Really appreciated the video on hitch safety, will always check with jockey wheel .I must admit I did trust the green indicator, but after watching this I wont .once again many thanks.
I needed to post a comment of thanks for this video and also for lots of your other videos I have watched. We are day 5 into our first caravan trip which has gone extremely smoothly due, in no small part, to consuming so much good advice on your channel. A great start to many future fun holidays - thank you 😁👍
Thank you. I have been testing the hitch head after I think it's been engaged by raising the jockey wheel but with the stabiliser handle DOWN... I'm off tomorrow and will be doing it the right way with the stabiliser UP from now on 😇
Oh boy wish I had seen your video last month. I left a caravan site and was traveling down a country lane when I heard such a crashing sound. I braked and looked in the mirror and the caravan was coming towards me. Luckily it didn't crash into me and a friend who was following managed to get it back onto the jockey wheel and home I went no harm done to the car or caravan. I was led to believe that once the green button appeared you were safe to travel. Ps I really enjoy the videos.
Good short vid Dan. Appreciate not everyone collects caravan from dealer and always good for a reminder as we forget/get complacent but the dealer showed us this and insisted I demonstrated to him as part of handover.
Thanks for this video, something I didn't think about, as our last Jayco poptop didn't have an ALCO hitch . I have been watching allot of your videos. Thank you for the really good information prior to and now owning a caravan. We have just bought a English caravan in New Zealand. This is something I didn't think of and will now check every time. Only towed it once so far for a test run, before our first holiday in it in October. Keep up the good work.
Good tip. I thought it was OK to check it with the stabiliser engaged but having done that recently I did experience a breakaway, fortunately at a very low speed, so little damage was done. I will follow your guide in future!
Fantastic advice Dan I practice it all the time I check double check and triple check as you can never be to safe thanks for a great video mate as all your videos are awesome
Another excellent video :-) , We have a laminated check list that we go through before setting off , The wife reads through it and i check that everything on it is done..............Just an extra 5 mins before setting off, Thats all it takes to be sure everything is is secure and correctly set up . :-)
An excellent idea Peter. Have a bunch of downloadable guides and supporting blogs / vlogs coming soon to help with the perfect setup, and decamp etc. Take care Dan
i've just worn out the clutch on my brand new car by doing parking/reversing manoeuvres maybe it's best to avoid it all altogether and move the caravan in place by hand is it common for caravan drivers to have issues with clutches, is towing caravans heavy on the clutch?
Excellent and valid tip Dan! We are new to caravanning and having our first trip away next next week...will definitely be doing this before we head off! Love your videos, always interesting and informative :)
Great tip Dan, just one thing please get a separate pigtail fitted for the breakaway cable. I have had an issue with one connected like that getting trapped and not working correctly on our Volvo when we towed.
Great video Dan I think I read this tip years ago in the Haynes caravan manual so it’s something I always do myself only takes a few seconds also the red green indicator on mine doesn’t seem to work sufficiently so I wouldn’t trust it anyway I have got a new one to put on at next service but this test is a better option anyway.
Excellent as always with some great tips. Never thought of lifting the handle like a He-Man, always done the 'winding the jockey wheel against the car' - takes 5 seconds and could save a life. Thanks Michael
Dan, well done, although this is bred and butter stuff, it's well worth that extra couple of minutes doing what you said. I'm afraid even old campaigners like me think we know it all but, we don't, and can become complacent because we have been at it for so long. I believe we can all learn something from the likes of you because you make that extra effort to make us all aware of things that can easily happen when you just take your eyes off the ball for that split second and pay a very heavy price.
Thank you Bernie, you are spot on - its so very easy to forget something especially when hitching up in a hurry. Hopefully by creating a habit of checks its becomes second nature. Thanks for your kind words. Have a great day. Dan
All good points Dan and thanks for caring.Unfortunately this wouldn't have helped in our incident. All those checks were done, but we had a removable tow ball and although I had heard the usual clunk of engagement, it was not locked. Raising the back of the car by the Jockey wheel did not reveal my mistake. Yes it was my fault.When the caravan parted company with the car the ball was still firmly attached to the caravan!!Fortunately we were only a short distance down the lane and the breakaway cable did its job.The insurance paid out £1500 for repairs.
