H&H faceache posts

[holeymoley]

I have H & H on faceache. There’s an article about a lady who’s detachable tow bar fell off while towing. A horrible experience for everyone involved but all I see is the majority of posts slating the towing set up. Has anyone else seen it? So many people jumping on the bandwagon about which car she’s using and assuming it’s a totally different model and that it’s unsuitable for towing without knowing anything about it. Can people not learn from it and show a bit of compassion instead of acting ‘they know best’ without knowing the facts. Bit of a moan but I think the poor girl’s getting grief for nothing.

 

[Bernster]

I haven’t seen that but I did see an article about detachable tow bars. Mine has one but I’ve never used it. Wanted the option to borrow a trailer if needed. But it makes sense that they wouldn’t be as strong as permanent ones so I won’t use mine anyway, to tow a horse anyway !

Oh and yes, people should stop being so damn mean on social media.

 

[RHM]

I saw that and thought people were being quite insensitive!
I would be interested to hear who here tows with a detachable tow bar, I have one fitted on my company car which I was planning on using as soon as I get round to booking in some lessons. Certainly thinking twice about it now!

 

[Shay]

The nature of social media I'm afraid. We say things at the keyboard that we would perhaps not dream of saying face to face. We all need to be kinder!

 

[Red-1]

I think some of the insensitivity is because people are horrified at what happened and are justifying to themselves why it would never happen to them. Insensitive but more about them than about the person who it happened to.

I did read about the detachable towers a few years back and would not now personally use one. However, I can understand that many people will not have heard about them and, when you buy an expensive tow vehicle, you expect it to do the job it is sold to do, so no blame there.

 

[Velcrobum]

The report is in H&H News section of this website.

 

[Rowreach]

What I saw was a lot of people highlighting an issue which you’d hope would never have happened in the first place. People are discussing the incident, I don’t see much slating of the individual.

Don’t tow with a removable tow bar.

Attach your breakaway correctly (and use chain not cable).

Maintain your towing set up properly.

Tow with an appropriate vehicle.

Other countries like the US and Australia have much better set ups for towing than we do. It’s probably time we adopted some of their ideas.

 

[Hack4fun]

Nothing like an armchair to become an instant expert.

 

[BlackRider]

We towed with a detachable tow bar for a while - I hated it and worried it wasn't stable enough.

It was a Honda CRV - and the design of the back door meant detachable was the only option, as you couldn't open the door when the tow bar was on. (Why design a 4X4 without thinking this through!).

 

[JFTDWS]

The first thing I did when I got mine was to replace the detachable tow bar with a proper, permanent one. TBH I'm amazed people still tow with detachables given how many incidents have been publicised over the years, and I still see people defending them as fine

I've no idea about the article in question, or whatever set up was used there, as I've not seen it. I find H&H's posts on facebook quite grating most of the time.

 

[JFTDWS]

Attach your breakaway correctly (and use chain not cable).

Just as a PSA, and because I've never heard of a chain breakaway (and now thing I need to acquire such a thing...) can you elaborate on this please?

 

[Rowreach]

Just as a PSA, and because I've never heard of a chain breakaway (and now thing I need to acquire such a thing...) can you elaborate on this please?

Often seen on livestock trailers, simply replacing the cable with good quality chain and heavy duty clips and anchoring to a fixed point on the towing vehicle or the main part of a fixed tow hitch (not over the ball as some do). American ones have two chains which has always seemed sensible to me.

You can get them in agri machinery places.

Oh and to add to my list above, if you have a locking hitch, lock it ?

 

[Velcrobum]

Quick google gives this

https://www.commercialfleet.org/fleet-faq/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-towing-breakaway-cable

I do not tow as have a lorry albeit very old and tatty.

 

[JFTDWS]

Quick google gives this

https://www.commercialfleet.org/fleet-faq/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-towing-breakaway-cable

Yes, but that's just about cables which are normal, not replacing them with chains as RR suggests...

Often seen on livestock trailers, simply replacing the cable with good quality chain and heavy duty clips and anchoring to a fixed point on the towing vehicle or the main part of a fixed tow hitch (not over the ball as some do). American ones have two chains which has always seemed sensible to me.

You can get them in agri machinery places.

I'll have to get one fitted next time it goes in for a service!

 

[Reacher]

We towed with a detachable tow bar for a while - I hated it and worried it wasn't stable enough.

It was a Honda CRV - and the design of the back door meant detachable was the only option, as you couldn't open the door when the tow bar was on. (Why design a 4X4 without thinking this through!).

Yes I have one of these ? when we bought the car we didn’t realise there was one fitted. Am going to take it to the garage to be checked

 

[Tiddlypom]

Oh and to add to my list above, if you have a locking hitch, lock it ?

I was told by an Ifor dealer NOT to lock the hitch to the tow ball whilst towing in case of an accident, it may be necessary for bystanders to unhitch the trailer in a rush if the tow vehicle went up in flames, for instance . The lock is for security when parked.

The verified accounts of these ‘detachable’ tow bars coming adrift have been doing the rounds for years. Those of us who follow such things would never use one, but the damn things are still on sale. I liken it to the many problems associated with worming with Equest Pramox, the stuff is still on sale to despite many reports of adverse reactions to it.

Meanwhile, a good solid tow bar is the way to go. Functional, albeit not pretty, and it works.



