Analytical expressions for the scaling factor (A) in the Wooding and Chapman (J Geophys Res 71:2895-2902, 1966) solution for steady-state flow to drains on a sloping bed are presented. Otherwise A needs to be obtained by matching numerical and solutions. Corrections to various errors in other analytical solutions are given. The HYDRUS2D numerical model was used to generate results for steady-state flow to drains on a sloping bed which were compared to published Hele-Shaw cell results. The numerical results were used to compute both the pressure head on the bottom and the height of the phreatic surface. The numerical results for maximum water-table height are almost exactly the same as the published Hele-Shaw cell results and are greater than the numerical values for the maximum pressure heads on the sloping base. These HYDRUS2D model results were then compared with various analytical solutions, and it was found that Towner's (Water Resour Res 11:144-147, 1975) solution gave the best results for both estimation of the maximum height of the phreatic surface and the position on the slope where this occurs.