Great tip Dan, we've always done this on our old van but it didn't have the stablizer head, it was interesting to see that it also works & how to do it with the stablizer head fitted. Cheers Jon
I seen a car n caravan playing a brake check game with a truck 2 days ago on m6 by j10 truck pulled in front but plenty of room but he wasn't happy over took in lane 3 pulled in front of truck pressed his brakes shocking to see worst thing he had kids in car good video great advice
Failing to attach the break away cable is an offence , £80 fine I think. (failing to engage a secondary coupling device). Around the gooseneck is perfectly fine. Thanks for this one, although you did appear to be sweating after your He-Man demonstration : )
haha, the sweating was removing the carpets, the clothing and cleaning the grass out of the van while we were unloading the 'van to come home lol. Yes - you are spot on. Also if the 'van does become detached and the breakaway cable breaks, you cannot tow it unless you have a fully operational breakaway cable. But i don't need to tell you this, you are well informed my friend. Take care, hope you are well. Dan
Good advice. Still in process of acquiring a first caravan and the subject of damp quiet frankly terrifies me. I wounder in reality if some of it is condensation caused. Kettles, microwaves, cookers and showers sending moist air through the walls to settle on the outer skin and causing rot. Perhaps Andrew Ditton and your good self could do a video on the subject.
I thought I did not have a breakaway loop on my new towbar but a towbar fitter showed me where it was "hidden" I was told emphatically not to put the breakaway cable around the ball because if the detachable ball fell out the cable would go with it!
A timely reminder for the start of many people's season. Doesn't your hitch handle have another green indicator? I was always told to check both - as well as wind the jockey back down and lift the car. Not sure lifting the weight with the stabiliser handle is a great idea though. The plastic handle is only usually riveted on and probably not designed for that type of movement. Plus you know... bend at the knees. :-)
OK firstly great tips to check you are hitched correctly. But, the breakaway cable is fitted with some kind of Karabiner type fitting that you would see some people back in the day use as key rings. Basically what I'm saying is this has no rating. If the towing hitch was to fail and you are relying on that, it will snap, break or whatever because it will not take the shock loading. I`m not going to explain shock loading here but anyone can google it. Also if the hitch does become detached. I noted you have a swan neck tow bar. What stops the break away cable from leaving your tow ball? My advice would be to use a ratable shackle and attach to a plate on the towing hitch independent from the towing ball. Therefore it cannot jump off after becoming detached from the tow ball. Yes i have seen this before and yes the breakaway cable clasp was not strong enough and failed. Great vid though.....
Hi Fred, the breakaway cable is type approved and is issued by the same manufacturer as the hitch - Alko. as for attaching around the neck of the tow ball, this is acceptable if, like in this case there is no connection point for a breakaway cable, the likely hood of the cable jumping off with the hitch head is unlikely but can happen, in fact there has been 8 recorded occurrences of this taking place in the last 25 years.
@@TheTrudgians 8 recorded occurrences. I wonder how many have not been recorded due to no serious outcome. This is a very debatable topic as more youtube vids are emerging showing runaway caravans. Having said that, your vids are great and very informative. I enjoy them very much.
Thanks for the informative video! I must admit that I do wind down the jockey wheel each time I hitch up to check everything's OK. But as a fairly new caravanner, I'm surprised and even pretty disgusted that even though we're here in the 21st century, the tow bar / hitch manufacturers haven't yet come up with a failsafe system. I mean, how hard can it be?? As a totally non engineering person, I can think of one or two systems to make everything failsafe. Maybe some kind of pin system that would go through the whole mechanism only if all the holes lined up, which would only happen if you were hitched up properly. This could then be locked off with some kind of lock?? I mean guys, how hard is this stuff? Here I am, a total newbie, thinking of this, and you guys haven't thought of it in a hundred years of vehicle towing?? Sorry, this is a bit of a rant but aimed at the manufacturers. I'm very grateful to guys like Dan who highlight this stuff while we wait for the industry to come up with frankly, fairly simple solutions to these problems.
