Update... I picked up the caravan last week, towed it down to Hertfordshire, towed great, even found myself doing 70mph at times.
anyway I had a look at the rear shocks on the Disco and decided to get them changed, while they were being done the rear discs looked pretty shagged so I done them and the pads as well.
stayed in the caravan that night, woke up, checked the nose weight. it was about 100kg. so I headed to Dover.
I have done this drive over 60 times, and I knew that there is a steep hill in Liege on the E40, it would be the first test.
as I was half way up I could felt I was losing speed (down to about 45mph) so I clicked the auto down to 3. and went up the hill no problem at about 45-50 mph. just as I got to the top there was a terrible smell of oil burning, like I had fried the gearbox or something. I pulled over, let it cool down and started checking everything (wot I should have done before I left!!)
Anyway, the only thing out of the ordinary was that the auto oil seemed a bit overfull.
So I jumped in and pressed on, ****tin meself at every hill, and there are plenty through Germany and Austria.
I didn't ever change down into 3 again, just pressed on in 'D' letting the auto sort it out.
I'm home now, trip took about 24 hours (driving time) the Disco was great, it just plodded on and on. I got the hang of towing the caravan and I saw a lot of foreign petrol stations!
Anyone got any ideas as to the oil smell? the engine was at about 3000 to 3500 rpm. should I fit a tranny cooler? or at least a temp gauge.