Club 80-90 Forums

My van has a tow bar of unknown brand. Works OK but does not have a detachable ball so not that useful for adapting for other purposes.

Is a Westfalia tow bar the best for recovery? And do they have a a detachable ball or are they the swan neck variety?

Westfalia bars are swan neck style. The stock Syncro item has a weird 4 bolt arrangement.

Thanks Poshy. I'll look for a Syncro one then.

2wd version is a welded-in swan-neck, I got one recently for the SA. Heavy as a very heavy thing, massively over-engineered, typical Westfalia!

syncropatrick wrote:My van has a tow bar of unknown brand. Works OK but does not have a detachable ball so not that useful for adapting for other purposes.

Is a Westfalia tow bar the best for recovery? And do they have a a detachable ball or are they the swan neck variety?

Hi Patrick,

I have been learning about how to recover a stuck vehicle using towing and winching correctly over the last few weeks. One thing that has been flagged up from the experts is that a tow bar should never be used for off road recovery. I have been collecting info about the subject to help educate myself for a trip we are planning in a year or two's time.

Hope this helps

jed

I'll second the caution on tow bars, though it is my understanding the issue is when securing the strap or cable to the tow ball itself. The swan neck essentially becomes a lever. The factory recovery points on the rear (loops) are welded on and secured directly to the frame end - great for hard pulls. I use the towing gear on my LandCruiser for the heaviest recoveries, but in the US it is a completely different setup. The US tow setups use a reinforced square tube and removable tongue with a ball. I have an ARB branded massive loop that fits in the square tube and then the pull is in a straight line (no lever effect) and against the entire rear structure of the vehicle - a bulletproof pulling setup.

The other issue with the Van tow setups I have seen is the center is unsupported. The bar mounts at its tips only. For recovery, attach strap only at the solid mounts, not out in the middle where flexing is easy to create.

X 3 ..... The Westfalia towbar is as over engineered as an over engineered thing as Ian says but doesn't have recovery loops where it mounts to the van like the standard bumper brackets. If you find a Wesfalia Syncro specific towbar you will need to get these added - as most of us should!

syncropaddy wrote:The Westfalia towbar... doesn't have recovery loops where it mounts to the van like the standard bumper brackets. If you find a Wesfalia Syncro specific towbar you will need to get these added - as most of us should!

All of which is a bit strange for an OEM approved accessory. Why did Westfalia not consider it necessary to put the recovery eye on the RH bracket? Was it simply that back then it was considered acceptable to conduct a recovery using the towing hitch in place of the eye, so they didn't fit one?

Cheers fellas for replies.

Sounds like I'm looking for two different things then:-

1) Does my tow bar have standard mountings so I can use it for other purposes such as sandwiching a motorbike rack between van and ball? The tow bar came with the van from Belgium so may not be a UK standard, if such a thing exists.
Here's a pic of mine showing the two bolts underneath the cross bar the ball is attached to:-

I was under the impression that there is normally a vertical sandwich between which one adds the extra item.


2) A better way when doing extracting than attaching to the ball. Without beefing up the tow bar what should we be using then Jed and Doug?

Nope not a normal UK style mount..

And of course any rack that fits on a std bolt of tow ball wont go on a syncro westy one either...

II'm looking at a recovery solution for the rear... but with everything else thats going on at present.. most things are on the back boiler...

that pic just gave me an idea of what to do with all the broken pigtails i have.

all kinds of ideas on this site
http://www.expeditionexchange.com/dixonbate/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
no idea where you would find this kind of stuff in the uk though

Dixon Bate is a UK company, although they have just been taken over apparently.

http://www.dixonbate.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All this issue with tow ball recovery really scares me when I think some of the things I've pulled with one.

Steve

I doubt kenetic recovery straps were commercially available when the oem tow assembley was designed, and I doubt any would withstand the compound load developed when using one at maximum velocity without stressing one or other fixing point (or weld integrity after 20 years).
After being stuck down in a muddy hole waiting for recovery (even with additional anti twist bars bolted through the bash plate), your mind does wander to these questions
Much Better still to weld one onto the rail it's self with a fish plate to spread the load.
Has anyone done this?

think there was the story on here where some one used the tow ball to recover some one towing them from the front, the tow ball snapped on the thin part under the ball went through the wind screen and killed the guy's partner!

im looking to make a 2" receiver system that's not just for towing but for

recovery shackle
spare wheel carrier
rear box holder/ shelf
bike rack
quick release winch
etc

i will mount it to the tow bar set up, and it might even be just for other stuff, and i will keep the tow ball how it is for now, due to time, etc so the 2" receiver hitch would be to one side!
i would also have a mount
on the front for the same equipment, can you put a bike rack on the front of your vehicle in the uk??

http://www.tiregate.com/hg_series_0.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

looking at this thread im also thinking just make up some bracket's and weld some eye's on !!