Glad to be of service Tim, and I'm glad you have found our videos helpful. We have always tried to answer the questions that never been answered, yet everyone seems to know the answers and be an expert in that area. Take care Dan
Hi thanks for the advice on all your videos I am very new to caravanning when I say new I mean I pick my 1st caravan up in a weeks time. It's a big twin axel 6 brith not worried about towing as used to towing anyways. Love the video keep it up. Would you be able to do a video on when getting to the site what I need to do i.e. The water stop tap gas corner legs etc thanks
HI, yes indeed. I have a web series (currently in production) of what to do when on site, from arrival to setting up and leaving etc. Thanks for your kind words Dan
Brill advice thank you .I changed my pads today and the stabilizer handle wont engage . what am i doing wrong, the hitch black handle is locked in place and lifts the car , but the red hitch handle wont . any help please , many thanks
This happened to me once luckily it was only at very low speed and only moving from one plot to another I’ll never rush this again, could have been worse
Happened to me also last year. I did not preform this check and i made the mistake of letting a person with no experience help me. Since then i only do this myself when there is nobody around to distract me. Like you it could have been way worse for me
Ride and camp All day great point, our air suspension is deactivated when the towing electrics are connected. I'm not sure if this is standard, but certainly you could do this check with the car ignition off etc. Hope that helps Dan
I will have to look over the settings in the car but when then ignition is off the suspension dose not seem to move at all, it look it solid. We are going home tomorrow from a site so will have a play then.
When testing the hitch has a solid connection, you don’t want the friction pads pressing against the tow ball, this can indicate the tow ball is located, when in fact the friction of the pads is holding the hitch head in place. Test the hitch is correctly located and locked correctly without the friction pads interfering with the test.
Thanks Dan good important Vid, I have a problem that is sorta about the coupling! Hope you can give me your ideas to help? When I am decoupling Van and Car, I wind jockey wheel up (already done like you said when coupling up, checking if car rises) to get car off van, BUT the car still rises ? up quite a bit? and towbll does not drop out of vans tow cup easily. I do this several times but the towball does not drop out? this has happened 3 or 4 times this year and I have had to use a ballpien hammer to knock the ball out (when I have wound the jockey wheel very high so that is comes out with a bit of force, (hammer)). I was wondering if you have a solution? basically the towball does not drop easily from towcup? I always have to use an hammer? there is no grease in cup or ball, it baffles me (the only real problem is winding the jockey wheel so high?
Hi Bryn, great question - without seeing it I can only guess, but is the hitch compressed ? (i.e) you've just reversed with it, or is the caravan on a slight right so its pointing down etc ? these are 2 factors why the van will struggle to uncouple. Failing that I would highly recommend that you get a local engineer out to investigate, it could be that you have a sticky hitch mechanism. Sorry I cannot be more help Dan
Good tip my van came off the car half way up the road after setting off from home. Lost one of the steadies and smashed a hole in the front of the van.
Hi Dan, I have a Winterhoff hitch, so cant do your test without stabiliser engaged. Can I still do the test or is there another test I can do. Thanks Mark
Hi Mark, I've asked around and the general opinion is that you can perform the check in a similar manor to this. So, lower the hitch and when engaged the handle will swing to around 40 degrees. This is the time to do the jockey wheel check, before you close the handle right down. Don't lift the handle, only use the jockey wheel etc. I hope that makes sense, this is something i haven't done - so I'm a little in the dark, but reset assured this is good information from a Winterhoff user. Take care Dan
Well if it were up to me, i would park in a field and do very little... Thats perfect for me. I will share more blogs, hopefully you can get some inspiration from that. Take care Dan
Wrong, there is no dedicated connection point on this installation (pre 2913 spec) For fact checking please refer to this video - thanks. ruclips.net/video/e2IcPIihreI/видео.html
Not quiet correct, we have 2 chains usually attached to the tow bar mounting frame. The breakaway safety wire must be seperately attached to the vehicle, not the tow bar mounting frame, in case of seperation of the tow bar unit and the vehicle. This is the reason Dan should not hook it around the tow ball mount.
