Wouldn't unhitch

[Mel]

Hi. Just come back from a nice weekend near Liverpool. What a lovely city. Anyway towed the van onto the drive. Towed straight on as usual, no reversing.The hitch head would not unhitch. Tried the reverse and pull forward with handbrake on trick, although as we hadn't reversed on, this should not have been a problem. It looked as though the hitch head was sort of slightly sloping on the towball rather than flat. In the end after much winding up and down of the jockey wheel, OH sprayed it all with WD40, and then gave it a good waggle (you can't beat a good waggle). The boot bit waggle a bit and then it unhitched. It is aWinterhoff hitch. Wehave had the van 2 years and not had this problem before. Any advice?
Thanks in advance
mel

 

[Sproket]

Mel
Now you have it unhitched, remove the front rubber boot & check that everything is moving freely inside & nothing is binding, it sound more like you picked some grit up inside the coupling on the way home & that caused the catch that you will see with two teeth on to bind...
Make sure that you clean the pads with brake cleaner as they will be contaminated with all of that WD40 that has been sloshed about...

This is the view from underneath the coupling

This is looking down from the top

If there is any dirt or grit in this area it will stop it from moving & cause it to jam

Give it a good waggle & make sure everthing is clean & free from grit ....

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I usualy have to use the mover to move the caravan backward and forward until the hitch releases with a jerk

 

[MichaelE]

Alot of people have had problems with the Winterhoff not releasing.
I have i found that when i stop if i pulled the handbrake on it will not release, also if the van and car are no level.The worse time i had was when in france we had reversed through trees on sand to our pitch and levelled the van as you couldnt push it and i couldnt get it off the car, it was lifting the car , we had smart ar*es coming over and saying lift the lever like i dont know what to, just what i wanted in 30 degree heat and after a long drive !!!!!
Eventually pulled forward and got it off the van and the tractor pushed it in for us.

 

[Mel]

Thanks everyone. Sprocket, I will have a look at it this weekend, thanks for the photos. I suspect the waggling and WD40 probably did dislodge whatever; if this was the problem. Will make sure that OH cleans the pads though.
Michael, I have heard of the unhitching reputation with Winterhoffs before, although we haven't had it. Come to think of it we were trying to unhitch on the sideways sloping bit of the drive, possibly a different bit to normal, and it did unhitch when we had moved it onto the flatter bit. Of course by this time we had tried umpteen different things and so it is hard to know what actually worked. Thinking about it some more, we hitched up at an angle when we left the site.too; dunno if this made any difference.
thanks again
mel

 

[Gagakev]

Mel not only the winterhoff, I had it last time I came back with my Alko, happened on my last van as well, then I sold it!!
Have checked the hitch tonight and changed the "O" ring washers on the pads only because I broke one last time I cleaned them

Off on Thursday for 3 nights so will see if it does it again.

 

[otherclive]

I would change the friction pads as even using brake cleaning fluid won't really get rid of the WD 40 that will have penetrated the friction pads. You wouldn't keep brake pads that had been soaked in a lubricant would you? Although years ago I did boil up my motor bike brake shoes in paraffin!

 

[MichaelE]

The winterhoff friction pads are £40 + to buy !!!

 

[Mel]

The winterhoff friction pads are £40 + to buy !!!

Oh joy!