Have to give a wry laugh that after the trailer detaching incident reported in H&H, they got a tow from a friend in another vehicle to the hunt meet and cracked on with their day! Most of us would be rather shaken up and just wanting to get home, to check the horses over thoroughly once back etc....

 

[Reacher]

I think mine is a Honda CRV towbar, question is can a solid one be fitted? I gather they interfere with the parking sensor

 

[Tiddlypom]

I can’t comment on a Honda CRV, but the parking sensors (and reversing camera) still work fine on the Shogun with the fixed towbar in place.

 

[ester]

Last time I looked the car was 3 different vehicles.

 

[holeymoley]

Last time I looked the car was 3 different vehicles.

this was more what I was meaning. By all means absolutely I would never tow with a detachable tow bar, and hopefully all these incidents will highlight that fact and why not to. It was more so that people had just assumed which car it was without knowing anything about it or the car and then proceeded to claim it was unsafe... the point in which was that the tow bar was unsafe, not the car which was perfectly fine!

 

[Tiddlypom]

Lots of uninformed comments on there . The driver states that the vehicle is a BMW X5 and is rated to tow 3.5t. She says that there was nowhere to loop the safety braking cable to apart from the tow ball itself, which was no help as the tow ball came off.

How can a detachable towbar assembly pass safety ratings if there is no fixed point to attach the breakaway cable to? It should never be looped over the tow ball, though many folk do just that.

Also worrying is that there are a number or folk congratulating themselves that it would never happen to them as they’ve had their detachable towballs welded on.

 

[RHM]

It is really worrying, that they are deemed road worthy if they are this dangerous?! Mine was factory fitted and they didn’t offer the option of a fixed tow bar (toyota). Is this something mechanics would be able to check if I take it into a garage?

 

[Rowreach]

I was told by an Ifor dealer NOT to lock the hitch to the tow ball whilst towing in case of an accident, it may be necessary for bystanders to unhitch the trailer in a rush if the tow vehicle went up in flames, for instance . The lock is for security when parked.

I suppose it's a question of what is most likely to happen, the trailer bouncing off going over a pothole, which might be prevented by the hitch being locked, or detaching the trailer in an emergency, in which case the hitchlock can easily be broken by whacking it with a wrench. Besides, you'd have to get the horses out before you could detach it, in which case you would probably not worry too much about the trailer if the vehicle was in flames.

 

[holeymoley]

It’s never occurred to me to lock the hitch while it’s attached. I didn’t even know you could do that!

 

[GoldenWillow]

I think mine is a Honda CRV towbar, question is can a solid one be fitted? I gather they interfere with the parking sensor

We have had solid towbars fitted to both our CRV's, 2008 and 2014 models with no problems. 2014 has parking sensors and it doesn't interfere with them at all.

 

[Meredith]

We had a V reg CRV with a detachable tow bar. It was never used for towing a horse trailer as the weight was insufficient.
We did tow a small trailer, I think 6’ x 4’, with hay in it. It was fine but when OH was fitting the tow bar in he said
“ I think you have to be careful with this, I can pull the bar out.”
The locking mechanism had seized up and wasn’t working. OH fixed it. He always checked the bar by tugging at it before we used it after that.

 

[Reacher]

thanks Golden Willow , that's good to know. It's a 2013 .

That's worrying, Meredith, sounds very dangerous - I wonder if the mechanism is the same

 

[asmp]

Lots of uninformed comments on there . The driver states that the vehicle is a BMW X5 and is rated to tow 3.5t. She says that there was nowhere to loop the safety braking cable to apart from the tow ball itself, which was no help as the tow ball came off.

How can a detachable towbar assembly pass safety ratings if there is no fixed point to attach the breakaway cable to? It should never be looped over the tow ball, though many folk do just that.

Also worrying is that there are a number or folk congratulating themselves that it would never happen to them as they’ve had their detachable towballs welded on.

Confess we owned an X5 for some years with a detachable towbar and travelled often for hours towing one horse. I remember at a Trec training day they had a towing specialist who told me off for looping the cable around the swan neck (I seem to remember there wasn’t anywhere else to attach it). Thankfully nothing happened to us and we sold the car and now have permanent towbars.

 

[LiquidMetal]

I just have to say, as a Canadian I find the regulations around towing in the UK absolutely wild. I used to own a Honda CRV and the thought of towing a horse trailer with it using a detachable tow bar is beyond imagination to me. What my husband and I bought as fuel efficient, grocery getter SUV would be considered a great tow vehicle over there! It makes me chuckle. The cultural difference is just so huge in this area. Though I do wish lorries would catch on as a thing in North America.

For comparison, I tow a 2 horse aluminum bumper pull with a 1 ton truck. Truck is overkill for trailer but I want to get a larger trailer in future so we bought a bigger truck than we needed. I use a locking hitch (locked every time), 2 safety chains that cross under the hitch and an emergency brake cable. The ball I use is solid steel and probably weighs 30 lbs itself. It is mounted to the permanent towing receiver on my truck through the use of a thick steel pin. The setup of my truck and trailer is the standard requirement for any towing vehicle in Canada.

 

[phizz4]

I don't think that there is anything fundamentally unsafe about detachable towbars as long as they are checked and greased regularly and fitted correctly. i have towed a caravan for hundreds of miles with one and had no problems. The manufacturer has to submit them for rigorous testing to get them through EC Type Approval. But, they must be maintained and fitted correctly! As for interfering with reversing sensors, if fitted by a qualified supplier or as a factory fit, the wiring takes into account the towbar being picked up by the sensors.