking for ground contact. I think it's time for CaMMel Trophy, lets do this!

[Jake]

When I worked at the HQ in Lanham (mid 90s), techs would come in for a week of training, 4 days classroom and 1 day off-roading in Bowie, MD somewhere. We had a fleet of Discos and RRs (4.0 HSE) that we used. The course had an up-to-the-door muddy water pit that we would blast through. In the comfort of real leather and wood trim of course. These things are no joke off-road. We did a competitor compare one-time and it was laughable on what other SUVs in the market at the time got stuck on. Not sure if they still have it, but in a situation where it's still slipping, it will try to extend the air suspension into and extreme mode looking for ground contact. I think it's time for CaMMel Trophy, lets do this!

That's awesome Steve, I didn't know you once worked for them! 

Yes, the air ride has the "off road" height setting and can then go a couple inches higher in "emergency" mode to help get you unstuck. I'm really excited to give it a proper thrashing sometime!

[V1GiLaNtE]

From page 123 of the owner's manual:



Find some water and let's go play.

Based friends experience offroad with LRs I'm gonna guess that the veeeeerryyy last sentence of that entire blurb is the most applicable to this vehicle once it hits water. 

[Jake]

Based friends experience offroad with LRs I'm gonna guess that the veeeeerryyy last sentence of that entire blurb is the most applicable to this vehicle once it hits water. 

Hah! I suspect it's a better idea to start slow instead of just, like, raising the suspension and going for it.

[V1GiLaNtE]

Based friends experience offroad with LRs I'm gonna guess that the veeeeerryyy last sentence of that entire blurb is the most applicable to this vehicle once it hits water. 

Hah! I suspect it's a better idea to start slow instead of just, like, raising the suspension and going for it.

YOLO. When in doubt 500hp throttle out.

[Steve85]

Yeah, it was pretty good gig as far as mechanics go. Pretty much just executive and training fleet support, never touched anything with more than 7500 miles. Did a lot of test fitting of accessories and stuff. Just before being bought by BMW they built a big demo area complete with steep inclines, a water crossing, rock climbing course etc.

Also supported the Trek competition which was very cool. A mini Camel Trophy like competition where teams from dealerships all over the country would compete in various driving and expedition contests.

The culture of the brand was great to be around. Especially the Brit engineers with their special kind of humor.

They had reliability issues then and tried to take a proactive approach so hopefully they've been focused on it over the years and you'll have a great experience!

[Jake]

I took the racecar over to Mach V on Friday evening so more cheater parts could be installed. The towing ball/mount I'm using is actually long enough to comfortably hook up the trailer. Turns out Land Rover tucks the hitch way under the bumper on these to allow for the best departure angle. Neato, but annoying. Thankfully mine works.

The backup camera is offset in the rear spoiler, and the viewing angle is garbage. It is impossible to see the ball when you are trying to hook up the trailer, and nothing is centered on the screen, so you end up just using the mirrors and guessing how far back to go before the trailer is either centered over the ball or you punch a hole in your nice painted bumper cover.

Thankfully, I am good enough at hooking up trailers now that I did not punch a hole in the bumper cover. It looks like some $50 aftermarket cameras can be wired up to the Land Rover wiring, and provide a much better angle of attack. May have to do that.

On the plus side, the camera is angled high enough to work very well as a backup camera when the car/trailer are hooked up. Very easy to see where the trailer is going beyond just the door mirrors. The advantage may go away when I move to an enclosed, but with an open... was pretty cool:



The tow to/from Mach V (got the car back last night) was uneventful. The Range Rover pulled everything incredibly well and I see why these are popular with the high-falutin' horse crowd. It is smoother, for the most part, than the F150 or Denali were. I suspect that is due to the full air suspension soaking up bumps/imperfections. I did not run the weight distribution bars because I lost one of the cotter pins, but will replace and use for future tows just to be on the safe side and help the rear bags out.

Big bumps do make the hitch clang around (due to that little bit of slack with everything hooked up), and you hear/feel the knocking because this is a unibody. It's annoying and can be a bit disconcerting, but is normal given the type of vehicle.

The supercharger not only helps the thing accelerate quickly, even with the trailer - it improves drivability as the power doesn't drop off between shifts. That was very annoying with my past tow vehicles, and power is seamless here by comparison.

My F-150 would automatically downshift when in tow mode and brakes were applied. The Range Rover does not do that, but I was using the "Command Shift" (aka BMW Steptronic) to downshift it as I approached stops. The Steptronic is very responsive and did help slow things down.

Overall, A++ would tow again.