freelander spare wheel problem

[davetheshave]

Hi all

just changed our to car to a freelander to tow our pride and joy and had i slight problem when hitching up to the alko 3004 stabiliser,seems i can't raise it fully to hitch up because of the rear mounted spare wheel,read about this before somewhere and tried opening the door but this is obstructed by the jockey wheel seems the only way i can hitch and unhitch is to come in on obscure angle which is'nt practical where we store it.is a spacer between the towbar the answer or will i have buy a alko 4x4 stabiliser handle ?

 

[WatsonJohnG]

This has come up lots and is a nuisance for the user

You can buy a detachable handle from Alko at a price

But its just as good if you follow this procedure

1 Unscrew the long bolt holding the red handle on

2 When hitching up remove the red handle

3 Position caravan hitch over the ball with hitch arms fully raised

4Lower onto the ball until the hitch clicks on and green button shows on top of hitch

5 lower the 2 arms as far as possible and then slide the red handle back onto the arms and apply full pressure

6 Replace bolt for travelling or store red handle in car boot ( Alko recommend removing theirs for towing)

When unhitching reverse the procedure:raise the arms with red handle until it touches the spare wheel the slide of handle to fully raise the arms by hand

My friend has used this method for 5+ years on his Freelander and Honda CRV He even bought his wife a special screwdriver to unscrew the handle

Hope that helps

 

[WatsonJohnG]

http://www.robinsonscaravans.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=4x4AdapterHandle&PHPSESSID=faec8155adba351ee230757ec06a13df

 

[davetheshave]

This has come up lots and is a nuisance for the user

You can buy a detachable handle from Alko at a price

But its just as good if you follow this procedure

1 Unscrew the long bolt holding the red handle on

2 When hitching up remove the red handle

3 Position caravan hitch over the ball with hitch arms fully raised

4Lower onto the ball until the hitch clicks on and green button shows on top of hitch

5 lower the 2 arms as far as possible and then slide the red handle back onto the arms and apply full pressure

6 Replace bolt for travelling or store red handle in car boot ( Alko recommend removing theirs for towing)

When unhitching reverse the procedure:raise the arms with red handle until it touches the spare wheel the slide of handle to fully raise the arms by hand

My friend has used this method for 5+ years on his Freelander and Honda CRV He even bought his wife a special screwdriver to unscrew the handle

Hope that helps

cheers watson, sounds good to me will try it out in a week or so,bit of a pain but beats splashing out on a speical handle you think alko would have seen this design fault on the drawing board !!!!!!! thanks again

 

[martin.]

I used to have a Freelander aswell and found the spare wheel a pain in the back side, however by pure chance we found that if you parked on an angle with the back door slightly open you could hitch it up but sometimes it took that long it was easier to take the wheel off and leave it in the van, the freelander was crap at towing anyway so ended up getting shut.

 

[JD6620]

We had the same problem with our Freelander. I also used to park on an angle with the door open to hitch up. This worked well until one day I tried to unhitch but the car and caravan were not level so the door would not clear the jockey wheel and the handle would not clear the door. Fortunatley we were on grass so we had room to move to level up the car and van, the warden then helped us get the van on the pitch. After that I purchased the alko handle on the last day of the NEC show at a bargain price, had no troulble since.

 

[Parksy]

Hi Davey

I had the same problem with the AlKo handle fouling the door mounted spare wheel on my Pajero.

I simply removed the handle and I store it in the Paj so that after hitching up I slide the handle over the twin prongs of the stabiliser to engage it. I then slide the handle off to store in the car. To disengage and unhitch I reverse the procedure but as I wind down the jockey wheel I take care that the ends of the stabiliser prongs do not dig into the spare tyre.

 

[DerekBrad]

This has come up lots and is a nuisance for the user

You can buy a detachable handle from Alko at a price

But its just as good if you follow this procedure

1 Unscrew the long bolt holding the red handle on

2 When hitching up remove the red handle

3 Position caravan hitch over the ball with hitch arms fully raised

4Lower onto the ball until the hitch clicks on and green button shows on top of hitch

5 lower the 2 arms as far as possible and then slide the red handle back onto the arms and apply full pressure

6 Replace bolt for travelling or store red handle in car boot ( Alko recommend removing theirs for towing)

When unhitching reverse the procedure:raise the arms with red handle until it touches the spare wheel the slide of handle to fully raise the arms by hand

My friend has used this method for 5+ years on his Freelander and Honda CRV He even bought his wife a special screwdriver to unscrew the handle

Hope that helps

Damn!!! Anyone want to buy an Alko handle?!!

Derek