Fun With Towbars (!)

[IainM]

I recently bought and fitted a Westfalia detachable towbar (bought from Hedley Towing for a quite reasonable £175ish) to my 2006 D4D T-Spirit Verso .

It all fitted very well with everything lining up perfectly. Bumper cutting was easier than expected (a Dremel with a small sanding drum on the end to finish it off makes a nice job of it)

However, having fitted it I find that the towball is at about 470mm off the floor which means my very standard Erde trailer is distinctly nose up/tail down. To be level the towball would need to be at about 380-390mm.

The rule is apparently that the centre of the towball should be should be between 350 and 420mm off the floor when the vehicle is fully laden.

Even if I sit in the boot of the car it only drops by about 15mm which would mean I'd need several hundred Kg in the back of the car to get it anywhere near level - which is clearly not very practical (!)

As with all detachable towballs you can't adjust the thing and nor will they sell you a different towball arm (because type approval only applies to the specified arm ) . So I enquired as to what height a Brink (Thule) detachable would come in at & they tell me it would be even higher at around 500mm unladen !! :(

For just pottering around to the dump etc I wouldn't be too concerned by this but I will be driving over 1000 miles with the trailer on the back with camping gear & 4 bikes on top of it - so it wants to be level (if not slightly nose down) for stability on the motorway etc.

The solution is going to be to modify the trailer's drawbar which can be done fairly easily I think - but a pain in the neck to have to do.

On the electrics side, I bought the Toyota kit & that is fairly straightforward to fit although its not entirely what I would describe as "plug & play". You actually have to extract three wires/connectors from the rear light plug on each side and that is much easier said than done - much cursing & fiddling around with a small screwdriver trying to prise the connections out . Toyota could make that MUCH easier.

[Zwart_Verso]

I have heard before that the Verso towbars are on the highside. I just checked and my fixed Brink is 500mm. car unladen. But car loaded and with my trailer tent on the back (drawbar weight ~50Kg), everything is perfectly level and I had no problems towing over 3000Km last year.

Also I have noticed no problems when I have hired trailers for various DIY projects.

As a reference the detachable Brink on my Yaris is 480 mm. car unladen, but I have not used it yet.

regards, Andy.

[IainM]

I have heard before that the Verso towbars are on the highside. I just checked and my fixed Brink is 500mm. car unladen. But car loaded and with my trailer tent on the back (drawbar weight ~50Kg), everything is perfectly level and I had no problems towing over 3000Km last year.

Also I have noticed no problems when I have hired trailers for various DIY projects.

As a reference the detachable Brink on my Yaris is 480 mm. car unladen, but I have not used it yet.

regards, Andy.

Andy,

that's useful to know. As I said, mine is coming in at about 470mm unladen & the trailer wants to be at about 380 to be level. It would take a great deal of weight in the back of the car to drop it 80-100mm I think (even allowing for 50Kg nose weight)! I am going to have to modify the trailer's drawbar - should be fairly easy I think.

rgds

Iain

[IainM]

I have heard before that the Verso towbars are on the highside. I just checked and my fixed Brink is 500mm. car unladen. But car loaded and with my trailer tent on the back (drawbar weight ~50Kg), everything is perfectly level and I had no problems towing over 3000Km last year.

Also I have noticed no problems when I have hired trailers for various DIY projects.

As a reference the detachable Brink on my Yaris is 480 mm. car unladen, but I have not used it yet.

regards, Andy.

Andy,

DO either of your Brink towbars have a bracket/eye/fixing point for a safety cable? There is nowhere on the Westfalia to attach a cable at all - so it has to be looped over the towball - which isn't much use if that fails or detaches itself from the bar! Seems a basic oversight to me.

rgds

Iain

[yoast]

I just got a GDW detachable towbar. Unladen the centre of the ball sits 420 mm from the ground. A bit high, but two inches lower than the 470 mentioned by yourself and the 500 mentioned by zwart. The GDW does have a metal ring to attach a safety cable. I posted some pictures in my update to "Is It Possible To Fit A Detachable Tow Bar On A 2006 Corolla Verso?" post.

