airwhen

Some people say not to use a weight distribution hitch with a Q7 (something written in the manual, but I cannot find those magical words in mine) I have searched and found a few explanations that the mounting bolts will fail or the hitch itself will.

I have a 23 foot travel trailer. 3962 dry, gets up to 4400 when loaded. Tongue weight hovers around 440 pounds when hitting the highway. I have been towing this trailer with my Toyota Tacoma using the WDH for a few years. Without it, the back would immensely sag, worse than a post menopausal woman in her 70's

My Q7 is a 2007, 4.2L with factory tow package, Air Ride suspension, tow mode in my MMI and fuzzy dice.

I read a few tow a lot more weight and no WDH where others do use it, but it seems to be on the 4M Q7, not the 4L.

You guys who tow with your 4L with Air Suspension, are you omitting the WDH and just have a ball and shank connected (obviously a brake controller too)?

Thanks.

dreadlocks

air suspension, no wdh, no sway for my 20ft toyhauler.. I'm certain I'm over 600# on the tongue


source: Audi Online Owner's Manual

airwhen

Well, look at that. Thanks Dreadlocks. Your manual differs greatly from mine. That whole warning is totally missing in mine. However, mine is a 2007, weight distribution hitches weren't all the rage nor were the failures of our hitches, thus it likely never made it into my manual.

Thanks for the info. I will be going without the WDH for now.

My 2007 Manual on Towing with the Q7:


2007 Q7 Manual on Towing

2007 Q7 Manual on Towing

2007 Q7 Manual on Towing

2007 Q7 Manual on Towing

dreadlocks

You wont need it, airbags do fantastic at keeping *** end level.. this isnt a frame rail chassis, its a unibody, trying to use leverage to force weight to front axle is a terrible idea, I hear my pano sunroof move enough when on rough terrain I imagine it could just shatter with something trying to apply that much force to the unibody.. besides, WD hitches are a PITA to hookup, and will totally **** your trailer/tow vehicle up on rough terrain.. dunno why anyone would wanna run one on any vehicle, I'd spend more to upgrade suspension than run WD personally.. try to avoid unless you have really no other choice.

airwhen

Good to know. Thanks for the info. The WDH works well with a body on frame like a truck, but I can imagine the unibody not feeling the same.

My Tacoma does have new leaf packs, going from 3 leafs to 7 leafs increasing the spring rate quite a bit, but its progressive otherwise the truck rear would bounce when unloaded.

This Q7 sort of fell into my lap. This was a colleague of my wife's (they are the original owner's) and they were selling it because the MMI didn't work. Dealer quoted them $4850 to fix it. They bought a new car instead and put this 2007 up for sale rather then accept the $3000 trade in that was offered. This is a full dealer serviced car that looks like new, garage kept and is the rare Sycamore Green Metallic for $5000 and 73K on the clock. I just thought, "I'll give it a try." Turns out the sunroof drainage was clogged (actually all of them were) and the amp got wet. An $11 fiber optic loop and a $8 can of circuit board cleaner fixed the car, plus several days of research. That was a lot less than $4850. I was just going to flip the car, but my family totally prefers it over the Tacoma and the 4.2L has a bit more power too. So now it's the car for our road trips.

dreadlocks

hell yeah, thats a deal.. these ones w/air suspension are lil unicorns and tow so great.. I mean like literally every time I've had my trailer behind it (dozens of times now) I think to my self 'damn this thing tows great' - verbaitm. really no stress in Colorado Rockies, just relax and enjoy the comfort.. those 4.2s are legendary too, great engines.. especially of that vintage.. I had a twin turbo once that put out 450hp, with mild factory tune heh..

problem now is I dunno if I ever want to go back to towing on springs or leafs.. air is awesome.

airwhen

Nice! I got my brake controller and standard hitch on the way. Time to hook it up and see. I did confirm I have the wiring in my car ( I found the plug under the dash)

What amazes me about this Q7 is the tech that I thought came out much later is in this car (Blind Spot, Adaptive Cruise, Cooling seats, Lane Departure warning)

Twin Turbo 450hp? Sounds like you had the RS6. My friend's cousin has that car, but in a 6-speed manual. We drove from Salzburg to Nuremberg. I was in the car when we travelled on the 8 to Munich. He said the car was not stock. It was damn fast.

D3Audi

As long as you're within the tongue weight limit a WD hitch won't hurt, although not really necessary with air suspension.

dreadlocks

there's a photo floating around on these forums of a receiver broken off from a WD that would disagree with you, what does it matter about staying within towing limits if your going to disregard other warnings in the manual.. either you follow its guidelines, or you ignore em.

airwhen

The WDH's purpose is to shift the weight so the rear of the tow vehicle and the nose of the trailer don't dip causing an unstable load.

I have discovered through online research and asking others that because the factory hitch on the Q7 has a vulnerability, a WDH is a bad idea. Later models warn you NOT to use it because when the 4L body was originally designed in 2002, it didn't have a WDH in mind and hitch failures have occurred.

But all of this is moot, at least for me, because my Q7 has the air suspension and it effectually raises the rear doing exactly the job of the WDH.