DG wrote:

Out of interest can anyone get me any alternative stats of road deaths caused by any trailer detachments for any car since 2007 .... I can find reports for 1 person and it was in 2007.

MOT towbar failures on all cars are consistently below .01% since 2009

MOT failures for car brakes on the other hand have been averagely 11%

What shall we worry more about eh??

Still, a little hysteria never hurt anyone eh

Deanicuss wrote:

I think once I buy one I will be fitting a fixed tow bar after reading some of the horror stories, although a lot is probably down to user error.

WOODY179 wrote:

Have you seen any evidence to make a statement of that kind, if so can we see it too I have seen a D3 driving along with the key still visible in the tow bar - is that not user error or do you class that as LR's fault as well?

gensetsteve wrote:

They have only been testing towbars for the last year

Since 27th April 2009 ..so that's 5 years

Robbie wrote:

Hi countrywide,

I think you are mistaken as the key does little to prevent theft but is designed to be an indicator of correctly installed bar and when installed fully it prevents the lock from being pushed back.

Well, that is what it is supposed to do.

Discoed wrote:

When I fit my tow-bar it is tight and there is no movement however once I heave on it I suspect the locking pin starts to 'walk' back into the hitch. This is consistent with your findings. I am going top oil my pin and the socket and see if this reduced friction leads to less 'walking'

The pin should really lock out at it's full extent


**update**

if its fitted and waggled it quickly loosens however you can eradicate this play by rotation the green handle clockwise - turn upwards towards the bumper as far as it will go - the hitch then tightens as the pin re engages with the hole and then it seems far less likely to work loose again. Can anyone else repeat this observation?

I have done this several times now and really given the removable some stick with a bar type stabiliser attached and it no longer works loose despite my best efforts with a lot of leverage!

Gareth wrote:

On mine I can still partly turn the green handle even with the key removed. There is a small plastic stop on the red ring behind the green handle that stops it going to the full release position when the key is removed. If the key was left in, in the unlock position it could go further and the bar could detach.

This is worrying because the weight of a trailer pressing down on the locking pawl can push it back, because it is angled to slide inwards under pressure. If you look at my previous picture, you can see a polished area on the pawl which is caused by the constant pushing in and out under the constant load-on load-off situation a trailer or caravan will exert on the bracket.