Front mount tow bar
Submitted: Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004 at 23:29
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Bob1010
Gday. Has anyone had any experience with a front mounted tow ball to assist in manoevering their caravan. I'm having great fun trying to move the caravan up a narrow driveway - too heavy to turn easily etc. Any stockists you can recommend?
Reply By: Jim Boot - Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004 at 23:53
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004 at 23:53
Having a towball on the front is the best for manuvering I have tried this on a truck for an experiment it worked
well as for the stockist just go to a towbar fitting joint
Jim
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Reply By: Rosco - Bris. - Thursday, Sep 16, 2004 at 07:45
Thursday, Sep 16, 2004 at 07:45
Bob
They certainly make the job easier. Normally offset to the left to allow you to see down the side of the van.
But remember to remove before driving, unless you don't mind attention from the boys in blue.
Cheers
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Reply By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Thursday, Sep 16, 2004 at 15:12
Thursday, Sep 16, 2004 at 15:12
I fitted one of these to my old Maverick. I used to live in a block of units and the space to
park my tandem trailer was a real pain to get to. It was on concrete, so I couldn't manually turn the trailer once it was off the truck.
I fitted the front towbar myself with a couple of bolts (just got a tongue from the wreckers). I took my trailer down to a deserted office car
park on a sunday morning and was amazed at how accurately I could place the trailer between the white lined car spaces, first go!!!
Well worth the effort.
As opposed to putting the hitch on the left side, I would be inclined to have it either in the centre of bullbar or on the right, directly in front of the driver.....that way you have equal distance either side of the van to see around. If you have a narrow passage to go through (like a car port) then you may have to have the hitch in the middle so the overall width of van and truck will not exceed the width of the carport.
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Follow Up By: V8troopie - Thursday, Sep 16, 2004 at 16:41
Thursday, Sep 16, 2004 at 16:41
I have one on my HJ75 troopy, I made a proper front towbar that fits to the chassis members on each side with hi tensile bolts. A set of snatch/towing loops is also welded to this towbar. All is pretty
well out of view under the steel bull bar, just the tow ball sticks out the absolute minimum distance. The tongue is easy to remove if I were asked that by the boys in blue.
As has already been mentioned, its the only way to manouvre a large trailer into a confined space, in my case a 26 ft yacht into my back yard.
The hitch is centrally mounted, I always wondered why some of them are offset mounted but that was explained above. I won't buy that as a good reason, I'm sure the offset mounting makes the steering input unequal and the manouvering harder than it should be.
Front hitch - beats sliced bread as the best thing by a long way :-0
Klaus
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