Where there’s been difficulties fixing the breakaway cable I’ve used a load certified carabiner attached to the towbar and clipped or looped the breakaway to the carabiner depending on the end fitting if the breakaway cable.
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Where there’s been difficulties fixing the breakaway cable I’ve used a load certified carabiner attached to the towbar and clipped or looped the breakaway to the carabiner depending on the end fitting if the breakaway cable.
Note also that in Italy a removable towbar must be removed when not in use.
A contributor to another forum contested a charge by the Dutch authorities on the grounds that the towbar on his car had no dedicated anchorage point for the breakaway cable and won.
By the way, Switzerland has the same requirement.
A contributor to another forum contested a charge by the Dutch authorities on the grounds that the towbar on his car had no dedicated anchorage point for the breakaway cable and won.
By the way, Switzerland has the same requirement.
That would be the case on my VW Touareg - it's a factory-fit electrically deployable towbar with no visible attachment point or spare hole to bolt a a point onto. - when the attachment point became mandatory, the part was modified for subsequent production.
Not an issue for me as we have no plans to venture onto mainland Europe.
I also lost my caravan when my westfalia ball came out whilst towing.
It was my first tow with a new (but used) car that came with the towbar. After a few yards down the road, hit a pot hole and the ball came out. Luckily van stopped and only damage was a broken jockey wheel.
I did not lock the ball because I'm stupid and just thought the lock was for anti theft. It felt secure and managed to take the weight of the van but as explained to me, it was the weight lifting off the ball when hitting the pot hole that likely caused it to drop out.
I have since spoken to Westfalia who explained it mustn't have been engaged properly and I couldn't argue since I failed to lock it.
After cleaning and lubricating with WD40 (their advice), I tried towing again. Much more paranoid, I spent a while jiggling the van around to check the ball wouldn't drop out. I did notice that the thumb screw did rotate slightly (10 to 20 degrees) so I reset it and tried again. Then I towed the van successfully round the corner, very slowly.
Having read your post on it still falling out when locked I'm now even more paranoid.
We're booked to go away this weekend and I'm nervous about trusting the towbar.
Can anyone confirm or deny that the thumb screw shouldn't move at all once its fully engaged?
Many thanks!
It was my first tow with a new (but used) car that came with the towbar. After a few yards down the road, hit a pot hole and the ball came out. Luckily van stopped and only damage was a broken jockey wheel.
I did not lock the ball because I'm stupid and just thought the lock was for anti theft. It felt secure and managed to take the weight of the van but as explained to me, it was the weight lifting off the ball when hitting the pot hole that likely caused it to drop out.
I have since spoken to Westfalia who explained it mustn't have been engaged properly and I couldn't argue since I failed to lock it.
After cleaning and lubricating with WD40 (their advice), I tried towing again. Much more paranoid, I spent a while jiggling the van around to check the ball wouldn't drop out. I did notice that the thumb screw did rotate slightly (10 to 20 degrees) so I reset it and tried again. Then I towed the van successfully round the corner, very slowly.
Having read your post on it still falling out when locked I'm now even more paranoid.
We're booked to go away this weekend and I'm nervous about trusting the towbar.
Can anyone confirm or deny that the thumb screw shouldn't move at all once its fully engaged?
Many thanks!
My Smax has a detachable Westfalia bar of the same design pictured.
Those triangular structures at the base of the shaft, i have to regularly clean the rust off those with a wire wheel to ensure that the bar sits in its receiver correctly. I also do the same to the corresponding points in the receiver.
Even a small amount of rust, and the indicator wheel will only go just into the green zone. Clean it off and it goes half way into the green. I give it a fall small taps with a hammer to make sure it's gone all the way home!
Got to be honest, it's never inspired my confidence - i just trust that it will work !
Little Video here to show how it all works
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulh282wpqP0
Those triangular structures at the base of the shaft, i have to regularly clean the rust off those with a wire wheel to ensure that the bar sits in its receiver correctly. I also do the same to the corresponding points in the receiver.
Even a small amount of rust, and the indicator wheel will only go just into the green zone. Clean it off and it goes half way into the green. I give it a fall small taps with a hammer to make sure it's gone all the way home!
Got to be honest, it's never inspired my confidence - i just trust that it will work !
Little Video here to show how it all works
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I have the Westfalia detachable, not by choice. I find it quite hard to install. The indicators are good and once locked into place is a tight fit. I do lock it but that has nothing to do with the fixing. Just a theft deterrent. I leave mine on . Why keep removing it?
I've spoken to Westfalia again and they've recommended a complete replacement.
Expensive solution but worth it for peace of mind.
Expensive solution but worth it for peace of mind.
Are they contributing to the cost. If a new assembly is required have the given a reason for its lack of performance? Normally detachable give more trouble and last for years.
No offer of assistance but I have no paperwork for it since it came with a used car.
If it comes to a complete repacement and you have lost confidence in that make or removable ones, I might be inclined to go for a fixed one.
He's not the only one that's lost confidence after reading the stories!
Going away later, hope the caravan stays attached to the car. I have found a way to hook the breakaway cable to a fixed point though, won't be wrapping it round the towball again
Going away later, hope the caravan stays attached to the car. I have found a way to hook the breakaway cable to a fixed point though, won't be wrapping it round the towball again
When I had a towbar with a fixed point difficult to access underneath I fitted a lightweight 10 kilo newton load rated screw closing carabiner.
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The best alternative is a factory-fitted retractable towbar, either mechanical or better still, electrical. No chance of separation there.