Have all these people, who have been buying caravans in this recent trendy caravan ownership spike, been on any courses (eg Caravan Club) or are they so self confident and foolish as to believe there's nothing to learn? I suspect the latter.
Really appreciated the video on hitch safety, will always check with jockey wheel .I must admit I did trust the green indicator, but after watching this I wont .once again many thanks.
I needed to post a comment of thanks for this video and also for lots of your other videos I have watched. We are day 5 into our first caravan trip which has gone extremely smoothly due, in no small part, to consuming so much good advice on your channel. A great start to many future fun holidays - thank you 😁👍
The advice is absolutely spot on. I always wind up the jockey wheel to make sure the caravan is properly hitched. It is the only way to be sure.
Thank you !
If everyone did this simple check, we wouldn't have quite as many incidents of detachments happening.
Take care
Dan
Thank you.
I have been testing the hitch head after I think it's been engaged by raising the jockey wheel but with the stabiliser handle DOWN...
I'm off tomorrow and will be doing it the right way with the stabiliser UP from now on 😇
Oh boy wish I had seen your video last month. I left a caravan site and was traveling down a country lane when I heard such a crashing sound. I braked and looked in the mirror and the caravan was coming towards me. Luckily
it didn't crash into me and a friend who was following managed to get it back onto the jockey wheel and home I went no harm done to the car or caravan. I was led to believe that once the green button appeared you were safe to travel. Ps I really enjoy the videos.
What a really sound tip! It’s such a simple check and I will be definitely doing it without fail from now on.
Good short vid Dan. Appreciate not everyone collects caravan from dealer and always good for a reminder as we forget/get complacent but the dealer showed us this and insisted I demonstrated to him as part of handover.
As a new caravanner and yet to embark on our trip, this is a really useful video. Thanks Dan.
Thank you Tony,
Take care
Dan
Thanks for this video, something I didn't think about, as our last Jayco poptop didn't have an ALCO hitch . I have been watching allot of your videos. Thank you for the really good information prior to and now owning a caravan. We have just bought a English caravan in New Zealand. This is something I didn't think of and will now check every time. Only towed it once so far for a test run, before our first holiday in it in October. Keep up the good work.
Brilliant idea it's my first time out tomorrow attaching caravan to tow bar I will be doing that brilliant idea thanks PhillipWood walsall
Good tip. I thought it was OK to check it with the stabiliser engaged but having done that recently I did experience a breakaway, fortunately at a very low speed, so little damage was done. I will follow your guide in future!
Great tips, good video, noticed that you don't have any safety chains,here in Australia you must have at least one safety chain
Very well presented and very informative.
Thank you very much for this I'm brand new at this and I find this very reassuring information thanks for your time.
Fantastic advice Dan I practice it all the time I check double check and triple check as you can never be to safe thanks for a great video mate as all your videos are awesome
Another excellent video :-) , We have a laminated check list that we go through before setting off , The wife reads through it and i check that everything on it is done..............Just an extra 5 mins before setting off, Thats all it takes to be sure everything is is secure and correctly set up . :-)
An excellent idea Peter.
Have a bunch of downloadable guides and supporting blogs / vlogs coming soon to help with the perfect setup, and decamp etc.
Take care
Dan
very good video and advice i needed this assurance because i'm about to tow a caravan for the first time with my family
Glad to be of service,
thanks
Dan
i've just worn out the clutch on my brand new car by doing parking/reversing manoeuvres maybe it's best to avoid it all altogether and move the caravan in place by hand is it common for caravan drivers to have issues with clutches, is towing caravans heavy on the clutch?
👌👌👌👍.....Well, been caravanning for8/9 rears now..Never checked this. Will do in future. 👍
Excellent and valid tip Dan! We are new to caravanning and having our first trip away next next week...will definitely be doing this before we head off! Love your videos, always interesting and informative :)
Great tip Dan, just one thing please get a separate pigtail fitted for the breakaway cable. I have had an issue with one connected like that getting trapped and not working correctly on our Volvo when we towed.
