frightening experience.

[Hutch]

We better not discuss this any further otherwise our knuckles will be rapped!

Maybe your knuckles might be. My Emojies are not agressive. 😀😀😀😀

 

[Traore]

If the hitch had locked to the extent that is put so much lateral forces on the tow bar that it distorted the cars body I am sure you would have felt it and known about it.

If it was the other way round, and the bar had been moving lateral. I think you would have felt and seen that also.

Year's ago I had a trapezium tow bar which are designed to allow the van to move lateral in relation to the car. This was easily spotted in the mirror.

John

I am not disputing you have manged so many miles with no prior incident, and that is great news, However the point of concern I had is your report of how on this occasion you began to detect some instability at around the 60mph. It seems likely this may have coincided with the failure of the hitch.

The damage you have described to the hitch of the dislodged friction pad raises the possibility the damping effect of the hitch had been reduced, and as such it allowed the snake you began to detect to arise.

If you outfit is prone to snaking when the friction pads are not operating it means your outfit is inherently unstable at normal UK motorway speed limits., and more crucially you out has come to rely on the action of the stabiliser to make it drivable. This is not good practice as no out fit should rely on addition stability systems to make it drivable.

I strongly suggest you should review your loading regime to improve the unassisted stability. It may not need much, but It is so very easy to allow nick-nacks, the odd torch or magazines to be unwittingly added to a caravan, and they all can begin to unsettle what was otherwise a good plan.

Please double check.

Thank you for your judgement my learned friend. In my defence may I say that I always follow loading good practice. I keep heavier things close to the axle. Placing them at either side. The only lockers with any heavier things are above the kitchen at the centre of the van. The gas bottles are located over the axle. I don’t store things in the extremities nor store water. Having done all that I rely on feel and listening. I take your point that imbalances could be masked by the action of the stabiliser. I guess the only way to be sure would be to deactivate the stabiliser by leaving the lever up deactivate the ATC and then go for a blast up the motorway.
What we need is a paper on the towing dynamics of a unit with seized hitch and loose tow bar.

 

[Traore]

Just raised the issue of the towbar with witter. They say that their website states that every 500 miles the the towbar fixing bolts have to be retorqued and any paintwork damage made good.

They are having a laugh. These bolts are hidden behind the bumper. The back end of the car would have to be removed to access them.

The towbar was not bought through their website and so anything on their website is irrelevant. The only conditions relevant are those supplied at point of sale, of which there were none.

 

[otherclive]

Just raised the issue of the towbar with witter. They say that their website states that every 500 miles the the towbar fixing bolts have to be retorqued and any paintwork damage made good.

They are having a laugh. These bolts are hidden behind the bumper. The back end of the car would have to be removed to access them.

The towbar was not bought through their website and so anything on their website is irrelevant. The only conditions relevant are those supplied at point of sale, of which there were none.

That’s a cracker and does them no credit at all. Scotland or Nice are out then ☹️

 

[Lutz]

We've already towed 3200 miles since we left home on 25th August. Does anyone honestly expect us to have had the towbar bolts retorqued 6 times since we started our journey?

 

[ProfJohnL]

Look back at the problems with the friction pads in Alko tow hitch and then the tow bar of the Jaguar E pace which is an early Version. The Profs ideas are good but maybe should be dismissed, ,think outside of your exprtices as a gas engineer, Traore is not inexperienced and his replys should be respected.

Firstly and most importantly, I have at no time disrespected Traore. I have simply reviewed the evidence placed before us, and drawn logical engineering/scientific conclusions, as I have explained as I have gone along.

If my ideas are "good" then why should they be arbitrarily dismissed?

I'm all for thinking out of the box, but whilst that can be a useful trait, you should never just act on such thinking without reviewing the pros and cons.

 

[Traore]

Is it possible to delete this thread.

 

[Hutch]

Contact one of the moderators, press the "report" link bottom left of your last box and you can request them to delete the thread.

 

[Sam Vimes]

It seems this thread has gone far enough and it can act as a warning to others so instead of deleting, I shall just lock this thread against further entries.