Santa Fe towbar

[MikeyW]

Hi All

Just had a Westfalia detachable fitted to our 2016 Santa Fe.  With ball attached there is only 62mm between centre of ball and bumper.  Alko state it should be 68mm,  AKS 3004 stabiliser on caravan.  I' m waiting to hear back from Westfalia and fitter but wondered what other people with same car have fitted.  Seen lots of Santa Fe's towing so clearance can't be an issue with some towbars.

 Any replies gratefully received.

Mike

 

[Hutch]

Just been out to the garage and on my 2014 Sante fe, the bumper to the tow ball is 89 mm. To the center of the tow ball is 110 mm. This is a fixed Tow Trust tow bar with a bolt on ALKo tow hitch.
I had originally a Hyundai fixed tow bar which was a Witter, but it was further away by maybe 20 mm. Which gave the distance from the centre of the rear axle to the tow ball past the limits, advised in the handbook.

 

[MikeyW]

Thanks for looking. My car is the facelift model I believe, don't know if that makes any difference to the bumper style. Don't know about distance to axle just worried about the bumper distance. I'll try and contact alko and ask their advice.

 

[woodsieboy]

Ours came with Witter fixed tow bar, distance from bumper to centre of ball is 1250mm, our problem was the height of the ball, our local towbar fitting centre manage to adjust it and no problems so far.

 

[MikeyW]

Ours came with Witter fixed tow bar, distance from bumper to centre of ball is 1250mm, our problem was the height of the ball, our local towbar fitting centre manage to adjust it and no problems so far.

Is that correct ? 1250mm is just over 4 feet.

I'm going back to the fitter for him to try and readjust the bumper position. After looking under the car myself, it looks like a couple of brackets that hold the bumper could be moved to pull bumper closer to the car. It's such a small amount to move, 1/4", it might work to give the correct clearance.

 

[woodsieboy]

Hi Mikey
I make it just about 5 inches,125 mm?

 

[Hutch]

Ours came with Witter fixed tow bar, distance from bumper to centre of ball is 1250mm, our problem was the height of the ball, our local towbar fitting centre manage to adjust it and no problems so far.

.

The Witter fixed tow bars as fitted to 2014 TO 2016 , Santa Fe's had a problem with the torque setting of the bolts on the tow bars. Allowing the tow bars to drop as they only had two mounting bolts each side, from the cross bar to the chassie mount. Their response was to up the torque, on the bolts. This was fine but the distance from the tow ball from the axle was longer than the recommended 1,130mm. 44.5 inches. (Page 5, 95 in the hand book. ) I changed mine to TowTrust one which had three mounting bolts each side, and brought the Tow ball closer to the Axle. And within limits for the AlKo hitch.

 

[otherclive]

Hi Mikey
I make it just about 5 inches,125 mm?

When I saw your 1250mm measure I thought the car may have had a spare wheel on the door but even my Pajero towball wasn’t that far from its bumper. 1250mm is about 4ft

 

[MikeyW]

I haven't measured the distance from the axle but I know one thing for certain the tow ball can't get any closer to the bumper than it is.

 

[Hutch]

I haven't measured the distance from the axle but I know one thing for certain the tow ball can't get any closer to the bumper than it is.

Mikey, the other thing is to hitch up your caravan, and see if you have adequate distance from the bumper for it not to hit, left and right for tight turns. .
Edit. The other thing is to go back to the fitter and see if they can get a longer Swan neck to fit.

 

[MikeyW]

Going to the caravan in storage over the weekend to try it out.
Already been on to Westfalia and this is the only neck available from them.
The fitter is going to try and reposition the bumper to give more clearance. I can actually press the bumper in far enough by hand, to create the correct clearance, but it springs back out. If the hitch did catch it would only depress the bumper, but obviously mark it. The bumper bar has been replaced by the towbar so it's only the painted bumper cover that's too close.
If all else fails then it will have to be a different make towbar.

 

[MikeyW]

A quick update, which may help others with same issue.

The brackets on the tow bar which hold the bottom edge of the bumper cover in place were eased forward a bit which increased the gap to towball centre to approx. 69mm.

Just hooked up caravan and there is plenty of room for the hitch to articulate in both directions. But because of the shape of the bumper it's close when lining up the hitch to just above the ball. Saying that, to be honest, I think, the original 62mm gap may have just been enough.

Car tows great, well happy.

Mike