Tow bar for home fitting??

TRXnMe · May 20, 2012

OK, I just wasted the morning trying to fit a Bosal tow bar to the wife's Freebie, the bolts for the cross beam didn't line up, they were out by a good 5mm and I'm not about to grind that much metal off of a towbar, so it's going back on Monday.

I'd never heard of the make before, but the eBay seller has a good reputation so I took a calculated risk and hoped to save a few quid, it's not paid off though

So, has anyone else fitted their own towbar? If so, what was the make?

I've fitted a few to different cars in the past, but never to a Land Rover before.

I see Thule, Witter, Tow Sure etc for sale, but don't want to find out they are a good name made in the far east by folk who can't use a jig to keep the bits lined up

We want to use the thing to tow the 'van on our holiday weekend after next, give my old 75 a holiday as well, so confidence in the next one fitting is now essential

Thanks in advance.

Chaser · May 20, 2012

you did remove the original towing eye didn't you?

it's not unusual to have to pry a tow bar over one way or another to get a start on those middle bolts

TRXnMe · May 20, 2012

Chaser said:
you did remove the original towing eye didn't you?

it's not unusual to have to pry a tow bar over one way or another to get a start on those middle bolts

According to the destructons with it, it's supposed to fit with the towing eye in place, but it's out of line when usinng the other side as a datum anyway.

I tried to fit it from three starting points, both with and without the towing eye on the vehicle (it's a b1tch to get on and off with the bumper in place).

Method 1, as per the destructions; attempt to bolt up the tow bar using the cross member bolt holes as 'first contact', only one hole at a time lines up, the holes on the end are miles out of line.

Method 2, start at the towing eye end, this leaves the one cross member bolt hole in line, the other half obscured and a gap between the other end of the tow bar and the body.

Method 3, same as above, but from the 'datum' end without the towing eye, still wont line up with the cross member holes and the gap on the other end is too big to close (towing eye in place) and too small for the spacer (towing eye off).

I'm not going to hang 1.6 tonnes off a tow bar if it doesn't at least make good contact to the vehicle body at the main contact points. None of the ones I've fitted before have given me cause for concern like this.

Chaser · May 20, 2012

Instructions with LR towbars say remove the towing eye..... sounds like you may have a bad one but don't expect any to be a tight fit between chassis rails, there has to be a few mil for manufacturing tolerances and jiggle room. It should pull up ok unless the gap is particularly wide.

Up to you if you want to change bars but it could save some hassle to file out a hole or 2 if your only a couple of mil out

longdog · May 20, 2012

Chaser said:
Instructions with LR towbars say remove the towing eye..... sounds like you may have a bad one but don't expect any to be a tight fit between chassis rails, there has to be a few mil for manufacturing tolerances and jiggle room. It should pull up ok unless the gap is particularly wide.

Up to you if you want to change bars but it could save some hassle to file out a hole or 2 if your only a couple of mil out

The instructions for LR tow bars say the towing eye stays in place, you only remove and discard the 3 bolts on the inside of the chassis rail, the towing eye and the 3 bolts on the outside of the cassisis rail stay on.
TOPIx - TOPIx

Richard Martin · May 20, 2012

I fitted a Witter tow bar to mine. I had to remove the towing eye. It was all straight forward, including removing the towing eye.

Chaser · May 20, 2012

longdog said:
The instructions for LR tow bars say the towing eye stays in place, you only remove and discard the 3 bolts on the inside of the chassis rail, the towing eye and the 3 bolts on the outside of the cassisis rail stay on.
TOPIx - TOPIx

Yes there have been various versions and amendments of their towbars, some that need complete removal of the towing eye, some have loose packings for the crossmember bolts others have welded brackets.
At the end of the day some common sense is needed as there will be tolerances to compensate for in each individual case.

TRXnMe · May 21, 2012

The One I have needed about 6mm filing out and even then one end was going to have a pretty big gap, I set the torque wrench to the 69 NM required and it clicked before the gap was closed up, I could still get a full set of feeler guages into the gap, I don't rate that as a few mm out of tolerance.

