Alko stabiliser

[Roger_5081505]

Hi

Not sure if anyone else has had this problem. After coupling my car to the caravan I have great difficulty engaging the stabiliser. It is not worn at all, and makes no noise when towing, and certainly greatly improves stability compared to towing before I had it fitted. It is so bad my wife could never engage it, and I even have to put my full weight on the lever to eventually get it to engage. When unhitching it seems to disengage without any problem. The tow ball is genuine Alko aswell. I am sure it is getting worse.

 

[mcghee]

Have you tried leaving the 'van handbrake on and pulling your car forwards to fully extend the hitch? Sometimes when you lower the hitchhead onto the towball it is pushing in a few millimetres and it can be impossible to engage the stabiliser.

 

[Fouldsy]

Hi Roger

We had a problem when we first had an alko stabiliser though the opposite to yours, it may give a clue.

We had the original alko ball but the stabiliser handle would become disengaged after a few miles.

The dealer changed the stabiliser but it turned out to be the ball was a tiny bit too small.

Due to the tolerances tiny bits of mm can make a difference, get your dealer to check the size of your tow ball, it may be a fraction too big hence your problem engaging.

Good luck

F

 

[Lutz]

I'm surprised that a ball should be too small when the tolerance on its diameter is relatively large (0.39mm). Given such a large permissible tolerance it doesn't say much for the towball manufacturer's quality control and I'd hesitate buying anything from him again (who knows what else is out of tolerance?).

 

[Roger_5081505]

At last, the problem with my Alko stabiliser seems to have been rectified. Many thanks for all the suggestions I had when I first posted. I took my van to the dealer and upon investigation, it appears that some bearings inside the stabiliser had siezed. These have been replaced and now I can engage the stabiliser, although I still doubt if my wife would manage to!.

 

[Giles_5119239]

I think i read somewhere about ALKO making a handle to allow those who cannoy apply the pressure to the handle of the stabaliser do so.

take a look at http://217.199.167.226/shop/acatalog/Stabilisers_Accs.html

it is the retro fit stabiliser handle at the bottom of the page.

Although looking at the pdf file below it it looks the same length as the original, might be easier to slip a length of pipe over though to act as a force multiplier.

Giles