Saturday, Apr 14, 2018 at 19:53
Frank, I was talking about examining the attachment points and the style of attachment of the towbar, to see if it really was that light in that area, and the 70kgs really is the correct manufacturers limit.
I'm not insinuating, as Peter suggests, to try and strengthen the attachment points or change the style of attachment - that is both illegal and pointless.
But a double
check with the Pug dealer and an examination of the attachment points and method of attachment may soon make it clear whether the towbar really is a lightweight European effort, and not capable of any reasonable towball weight - or someone has made a mistake, and the towbar is very capable.
Most European towbars are lightweight, and European roads are very much smoother than most Australian roads, leading to a reduced requirement for absorbing road shocks, via the towball load capacity rating.
One has to keep in mind, it's just not the static towball load that is important, it's the ability of the towbar to take a hammering from that towball load.
When you drive on rough roads, that contain regular dips, sunken culverts, potholes, and pavement undulations, the towbar is getting reefed up and down regularly, with enormous force.
It's the equivalent of you inserting a long length of pipe in the towbar assembly and heaving it up and down, see-sawing it, like you're trying to break a piece of wire, by twitching it back and
forth.
This is the constant up and down forces that all towbars have to endure - and that's why towbar attachment points and methods need to be substantial - and the bolts and nuts properly torqued and kept secure.
A lot of European cars towbars are only designed to haul those piddly little 5 x 3 trailers with the wheelbarrow wheels - and they do that, on roads that are as smooth as our freeways.
I've driven around Europe a fair bit, and I can assure you, their rural road surfaces are better than our major freeways road surfaces, on average.
Their freeways make our freeways look like the
Oodnadatta Track.
As a result, most European vehicles are never really designed for the mounting of Australian towbars, nor are their "approved" towbars really satisfactory for Australian road conditions.
In fact, I've seen a few towbars on local vehicles that I reckon only just scraped through local strength requirements.
This is why I suggested a personal inspection to see what the towbar arrangement consists of.
Often, lying on your back and getting a good close look at the structural arrangements on the underside, that most people never bother to examine, can be a real eye-opener.
And of course, as I mentioned, getting the manufacturers towball weight limit directly from the dealers mouth, is the best way of acquiring correct
information.
Cheers, Ron.
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