Very good tip, lets hope every caravan/trailer user does this. Keep the tips coming.
brilliant tip as usual, i only go off green button, not anymore.cheers
Great job Dan. A quick & easy check well worth doing every time. Keep up the good work 8-)
Thanks Chris,
A useful check that not everyone checks !
Take care
Dan
Pick our first caravan up on Saturday thanks for this
Just for your info in Australia we are required to also chain our vans to the car as a safety measure
Great video Dan I think I read this tip years ago in the Haynes caravan manual so it’s something I always do myself only takes a few seconds also the red green indicator on mine doesn’t seem to work sufficiently so I wouldn’t trust it anyway I have got a new one to put on at next service but this test is a better option anyway.
Excellent as always with some great tips. Never thought of lifting the handle like a He-Man, always done the 'winding the jockey wheel against the car' - takes 5 seconds and could save a life.
Thanks
Michael
Thank you Michael,
Glad to be of service.
Take care
Dan
Great reminder! thanks for keeping us safe!
Glad to be of service.
Take care
Dan
Dan, well done, although this is bred and butter stuff, it's well worth that extra couple of minutes doing what you said. I'm afraid even old campaigners like me think we know it all but, we don't, and can become complacent because we have been at it for so long. I believe we can all learn something from the likes of you because you make that extra effort to make us all aware of things that can easily happen when you just take your eyes off the ball for that split second and pay a very heavy price.
Thank you Bernie, you are spot on - its so very easy to forget something especially when hitching up in a hurry. Hopefully by creating a habit of checks its becomes second nature.
Thanks for your kind words.
Have a great day.
Dan
All good points Dan and thanks for caring.Unfortunately this wouldn't have helped in our incident. All those checks were done, but we had a removable tow ball and although I had heard the usual clunk of engagement, it was not locked. Raising the back of the car by the Jockey wheel did not reveal my mistake. Yes it was my fault.When the caravan parted company with the car the ball was still firmly attached to the caravan!!Fortunately we were only a short distance down the lane and the breakaway cable did its job.The insurance paid out £1500 for repairs.
Ohhh, sorry to hear this Andy. Glad you got it sorted in the end.
Take care
Dan
Great tip Dan, we've always done this on our old van but it didn't have the stablizer head, it was interesting to see that it also works & how to do it with the stablizer head fitted.
Cheers
Jon
Another very useful vid Dan. Thanks. I always have check but with the stabliser engaged, so will change my method now. Cheers Jon
Glad to be of service Jon
Take care
Dan
I seen a car n caravan playing a brake check game with a truck 2 days ago on m6 by j10 truck pulled in front but plenty of room but he wasn't happy over took in lane 3 pulled in front of truck pressed his brakes shocking to see worst thing he had kids in car good video great advice
I did my B+E license this week and if you don't do this check you fail the test. Definitely important!
Failing to attach the break away cable is an offence , £80 fine I think. (failing to engage a secondary coupling device). Around the gooseneck is perfectly fine. Thanks for this one, although you did appear to be sweating after your He-Man demonstration : )
haha, the sweating was removing the carpets, the clothing and cleaning the grass out of the van while we were unloading the 'van to come home lol.
Yes - you are spot on. Also if the 'van does become detached and the breakaway cable breaks, you cannot tow it unless you have a fully operational breakaway cable. But i don't need to tell you this, you are well informed my friend.
Take care, hope you are well.
Dan
Best video on RUclips thank you
Good advice. Still in process of acquiring a first caravan and the subject of damp quiet frankly terrifies me. I wounder in reality if some of it is condensation caused. Kettles, microwaves, cookers and showers sending moist air through the walls to settle on the outer skin and causing rot. Perhaps Andrew Ditton and your good self could do a video on the subject.
I thought I did not have a breakaway loop on my new towbar but a towbar fitter showed me where it was "hidden" I was told emphatically not to put the breakaway cable around the ball because if the detachable ball fell out the cable would go with it!
Thanks for sharing this. I will do this now
Simple advice but really important thanks for the video!
