Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Proper Towbar for Your Vehicle

By Byron Jonas


Countless motor vehicle owners are drawn out to the road every day, every year, in search of the promise lying just over the horizon. In pursuit of that goal, many vehicle owners are intent on being able to bring along as much of their property with them as possible.

That's where having a towbar installed on your vehicle comes into play: to allow for the use of a trailer behind one's vehicle and thus expand the volume of things that travel with you on the road.

To properly tow a trailer, it is necessary to have a standard and strong towbar, also known as a tow hitch, installed that can deal with heavy loads and ensure that the vehicle and the trailer move in relative synchrony, preventing excessive disarticulation between the movements of each.

Not any towbar will perform that way, of course. Beyond making sure that your towbar fulfills certain industry standards it is essential that you hear what a professional has to say on the matter before you have a towbar installed on your car or buy a vehicle because of its in-built towbar.

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.

Loading the tow ball is a delicate procedure and has to be done just right in both the horizontal and vertical sense, otherwise there is greater risk of something going awry. If you do not have experience loading the tow ball, then get the help and advice of somebody that does, a decision that will not only help avoid damages to your own property and vehicles but also avoid hurting other people out on the roadways.

There is hardly a towbar safer than the Lunette Ring variety of coupling. This variety is made up by the Lunette Ring itself and the pintle hook on the vehicle; these couplings are recommended for people towing trailers on uneven or rugged terrain such as out in the country.




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