New Exhaust & Trailer Towing

I've got two questions for my 96 Disco.

1) I need to replace my exhaust and want to upgrade to improve hp and performance. This will be my second replacement. For my first, I was short on cash and just needed it done quickly. Now I get to do it again. Rovers North sells the NRP stainless exhaust and a competitor sells a Borla brand exhaust. No offense to the Rovers North guys, but is there a significant difference between these two brands from a performance, quality or sound standpoint? Or are they fairly similar? Does one sound more "stock" over the other?

2) My family and I like to go camping and have started towing travel trailers with friends. My friends usually have a less stressful towing with their full-size pickups since they have longer wheelbases. I remember reading in my owners manual that I should not use load leveling bars when towing. Why is that? Does it negatively impact the drivetrain on the Disco because of the permanent 4X4?

I have a Disco and an F-250, and IMHO the Disco is just not competitive as a tow vehicle. Other than the short wheelbase, the suspension is too compliant. I think that's why a weight-distributing hitch is not allowed; in other words, it's optimized for off-highway performance, not heavy-duty highway towing.

I agree with BarryO,
I have owned several Rovers(DEF 90, RR, Disco1) and they suck as tow vehicle. All wrong design for towing; short wheelbase, underpowered etc.
And I am a trailer man myself too. I have a caravan, 10' cargo trailer, and a motorcyle trailer. I am converting a Dutch military 1/4 ton trailer to an expedition style trailer too. This will be the only one I'll tow with the Disco in future(unless just going to Home Depot for lumber etc). I laugh at the advertisement from the time(1990's) that actually listed tow capacity of 7500# in low range. I cant imagine being dumb enough to drive down the interstate towing the ole horse trailer in low range at 40mph as Semis blow you off the road!! Just keep your rover for off road, and buy a used older american pickup to tow the caravan. There is nothing more stressful than pulling a trailer with a vehicle not designed for it. Now on the other hand, my dads Dodge 350 w/cummins td and auto pulled my rover back effortlessly from an event(with two broken axles) with the a/c on, cruise set at 75 and all the while me enjoying a cup of hot joe and the cd player cranked!!

Oh and for the exhaust, I put the NRP on my wifes Disco, I think it is less "raspy" than the Borla, and cheaper, its been on for 3 years and still going strong. Rovers are underpowered, always will be, and on and on and on......even latest Disco 2 with 4.6 is an underpowered pig with lift/tires/kit on it, and you will never get more than a 5-10 horse diff in an exhaust/intake combo, your just spending money on marketing designed to get you to spend your hard earned money(of course stainless is a long term investment-that part is worth xtra money) on stuff you dont need!! Put money into sound suspension, tires, winch and proper kit and instruction/training and leave the horsepower stuff to the NASCAR boyz.
Look at it this way, I have wheeled with alot of Jeep/Toyota/other guys and rover guys rarely break stuff as regularly as the other brands. The reason is IMHO, Rover underpowers vehicles so as not to break stuff. I cant count the number of 4.0 Jeeps/Grand cherokees that I have towed to the trail head after that familiar "SNAP" of a Dana 35 axle. I may not have the power to do an obstacle, but I can also get back home after a weekend of wheeling.(Dont ask about the double broken axle mentioned above, that was a freak of nature occurance!!) Cheers!!

I would like an opinion from BarryO and JSalyer, or anybody else, about towing. I was intending on towing my 14' single axle camp trailer on short trips with my '97 disco. I purchased the trailer to tow behind my '34 Chevy Streetrod, because it only weighs 2500# fully loaded with groceries, clothing and water. When towing w/ the streetrod, I use a load equalizing (EZ Lift) hitch to make the towing platform more stable and the fact that the rear tires rub, if I don't. Has anybody towed a trailer with a Disco using a load equalizing hitch? Even though the owners manual recommends against it. The streetrod and the Disco both have short wheelbases. The rod has about twice the power and is only about 3" off the ground, but otherwise similar. It is my feeling that if the rear springs are soft, as they are on a Disco, that the spring bars would greatly benefit the towing capability. Afterall, the EZ Lift hitch was designed to allow cars to tow trailers in the '50's and '60's before everybody had SUVs and pickups.

Mudley,
I'm gonna defer to someone else on this one. I've got a similar sized camper here in Germany(4.75 meter) and I tried out the Disco with it as a test in Oct. and it sucked-lots of tendency to sway-but I'm running 3" lift(with sway bars and disconnects) and 265/75-16 MTs so I've got a really soft suspension. I tow the caravan with my VW Eurovan now and its totally effortless(long wheel base and 50 more HP). I have never felt comfortable towing with the Rovers(all of mine lifted) as they are so underpowered and softly suspended, but here in Europe they pull big stuff with them. The Germans use a sort of weight dist. hitch here, and I assume its similar in design to the US ones. But you are limited on the autobahn to 80Km/Hr(which is freaking slow when MB's and Audis are blowing past at 250Km/Hr!!) I pull the motorcycle trailer, or my 10' cargo(and am building the Mil Spec expedition trailer) with the Disco, but neither are heavy and they are so small, I just dont dig pulling trailers that like to dance around(which is a tow vehicle issue). Try jumping on some of the other Forums and see what some of the other guys say. Sorry not much help on this.....

Thanx for the reply. I may check w/ my local RV dealer, also.

I just contacted the Rover dealer in Portland. The shop foreman I talked with told me that he sees lots of Discos towing trailers with load distributing hitches and that is the only way he will tow, plus adding a sway bar. He felt that the statement was put in the owners manual as a CYA and was a liability issue only. To my way of thinking, as soft as the suspension is and as short as the wheelbase is, the only way to tow anything is with a spring bar hitch. So thanx for all your patience while I answered my own question. It's kind of like therepy, isn't it?