A timely reminder for the start of many people's season.
Doesn't your hitch handle have another green indicator? I was always told to check both - as well as wind the jockey back down and lift the car. Not sure lifting the weight with the stabiliser handle is a great idea though. The plastic handle is only usually riveted on and probably not designed for that type of movement. Plus you know... bend at the knees. :-)
Hitching up this morning I will be doing this
Another great video. cheers Dan
OK firstly great tips to check you are hitched correctly. But, the breakaway cable is fitted with some kind of Karabiner type fitting that you would see some people back in the day use as key rings. Basically what I'm saying is this has no rating. If the towing hitch was to fail and you are relying on that, it will snap, break or whatever because it will not take the shock loading. I`m not going to explain shock loading here but anyone can google it. Also if the hitch does become detached. I noted you have a swan neck tow bar. What stops the break away cable from leaving your tow ball? My advice would be to use a ratable shackle and attach to a plate on the towing hitch independent from the towing ball. Therefore it cannot jump off after becoming detached from the tow ball. Yes i have seen this before and yes the breakaway cable clasp was not strong enough and failed. Great vid though.....
Hi Fred, the breakaway cable is type approved and is issued by the same manufacturer as the hitch - Alko. as for attaching around the neck of the tow ball, this is acceptable if, like in this case there is no connection point for a breakaway cable, the likely hood of the cable jumping off with the hitch head is unlikely but can happen, in fact there has been 8 recorded occurrences of this taking place in the last 25 years.
@@TheTrudgians 8 recorded occurrences. I wonder how many have not been recorded due to no serious outcome. This is a very debatable topic as more youtube vids are emerging showing runaway caravans. Having said that, your vids are great and very informative. I enjoy them very much.
awesome tip. thanks from a newbie
Thanks for the informative video! I must admit that I do wind down the jockey wheel each time I hitch up to check everything's OK. But as a fairly new caravanner, I'm surprised and even pretty disgusted that even though we're here in the 21st century, the tow bar / hitch manufacturers haven't yet come up with a failsafe system. I mean, how hard can it be?? As a totally non engineering person, I can think of one or two systems to make everything failsafe. Maybe some kind of pin system that would go through the whole mechanism only if all the holes lined up, which would only happen if you were hitched up properly. This could then be locked off with some kind of lock?? I mean guys, how hard is this stuff? Here I am, a total newbie, thinking of this, and you guys haven't thought of it in a hundred years of vehicle towing?? Sorry, this is a bit of a rant but aimed at the manufacturers. I'm very grateful to guys like Dan who highlight this stuff while we wait for the industry to come up with frankly, fairly simple solutions to these problems.
Glad to be of service Tim, and I'm glad you have found our videos helpful. We have always tried to answer the questions that never been answered, yet everyone seems to know the answers and be an expert in that area.
Take care
Dan
Hi thanks for the advice on all your videos I am very new to caravanning when I say new I mean I pick my 1st caravan up in a weeks time. It's a big twin axel 6 brith not worried about towing as used to towing anyways. Love the video keep it up.
Would you be able to do a video on when getting to the site what I need to do i.e. The water stop tap gas corner legs etc thanks
HI, yes indeed. I have a web series (currently in production) of what to do when on site, from arrival to setting up and leaving etc.
Thanks for your kind words
Dan
Brill advice thank you .I changed my pads today and the stabilizer handle wont engage . what am i doing wrong, the hitch black handle is locked in place and lifts the car , but the red hitch handle wont . any help please , many thanks
This happened to me once luckily it was only at very low speed and only moving from one plot to another
I’ll never rush this again, could have been worse
Happened to me also last year. I did not preform this check and i made the mistake of letting a person with no experience help me. Since then i only do this myself when there is nobody around to distract me. Like you it could have been way worse for me
Thanks dan👍
Hello good video as always, what happens if you have auto adjusting air suspension on you 4x4 that just continues to adjust?
Ride and camp All day great point, our air suspension is deactivated when the towing electrics are connected. I'm not sure if this is standard, but certainly you could do this check with the car ignition off etc.
