Alko Hitch - Reversing.

[Auspom]

The van that is currently being shipped over to me here in Australia has an Alko Hitch fitted, its the red model with the large handle more situated over to the right of the hitch looking front on.

My question is can you reverse ok with the handle in the down/engaged position or does it have to be in the up position or does it not matter.??

Sorry if it seems a stupid question its just that they do not have them here in Oz plus when i emigrated from the UK they didnt have them in England well lmy van never had one.

Have just had to go to Alko here in Australia to buy a special adaptor plate and a special 50mm Alko towball to be able to accept the Alko Hitch, apparently if i had just put it on my standard Aussie Hayman Reese 50mm towball the bottom of the Alko hitch would have been in contact with the baseplate and would have cracked open the bottom of the hitch as there would not have been any extra space for movement.

Alko over here know that you need these items so they slug you $100 for the tiny grooved out plate and $50 for the towball which is similar to the Aussie towball with the exception that the lower round part has straight sides that fit into their grooved out plate.

Any help/advice much appreciated.

Tony
Brisbane
Australia

 

[Parksy]

Hi Tony
It doesn't matter whether the stabiliser is engaged or not when reversing although on uneven ground it can help to lift the handle because sometimes the hitch can be difficult to free from the towball. If this happens it sometimes helps if you ease forward a couple of inches to take the load off the hitch damper. If all else fails I carry a short jemmy bar with which to separate the hitch from the towcar.
I know what you mean when you mention the high price of necessities, anything to do with caravans is always expensive here as well.
Good luck with the new caravan

 

[Stevel]

G'day Auspom,
I think it doesn't matter whether the stabilizer is engaged or disengaged when reversing, saying that, it is a personal thing. If I'm reversing tight in onto a pitch I disengage the stabilizer as I feel there is no more need for extra pressure exerted onto the tow ball. That said I have a T/axle, some with single axle may argue that the extra pressure may make reversing slightly easier as it stiffens the unit (ie slower to break).

 

[Parksy]

................ That said I have a T/axle, some with single axle may argue that the extra pressure may make reversing slightly easier as it stiffens the unit (ie slower to break).

Never heard of that one before, it makes no real difference whether the handle is up or down when reversing in terms of manoeuvrability

 

[Lutz]

Correct, Parksy. A car would have to be very underpowered to even notice the resistance that the AlKo provides when the handle is down. My dealer advises lifting the handle when reversing simply to reduce unneccesary wear, although I must admit I never do it and I've never had to replace pads prematurely, either.

 

[Ricey]

In the Al-Ko instrucion manual it does suggest putting the stabiliser handle in the up position for easier manouvering (e.g. when on campsites).
Might be worth checking the clearance between a 4x4 rear mounted spare wheel and the stabiliser handle in the up position as I suspect there's a good chance of contact when reversing at an angle.

 

[ValA.]

In the Al-Ko instrucion manual it does suggest putting the stabiliser handle in the up position for easier manouvering (e.g. when on campsites).
Might be worth checking the clearance between a 4x4 rear mounted spare wheel and the stabiliser handle in the up position as I suspect there's a good chance of contact when reversing at an angle.

We read our manual too, and follow this advice. OH never puts the handle down when we've just hitched up, until we are in a straight-line, and lifts it whenever he wants to reverse or manouvre anywhere.
Just to add to this, that we found our (newly fitted) Alko 3004 stabiliser handle was popping up mid-journey (there was a post on these forums somewhere about this) and OH found that it was the handbrake lever which was in contact with the Alko handle on braking, causing it to lift! We managed to stop this by pushing a small piece of pipe-lagging to the inside of the handbrake lever, in down position - which stops the contact with the Alko handle - but this is definitely a design fault with the Alko 3004 - and OH has penned a letter to Alko to point this out.