The instructions with the kit don't actually refer to the towing eye at all, no mention of any need to remove it, or even the three bolts on the inside of it.

I was rather too good a fit to make me think it's for another car though. We may have been unfortunate enough to have a tow bar at the bottom spec and a Freebie at the top end of manufacturing spec, but what ever the cause, it does not fit

Between the wife and myself we've spent a about 45 minutes on the phone to the supplier today, without any sensible progress. Hoping te wife can get it sorted for a refund tomorrow.

I'm hoping we get a refund with enough time left then to get another tow bar, I'll probably get a Witter, I've fitted a few of those before and had the same experience with them that James Martin had, they may need a little tap, or a jack in the right place, but they go on without filing or grinding, nice to know they fit the Freebie as well.

TRXnMe · May 21, 2012

Richard Martin said:
I fitted a Witter tow bar to mine. I had to remove the towing eye. It was all straight forward, including removing the towing eye.

How did you get the outer three bolts out? with my hands it was a right so and so to get in with a ratchet, fortunately I had a good pair of assembly gloves on, or I'd have probably taken a lot of skin off, got some nice bruises coming in now

As I've got to do it again at some time I'll take any advice

teddywood1 · May 22, 2012

do not drill any holes in the tow bar if you have your warrenty is null and void also it should fit tight up against the chassie if not send it back better still get the sell to send a parcel van to come and pick it up it will save you postage

Diesel Do · May 22, 2012

I fitted a witter one at the weekend to my three door. Had to bin the tow eye. That was the hardest part! It bolted straight on. Just eight bolts!
£75 off fleabay

never fitted still in its box original invoice in there for £130. Basically it's a decent one for the price of a cheap and cheerful one

Richard Martin · May 22, 2012

TRXnMe said:
How did you get the outer three bolts out? with my hands it was a right so and so to get in with a ratchet, fortunately I had a good pair of assembly gloves on, or I'd have probably taken a lot of skin off, got some nice bruises coming in now

As I've got to do it again at some time I'll take any advice

I'm sorry, I don't remember the detail, but I don't recall any particular problems removing the towing eye. I wouldn't have used any special tools, just spanners and sockets

Diesel Do · May 22, 2012

Richard Martin said:
I'm sorry, I don't remember the detail, but I don't recall any particular problems removing the towing eye. I wouldn't have used any special tools, just spanners and sockets

There's just not much room to swing a ratchet. That's all. I had to use a ratchet all the way out cos they were all tight! Just need a bit of patience. That was the bit that took the longest for me.

TRXnMe · May 22, 2012

Thanks for the feedback on the Witter.

The supplier has put the wife in touch with the manufacturer, who is determined to tell me where I went wrong tomorrow. I've sent them the photos of the misalignment and am expectingn to have to find time tomorrow to get away from my desk and talk to the guy. I'd prefer it if they just gave the wife the money back and let us get a Witter sorted out to fit this weekend, as it is it looks like we are stuffed and I'll be using the 75 to tow instead off the Freebie.

Hard lesson (re)learned, don't try and save a quid over stuff you KNOW is good, also good feed back doesn't mean good products for sale

mjrimmer · May 23, 2012

You bought it off e-bay ........just do a I want to return as item not as described claim, and get yer money back. If they dont comply you'll always win and get yer money back anyway

TRXnMe · May 23, 2012

Te wife actually did better than that, although we bought if via eay she rang up and paid with her credit card, so we will get the money back that way if necessary.

We are trying to reasonable with them, if it's a mistake then it's a mistake, no reason for us to get horrible and start to leave negative feedback.

Saying that, we were promised a call or other contact today to sort it out after I sent them the photos showing why it didn't fit, no contact

The wife will try and sort out a return tomorrow, if that doesn't work we'll go the credit card route, return it and ask the card company to get the money back for us. We can't leave it too long or distance selling regs get complicated.

Annoyingly one of the main reasons we bought the freebie was to tow as my R75 is getting a little long in the tooth (130k plus now) and we'd hoped to retire it from long distance towing, that's now not going to happen

Tow bar for home fitting??

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