Hope that helps
Dan
I will have to look over the settings in the car but when then ignition is off the suspension dose not seem to move at all, it look it solid. We are going home tomorrow from a site so will have a play then.
Ride and camp All day let me know how you get on !! Cheers
Dan
Hello, keeping the engine running works with the air suspension in auto! :)! Keep up all the good videos.
What’s the logic behind unlocking the stabiliser for pumping up the jockey wheel please ? I don’t do this when I do this test
When testing the hitch has a solid connection, you don’t want the friction pads pressing against the tow ball, this can indicate the tow ball is located, when in fact the friction of the pads is holding the hitch head in place.
Test the hitch is correctly located and locked correctly without the friction pads interfering with the test.
@@TheTrudgians good shout, thanks !
Good job 👏👍
I thought you had to have a pig tail to connect the breakaway cable to not the towball
Thanks Dan good important Vid, I have a problem that is sorta about the coupling! Hope you can give me your ideas to help?
When I am decoupling Van and Car, I wind jockey wheel up (already done like you said when coupling up, checking if car rises) to get car off van, BUT the car still rises ? up quite a bit? and towbll does not drop out of vans tow cup easily.
I do this several times but the towball does not drop out? this has happened 3 or 4 times this year and I have had to use a ballpien hammer to knock the ball out (when I have wound the jockey wheel very high so that is comes out with a bit of force, (hammer)).
I was wondering if you have a solution? basically the towball does not drop easily from towcup? I always have to use an hammer? there is no grease in cup or ball, it baffles me (the only real problem is winding the jockey wheel so high?
Hi Bryn, great question - without seeing it I can only guess, but is the hitch compressed ? (i.e) you've just reversed with it, or is the caravan on a slight right so its pointing down etc ? these are 2 factors why the van will struggle to uncouple. Failing that I would highly recommend that you get a local engineer out to investigate, it could be that you have a sticky hitch mechanism.
Sorry I cannot be more help
Dan
Good tip my van came off the car half way up the road after setting off from home. Lost one of the steadies and smashed a hole in the front of the van.
Im glad this has helped, and demonstrated how easy it is to check.
Take care
Dan
My stabilizer has twice now popped up whilst driving any ideas why this is happening?
Thanks.
Hi Dan,
I have a Winterhoff hitch, so cant do your test without stabiliser engaged. Can I still do the test or is there another test I can do.
Thanks Mark
Hi Mark, I've asked around and the general opinion is that you can perform the check in a similar manor to this. So, lower the hitch and when engaged the handle will swing to around 40 degrees. This is the time to do the jockey wheel check, before you close the handle right down. Don't lift the handle, only use the jockey wheel etc.
I hope that makes sense, this is something i haven't done - so I'm a little in the dark, but reset assured this is good information from a Winterhoff user.
Take care
Dan
Thanks Dan , I will try it out . Going away on the 12th so will let you know.
My parents bought a new caravan today!
Good video mate
Thank you
can you do a video how on how to get the best out of a holiday
Well if it were up to me, i would park in a field and do very little... Thats perfect for me.
I will share more blogs, hopefully you can get some inspiration from that.
Take care
Dan
Good vidio great info.
thanks
Good vid thanks
Good
Wow!!!
Please note, the way he attaches the break away cable is illegal, must be clipped on to car
Wrong, there is no dedicated connection point on this installation (pre 2913 spec) For fact checking please refer to this video - thanks. ruclips.net/video/e2IcPIihreI/видео.html
It about time Uk followed Aussies. We have to have two chins attached to the car's chassis.
Not quiet correct, we have 2 chains usually attached to the tow bar mounting frame. The breakaway safety wire must be seperately attached to the vehicle, not the tow bar mounting frame, in case of seperation of the tow bar unit and the vehicle. This is the reason Dan should not hook it around the tow ball mount.
Have all these people, who have been buying caravans in this recent trendy caravan ownership spike, been on any courses (eg Caravan Club) or are they so self confident and foolish as to believe there's nothing to learn? I suspect the latter.
Fail tbh needs eyelets on car itself