These removabale tow hitches are great but as all mechanical things they need to be inspected and serviced, either by the owner user, units fail. They are not a fit and forget item. .
I do not like them, for a non engineering person.
I do not like them, for a non engineering person.
The Mobile towbar fitter who put my detachable towbar + 13 pin socket it came with a life time warranty and it is regularly check i have own my car 25 months. .
My current Witter fitted early 2020 had no maintenance information in the owners manual. I rang them and was told to just ensure that it is kept clean and that the socket is also kept clean. I use a ptfe cycle lub on the detachable section as it has no mineral oil residue being solvent based and also for the lock. ACF 50 anti corrosion for the socket. But generally it tends to be left on as a parking aid/ deterrent depending on your perspective.
It is not a particularly good idea not to remove a detachable towbar when not in use. True, it can prevent damage to the bumper, but only when an impact occurs at very low speeds, less than walking pace. At any other speed the presence of the towbar interferes with the energy absorbing characteristics of the vehicle bumper. With the towbar in place, the full load of the impact is imparted into the vehicle underbody, resulting in possible distortion of the underbody structure. Because such damage is very expensive to repair it can very easily result in a write off even though without looking under the vehicle the apparent damage can be minimal.
I remember a case some years ago where a car that I was asked to see was involved in a similar incident only a few miles after being picked up new from the dealer. Although there was no visible damage to any of the outer body panels it was already a write-off. It almost broke the owner's heart to see his car in otherwise pristine condition scrapped.
I've had two rear end shunts with fixed towball fitted. One at 40+mph speed delta, wrote off a Volvo 740 estate, the other at slower town speed rippled the floor pan of a Saab 9000, but did not lead to it being written off. Looking at my present bumper there is precious little energy absorbing material in it. The car's rear end has been modified anyway as the towbar replaces a complex cross member which now sits in the loft space at home. In the case of the low speed rear end impact in the Saab with the fixed towbar whilst it may have only rippled the Saabs floorpan, it certainly did no favours to the Ford Fiesta front end which did have an excellent energy absorbing section and airbag sensors too. All worked perfectly.
How on earth was the rippled floor pan repaired economically? In the case that I mentioned in my previous reply, one of the underbody locating holes was distorted by only 4mm. That was enough to turn the car into a write off.
It wasn’t repaired as the insurance assessor and the repair centre deemed the ripples not to be significant and everything else apart from the bumper assembly was okay. The Saab bumper was basically a transverse cross beam mounted on two front facing shock absorbers and covered in plastic. So that bumber took the brunt of the force at what was a low speed rear end shunt uniformly distributed across the width. But some force clearly went through the fixed towball into the cars underbody, hence the ripples.
I understand that in some countries it is an offence to leave a detachable tow ball in place when driving solo, . In other countries it may be advised that tow balls are removed. But I don't know how or if this policed
But it does raise an issue when it comes to collisions and resulting injuries and or damage. For example if a car was reversing and it collided with a pedestrian, if the car had a a tow ball exposed that struck the pedestrian which by all informed opinions caused greater injury, is the driver more culpable becasue they did not remove the tow ball?
With regards vehicle collisions involving tow balls, there is little doubt the type of damage arising from a vehicular collision is quite different when a tow ball is involved. Its a point contact and that radically increases the force per unit area which is far more likely to impair the energy absorbing structures from working. effectively, resulting in more damage and distortion.
It has already been pointed out that most tow bar assemblies have no mechanical compliance and will transfer impact energy to parts of the tow vehicles body not especially designed to manage such impacts and can damage the tow vehicle.
But it does raise an issue when it comes to collisions and resulting injuries and or damage. For example if a car was reversing and it collided with a pedestrian, if the car had a a tow ball exposed that struck the pedestrian which by all informed opinions caused greater injury, is the driver more culpable becasue they did not remove the tow ball?
With regards vehicle collisions involving tow balls, there is little doubt the type of damage arising from a vehicular collision is quite different when a tow ball is involved. Its a point contact and that radically increases the force per unit area which is far more likely to impair the energy absorbing structures from working. effectively, resulting in more damage and distortion.
It has already been pointed out that most tow bar assemblies have no mechanical compliance and will transfer impact energy to parts of the tow vehicles body not especially designed to manage such impacts and can damage the tow vehicle.
Despite having dealt with numerous insurance claims, I have never come across anything where it was alleged a towball made things worse and that put more responsibility on a car driver. In practice if you reverse into a pedestrian and the tow bar causes more damage than one without one then damages are assessed on the basis of the injury and liability is apportioned on the basis of the fault or otherwise of the parties.
In general the law tends to favour the pedestrian anyway, as the driver is required to be sure it is safe to reverse before moving off. I have seen many examples of pedestrians simply walking close behind reversing cars in car parks though, which would mitigate the drivers liability if it could be shown to be negligent.
I can see that a tow ball might make the damage to the other car more serious in some cases, we never did look at that point when investigating accidents though as it had no legal implications in our opinion.
In general I would remove detachable tow bars if they are not being used, as some can be vulnerable to theft.
In general the law tends to favour the pedestrian anyway, as the driver is required to be sure it is safe to reverse before moving off. I have seen many examples of pedestrians simply walking close behind reversing cars in car parks though, which would mitigate the drivers liability if it could be shown to be negligent.
I can see that a tow ball might make the damage to the other car more serious in some cases, we never did look at that point when investigating accidents though as it had no legal implications in our opinion.
In general I would remove detachable tow bars if they are not being used, as some can be vulnerable to theft.
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