Towing a car from towbar

[jo3]

I broke down in my Mondeo and asked my wife to come and collect me in her Shogun which has a towbar to tow our caravan. She brought our rigid towbar from Halfords, which I have found to be excellent in the past. We looked for towing eyes at the rear of the Shogun but there aren't any on ours (the manual says they should be there but they aren't, so please don't reply telling me where they are located).

Is there any purpose made fitting that fits onto a towball and provides an eye for connecting a rigid towbar to. I could get something made but I'd rather buy a proprietary fitting if there is such a thing. I have googled it without success.

 

[drsorento]

Hi have a look on Ebay, item number 150521714362, standard tow ball fitment one end and towing eye fitment for the other end. Hope this helps.

 

[Steve L]

The rigid tow bar I have is the 3 piece one from tow sure. The tow eye on the back of my rover 75 tourer is obscured by the tow bar fitted to the car. So I have used the neck of my aalco tow ball to attatch the rigid bar to and the other end of the bar worked fine in the tow eye on the front of my daughter's meganne. As the diameter of the tow ball is considerably larger than the size of the hook, there is no chance of a disconnection under tow. One thing I have noticed with the rigid bars is they don't fit snugly on some tow eyes on certain cars.

On a safety note, don't think that the towed car steerer doesn't have to brake. They still need to brake to assist your tow vehicle and to reduce snatch & tug.

One thing I experienced when I used my daughters car to tow our Laguna once, was that the rear tow eye on the meganne was on the right and the front tow eye on the laguna was on the left, which ment that the rigid bar was diagonally presented between the cars. Now as the meganne was light at the rear and towing the Laguna which was probably too heavy for the meganne, you did find a tendancy to push the rearend round.

I agree with you all that I should not of towed the Laguna that way, but when you have no option at the time as the car had broken down in a part of the road that didn't allow us to leave the car off the highway, one has to do what one can but do it very carefully. Hence why we didn't exceed 30Mph.

By far the safest way to tow a car is with an A frame, but don't forget that you need the brake pedal motivator when towing cars over 750Kgs gross weight. So the cheapy A frames on Ebay are not legal under those terms. A braked A frame is around £400 so not cheap.

 

[jo3]

Thank you for the replies, both very helpful.

I will order the ebay bar today.

Thanks again

jo

 

[Steve L]

Hi Jo.
I've just looked at the Ebay bar your thinking of that uses the 50mm ball hitch.
Two points that I would check.
Is the hitch rated at 2.5 tons?
The end that fits to the car tow eye looks like a D shackle welded in place. it doesn't look like it has a guide to stop the bar slipping up the side of the tow eye thus risking damage to your car being towed.

I use the three piece double hook bar myself. This does have a closer bracket that captivates the tow eye and does stop side slippage.

They are only small points but I would ask the questions before commiting to buy.

Also ask if it is CE marked. As to me it doesn't look to be a certified product. This does make a difference to your insurance company should a claim ensue at some point.