Towbars for Motor Vehicles
June 19th, 2009 by Byron Jonas, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
The vast network of highways and roadways that crisscross the country attract countless motorists out onto the pavement every year, many of them yearning for some adventure or thrill just on the other side of the horizon. It is with that notion of adventure that many people end up choosing to bring with them as much of their possessions (or at least the necessary ones) as possible.
Of course, there is only so much that a person can fit into their ordinary vehicle, which is why many people choose to buy a trailer of one sort or another.
Towing a trailer properly isn’t quite as simple as it seems, however, and it’s important to make sure that your towbar meets certain standards of performance. Also known as a tow hitch, your towbar needs to be able to manage high degrees of stress and put up with pulling a significant load, able to guarantee that the vehicle and the trailer move more or less in sync with each other.
Of course, it isn’t just any kind of towbar that can perform that way. You need to make sure that the towbar you have installed already, or that you want to install, meets the standards of the industry and furthermore to hear what a professional in the field has to say before deciding what kind to choose and what sort of trailer to use with it.
There are two basic forms of towbar on the market: one version which includes a towball mounted on a tow bracket, and another which incorporates a tow pin and jaw along with a trailer loop. The former variety will allow for greater articulation of the trailer’s and car’s movements, whereas the latter variety is a little more rigid (though if there is enough slack in the pin the same result can be achieved, more or less).
Receiver towbars are a variety of towbar that include a removable tow ball and are included in some larger vehicles on the factory line, while fixed towbars are ones which are built right onto the car’s frame and come in heavy duty vehicles. Either way, the towbar is attached right to the vehicle chassis to ensure that the load being towed is properly resisted and doesn’t damage the vehicle. For optimal distribution of weight during towing, special square sockets exist, and using these helps improve the safety in a towing operation and decrease the risk of an accident happening.
The most crucial aspect of using your towbar comes at the moment of loading the tow ball, and it is of the utmost importance that horizontal and vertical loading be carried out with precision. Even the slightest error here can have bad results, and if you do not know what you have to do in this regard then be sure to consult somebody that does have experience in loading hitches, thereby reducing the risk of hurting others on the road or incurring damage to property.
For the absolute safest in towbars, there is a special variety referred to as a Lunette Ring. This model is comprised of a pintle hook and the Lunette Ring itself, and these are best for people towing large loads and/or operating on rough ground such as in rural areas.
