Tow ball..tow plate.. this aint right? pics

[MrJC]

My 110 came with a tow bar and ball... I have had light trailers on but nothing heavy. I have been offered the use of a nice caravan so I needed to replace the old tow ball with a AL-KO tow ball and just swapped them.
I was at my independant Landy mans today and he looked at my tow set up and said the 'plate' looked upside down and towing a caravan would put strain on it and may rip it off

I went home and took the tow ball and plate off..... tried turning it upside down.... tried raising it up to go through the x member... nope it don't fit any other way. I was trying to get 6 bolts in.

Tried some research..... from what I can make out it seems that I have a 6 hole drop plate and it shouldn't be on my tow bar?

You can see from this link the 6 hole drop plate... http://www.just-tow.co.uk/towbar-accessories/drop-plates.html

You can see what set up I have from the pics.... can someone point me in the right direction please? I will be towing a 5 berth caravan with an AL-KO set up. I was thinking I needed a plate with 4 holes in bolted to the 4 holes on my tow bar with the bottom one have the tow ball on to give it more strength. But I aint got a clue.

Also....I have put the AL-KO tow ball on the bottom 2 holes in the tow bar and its 21 inches or 53cms from the road to the top of the tow ball.... is this too high for most caravans? I have 265/75/r16 tryres.

Any ideas folks?... I wont compromise safety but rather than take it to a tow specialist thought I would ask first as it may be a simple fix.

 

[mark g]

I once had a steel plate made up to get the tow ball at the right height to tow a small light trailer, that looks very similar, probably a DIY effort.

No way could you tow a caravan with that, you need a Dixon Bate type set up, with these the tow ball can be adjusted to the correct height you need.

Mark,

 

[ratty]

My 110 came with a tow bar and ball... I have had light trailers on but nothing heavy. I have been offered the use of a nice caravan so I needed to replace the old tow ball with a AL-KO tow ball and just swapped them.
I was at my independant Landy mans today and he looked at my tow set up and said the 'plate' looked upside down and towing a caravan would put strain on it and may rip it off

I went home and took the tow ball and plate off..... tried turning it upside down.... tried raising it up to go through the x member... nope it don't fit any other way. I was trying to get 6 bolts in.

Tried some research..... from what I can make out it seems that I have a 6 hole drop plate and it shouldn't be on my tow bar?

You can see from this link the 6 hole drop plate... http://www.just-tow.co.uk/towbar-accessories/drop-plates.html

You can see what set up I have from the pics.... can someone point me in the right direction please? I will be towing a 5 berth caravan with an AL-KO set up. I was thinking I needed a plate with 4 holes in bolted to the 4 holes on my tow bar with the bottom one have the tow ball on to give it more strength. But I aint got a clue.

Also....I have put the AL-KO tow ball on the bottom 2 holes in the tow bar and its 21 inches or 53cms from the road to the top of the tow ball.... is this too high for most caravans? I have 265/75/r16 tryres.

Any ideas folks?... I wont compromise safety but rather than take it to a tow specialist thought I would ask first as it may be a simple fix.

It's only meant to be able to be bolted by 2 of the holes.

After fitting HD springs to my previous 110, the towball was still too high to tow my twin axle (1300kg) caravan even with the drop hitch on the lowest setting. I fitted a 6" drop plate and that allowed it to sit level. I never had any problems with the drop plate bending with the caravan on the back (even after performing a couple of emergency stops). I did however manage to bend it while recovering a vehicle one day (the vehicle was on it's roof in an L shaped barn and it fell through a pit that somebody had tried to hide/fill using 1" wooden planks and a 1" skim of concete. My landy was stopped dead in its tracks as the towed vehicle dropped into the hole. The plate bent out by about 5mm. I then bought 2 of the 6" drop plates and welded them together around the outer edges. I never managed to bend that even when towing trucks up to 10 tons in weight.

 

[fanatic]

It's only meant to be able to be bolted by 2 of the holes.

After fitting HD springs to my previous 110, the towball was still too high to tow my twin axle (1300kg) caravan even with the drop hitch on the lowest setting. I fitted a 6" drop plate and that allowed it to sit level. I never had any problems with the drop plate bending with the caravan on the back (even after performing a couple of emergency stops). I did however manage to bend it while recovering a vehicle one day (the vehicle was on it's roof in an L shaped barn and it fell through a pit that somebody had tried to hide/fill using 1" wooden planks and a 1" skim of concete. My landy was stopped dead in its tracks as the towed vehicle dropped into the hole. The plate bent out by about 5mm. I then bought 2 of the 6" drop plates and welded them together around the outer edges. I never managed to bend that even when towing trucks up to 10 tons in weight.

snigger my suspicions are confirmed-your a pikey in training

 

[ratty]

snigger my suspicions are confirmed-your a pikey in training

Ooooooh. I've been promoted.

 

[fanatic]

Ooooooh. I've been promoted.

So are you or have you started hoarding scrap yet?

 

[ratty]

So are you or have you started hoarding scrap yet?

:kettlepot:snigger

 

[fanatic]

:kettlepot:snigger

Your completely correct and in these hard times it is the way forward

 

[lynall]

The twisting forces on the top two bolts as originally fitted will be enormous.
The plate will bend and almost certainly fail at some point.
I would go with the recomendation above for the proper drop plate set up.
At least 4 m16 bolts to fix the drop plate to the vehicle and it will be the mutts nutts.
Like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DIXON-BATE-TO...CarParts_SM&hash=item2a0fdc44ba#ht_500wt_1156

Lynall

 

[Steve_R1979]

The twisting forces on the top two bolts as originally fitted will be enormous.
The plate will bend and almost certainly fail at some point.
I would go with the recomendation above for the proper drop plate set up.
At least 4 m16 bolts to fix the drop plate to the vehicle and it will be the mutts nutts.
Like this DIXON BATE TOWBALL DROP PLATE | eBay UK

Lynall

Isn't that only half a drop plate???

 

[LeadFarmer]

Or one of these but for a 300tdi?

 

[boydy1989]

my 90 came with it fitted as per pic 7... was a useable height for most things, and plenty strong enough too.

 

[MrJC]

Thanks gents.... someone has mentioned EEC regs and stuff pluss if it fails I could find myself uninsured. I will take it to a tow bar bar after Easter and report back.

 

[lynall]

Isn't that only half a drop plate???

Yes but i was kind of hoping he would get the idea and get googling knowing what to look for, beside it was all i could find on e aby


Lynall

 

[LeadFarmer]

Thanks gents.... someone has mentioned EEC regs and stuff pluss if it fails I could find myself uninsured. I will take it to a tow bar bar after Easter and report back.

I think the EEC regs regarding type approved tow bars only relate to vehicles made after 1998?

 

[300tdistu]

I had a drop plate on my disco just like that, iv towed all sorts with it, a car trailer with a disco on it, never had any problems

I got my plate from the caravan shop £6.99

 

[MrJC]

I had a drop plate on my disco just like that, iv towed all sorts with it, a car trailer with a disco on it, never had any problems

I got my plate from the caravan shop £6.99

Cheers...Did it have 4 bolts above the tow ball or just 2?