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        General >> Give/Need advice to/from others >> Tow bar?
        
(Message started by: harry.m1byt on Oct 28^th, 2006, 9:39pm)

Title: Tow bar?
Post by harry.m1byt on Oct 28^th, 2006, 9:39pm

The car was bought with a recently fitted tow bar, I'm just wondering if the bar is upto the job of towing a maximum load, as the mounting does not seem as robust as its predecessor on my Granada....

The bar itself is very well built and commercially made from heavy welded box sections. I have no concerns about the bar itself, only where it passes its load to on the car.

The main part is a box section, which runs side to side of the box sections of the chassis, fixed with two bolts each side. It also fixes in the middle to a couple of points in the lower rear of the boot (no bolts showing in the boot itself). All three fixing points have been reinforced. In other words nothing passes under the tank.

From memory my Granada's tow bar (Witter I think) had a fore and aft centre bar which took the load well forward to a fixing point somewhere close to the diff, passing under the fuel tank.

I have regularly used the centre bar to jack the entire rear end of the Granada up.

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by Spannerdemon on Oct 28^th, 2006, 10:05pm

Mine has got a centre bar which runs from the towball, via a bracket, to the two front mounting bolts on the diff. Your mounting points in the boot are probably either under your spare wheel or almost directly behind the bumper in the spare wheel well.

This Witter info

http://www.witter-towbars.co.uk/towbars/vehicle_technical_details.aspx?VehicleTowbarID=390

will help you to identify the bracket that fits to the diff (trans-axle). Mine is a Towsure Bar, but almost the same.

I tow a 4 berth 17 foot caravan, and I have to say that I too would not be happy with the bar as you have described it as it would seem to lack the strength needed to pull much more than a trailer.

It's probably OK for light trailer use, (and maybe that's all it was used for), but for anything heavier, I'd be thinking seriously about changing it.

hope this helps you. :)

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by harry.m1byt on Oct 28^th, 2006, 11:55pm

That does help confirm my suspicions, but I still puzzled by the sheer amount of metal they used in its construction.

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by Ian_John on Oct 29^th, 2006, 12:27am

I have seen tow bars on ebay advertised as trailer bars for the scorpio. They are cheaper than a full tow bar and do not fix to the diff. Only fit for light loads I think. Ian

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by harry.m1byt on Oct 29^th, 2006, 12:58am

Item 130038560750 on ebay would seem to be similar, though not quite as well fixed to the chassis memebrs at the sides - mine has brackets which spread the load along the chassis members.

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by solarpanel on Oct 29^th, 2006, 9:44am

hi does you bar have the horn type ball or the standard two bolt job,ive 3 scorpios with bars and the horn types fitted to a cossie and ive pulled well heavy things with it no problem and thats bolted to floor etc and not to diff, got ford plate on it

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by harry.m1byt on Oct 29^th, 2006, 10:32am

It has a bolt on tow ball.

Title: Re: Tow bar?
Post by solarpanel on Oct 29^th, 2006, 11:30am

not the same then mine comes off if you got the key