Towbar Accessories
The first step in towing is the vehicle towbar, which is often forgotten after the initial fitting. Good maintenance of the tow hitch and electrics is just as important as maintenance of a trailer.
Over time, it may become necessary to replacement worn parts of a towbar and the electrics such as the sockets, socket mounting plates and towball. Towbars have become part of the MOT so it is even more important to ensure that is it working fully.
We at Western Towing have lots of options to make you towbar even more versatile, including towing jaws, pin and ball combinations and bumper protector plates.
There are many towbar accessories available including towballs, towball covers, coupling bolts, Towing, bumper guides, keys for detachable towbars and electrical parts.
If you have an Al-ko red stabiliser on your caravan you may find a standard flange towball will not fit correctly. This is because the stabiliser needs an extended towball which is taller and longer than a standard towball. We have both an Al-ko original towball and a copy version. Both come with a black powder coating to protect against rust. This must be removed before it is used because the fiction pads inside the stabiliser head will become damaged otherwise.
Many plant and utility trailers are supplied with a ring type coupling. This may mean that you need to replace you existing towball with a combination pin and ball hitch. It is very common for the pin part to be mislaid. Don’t worry; we also have the replacement pins.
There is a wide variety of towbar electrical cables available. Each is sold by the metre and cut to order, so if you put 10 in the quantity you will receive 1 x 10 metre length of cable.
There is a lot of legalisation surround towbars. Since 1997 all car towbars must be type approved, which means they shouldn’t modified too much. You are allowed to fit a spacer up to 20mm but you are not allowed to change the height of the towball. This causes excess twist on the towbar. If you are in any doubt, please contact us.
Detachable or removable swan neck bars come with keys to prevent them from being stolen. As with all keys these can get lost. It is good practice to make a note of the key numbers as soon as possible as these cannot be recovered from either the towbar or the swan neck barrel lock once the key is lost.