Hope this helps,

I recently bought and fitted a Westfalia detachable towbar (bought from Hedley Towing for a quite reasonable £175ish) to my 2006 D4D T-Spirit Verso .

It all fitted very well with everything lining up perfectly. Bumper cutting was easier than expected (a Dremel with a small sanding drum on the end to finish it off makes a nice job of it)

However, having fitted it I find that the towball is at about 470mm off the floor which means my very standard Erde trailer is distinctly nose up/tail down. To be level the towball would need to be at about 380-390mm.

The rule is apparently that the centre of the towball should be should be between 350 and 420mm off the floor when the vehicle is fully laden.

Even if I sit in the boot of the car it only drops by about 15mm which would mean I'd need several hundred Kg in the back of the car to get it anywhere near level - which is clearly not very practical (!)

As with all detachable towballs you can't adjust the thing and nor will they sell you a different towball arm (because type approval only applies to the specified arm ) . So I enquired as to what height a Brink (Thule) detachable would come in at & they tell me it would be even higher at around 500mm unladen !! :(

For just pottering around to the dump etc I wouldn't be too concerned by this but I will be driving over 1000 miles with the trailer on the back with camping gear & 4 bikes on top of it - so it wants to be level (if not slightly nose down) for stability on the motorway etc.

The solution is going to be to modify the trailer's drawbar which can be done fairly easily I think - but a pain in the neck to have to do.

On the electrics side, I bought the Toyota kit & that is fairly straightforward to fit although its not entirely what I would describe as "plug & play". You actually have to extract three wires/connectors from the rear light plug on each side and that is much easier said than done - much cursing & fiddling around with a small screwdriver trying to prise the connections out . Toyota could make that MUCH easier.

[IainM]

I just got a GDW detachable towbar. Unladen the centre of the ball sits 420 mm from the ground. A bit high, but two inches lower than the 470 mentioned by yourself and the 500 mentioned by zwart. The GDW does have a metal ring to attach a safety cable. I posted some pictures in my update to "Is It Possible To Fit A Detachable Tow Bar On A 2006 Corolla Verso?" post.

Hope this helps,

Interesting to know. From your pictures the GDW is definitly much lower - looks to be about the ideal height. The Westfalia is maybe a neater thing (the electrics fold away out of sight & so very little is visible when its not in use). I'll post some pictures if anyone is interested....

Meantime I am stuck with it now I think so I need to figure out what I can do about the safety cable thing.

[yoast]

Well. Unless you have a tooth that needs pulling ......

One clear illustration & discussion is at :http://www.motabars.co.uk/breakaway.html

I came across this dialogue about the same problem: http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=275252

in this the answerer states: "If this prep is not provided, then it is acceptable to loop it around the ball. if you check out bailey caravan website, www.bailey-caravans.co.uk you can download an operators handbook which gives the requirements for breakaway fixings. All the leading caravan producers say the same so bailey is not biased."

Otherwise just google on "breakaway fixings" or "breakaway cables"

Good Luck.

I just got a GDW detachable towbar. Unladen the centre of the ball sits 420 mm from the ground. A bit high, but two inches lower than the 470 mentioned by yourself and the 500 mentioned by zwart. The GDW does have a metal ring to attach a safety cable. I posted some pictures in my update to "Is It Possible To Fit A Detachable Tow Bar On A 2006 Corolla Verso?" post.

Hope this helps,

Interesting to know. From your pictures the GDW is definitly much lower - looks to be about the ideal height. The Westfalia is maybe a neater thing (the electrics fold away out of sight & so very little is visible when its not in use). I'll post some pictures if anyone is interested....

Meantime I am stuck with it now I think so I need to figure out what I can do about the safety cable thing.