The towbar I am talking about is the genuine cast steel one genuine toyota, I have seen a picture of one of these broken in half,I have just completed a 14.000 km trip with one of these tow bars towing a two tonne plus caravan and had no problems at all,I was a bit sus before I left ,but I feel if you have your van set up the right way you will have a good result ,
Lance C
TowBall said
10:12 PM Sep 5, 2013
Hi Olley46 - Do you use a WDH. If you do then it " could " break your cast steel receiver on your tow bar if you go through deep gutters or holes. The front of the receiver is strenghtened to take the downward pressure of your van, but the back of the receiver is not. When you put weight Hitch on, it lifts the front of the square tube going through the receiver & the rear end to drop ( on the end thats not strenghtened ) So if you go through a deep gutter, the arms of the WDH try to lift the back of the tow vehicle up, increasing the weight on the rear of the receiver. I made a bracket to bolt on the last chassis cross member so that the square tube that comes through the receiver fits into this bracket which helps take some of the weight off the rear of the receiver. Gee I hope this makes sense to you, but if you PM me, I can send you photo's which will explain the set up better.........
Mark said
02:29 AM Sep 6, 2013
TowBall / Olley46
I know exactly what your talking about and a way to get over this is to tap a washer or a piece of plate steel into the top gap between the tongue and the receiver to take up the gap and that stops the scenario you describe. OR if you are really adventurous, like I did, run a bead of weld on the hitch and grind it back to make a snug fit that takes out the "free play"
TowBall said
05:23 PM Sep 6, 2013
Hi Mark - I've done the same thing with welding a bead around the square tube to stop it moving around while towing - even with the WDH on... back about 2 years ago there was a report of Toyota Prado tow receivers snapping off & losing tongue, WDH & chain anchor points, the van coming adrift from the tug. With the Prado's, the receiver is a cast steel fitting bolted to the cross member of the tow hitch & is only about 5 inches long where the square shaft of the tongue fits into. When a WDH is fitted, it lifts the tow ball end of the tongue up, which lifts the square shaft up against the top of the receiver but makes the rear of the square shaft press down on the back of the receiver, which is not designed to take the pressure & when the rear wheels of your vehicle drop down into a deep gutter or hole, it increases the downward pressure at the rear of the receiver, which MIGHT snap the receiver from rear to front along cast steel receiver. I had only read of 2 times that it was reported to have happened but that was enough for me to make the bracket to take the weight of the end of the square shaft coming out the rear of the receiver.. I have since sold the Prado for a land cruiser 200, so somewhere there is a bloke wondering what the bracket is for, hanging from the rear cross member of the his Prado.
Baz421 said
05:48 PM Sep 6, 2013
TowBall wrote:
Hi Mark - I've done the same thing with welding a bead around the square tube to stop it moving around while towing - even with the WDH on... back about 2 years ago there was a report of Toyota Prado tow receivers snapping off & losing tongue, WDH & chain anchor points, the van coming adrift from the tug. With the Prado's, the receiver is a cast steel fitting bolted to the cross member of the tow hitch & is only about 5 inches long where the square shaft of the tongue fits into. When a WDH is fitted, it lifts the tow ball end of the tongue up, which lifts the square shaft up against the top of the receiver but makes the rear of the square shaft press down on the back of the receiver, which is not designed to take the pressure & when the rear wheels of your vehicle drop down into a deep gutter or hole, it increases the downward pressure at the rear of the receiver, which MIGHT snap the receiver from rear to front along cast steel receiver. I had only read of 2 times that it was reported to have happened but that was enough for me to make the bracket to take the weight of the end of the square shaft coming out the rear of the receiver.. I have since sold the Prado for a land cruiser 200, so somewhere there is a bloke wondering what the bracket is for, hanging from the rear cross member of the his Prado.
Towball - unfortunately your welding (as I read your post) is transverse ie ACROSS the square tubing, and for a structural item such as tow bar assemblies this in NOT ALLOWED and poor engineering practice, and in most jurisdicaions still illegal to the best of my knowledge.
If you have an accident with a transverse weld as you described across steel tubing, I would bet all insurance companies would decline the claim as a "modification" as the police would look to causal factors.
It is most like to crack and fail along the edge of the weld especially if there is any sign of undercut in the weld bead.
In my experience even with road train components welded improperly there were heaps of failures of critical components.
Beware of welding critical components as you may not even be using the correct welding filler (rods or wire) for the grade of steel.
TowBall said
06:27 PM Sep 6, 2013
Hi Baz421 - You are right, I'm a very naughty boy...... Sorry mate, when writing the article, I should not have said " square tubing " - The tongue on my LC200 has a solid steel square shaft & I have only put the bead on the opposite end to the tow ball ( last quarter of an inch at the end of the shaft ) I'm prepared to take the risk.. I would not advise anybody else to do it, so I should not have written it in my post. I forget sometimes that you are not just talking to a mate across the back fence........
Baz421 said
07:58 PM Sep 6, 2013
TowBall wrote:
Hi Baz421 - You are right, I'm a very naughty boy...... Sorry mate, when writing the article, I should not have said " square tubing " - The tongue on my LC200 has a solid steel square shaft & I have only put the bead on the opposite end to the tow ball ( last quarter of an inch at the end of the shaft ) I'm prepared to take the risk.. I would not advise anybody else to do it, so I should not have written it in my post. I forget sometimes that you are not just talking to a mate across the back fence........
Fair enough no problem on that end. Cheers Baz
PeterD said
10:21 PM Sep 11, 2013
Lance, how old is your tug? I think this is one of those things that used to happen but later models have been attended to (just like the 02-03 Patrols.) If you are still concerned then retrofit a HR model.
I have seen a picture of one of these broken in half, Lance C
Lance, the picture was not the one that the Gall brothers broke was it? Part of the problem with that one was the mistreatment they metered out to it. They had covered a lot of bush tracks where the WDH should have definitely have been removed. At any rate, the hitch was vastly improved. If you have a modern one there should not be any problems(unless you mistreat it.)
Lance C
Hi Olley46 - Do you use a WDH. If you do then it " could " break your cast steel receiver on your tow bar if you go through deep gutters or holes. The front of the receiver is strenghtened to take the downward pressure of your van, but the back of the receiver is not. When you put weight Hitch on, it lifts the front of the square tube going through the receiver & the rear end to drop ( on the end thats not strenghtened ) So if you go through a deep gutter, the arms of the WDH try to lift the back of the tow vehicle up, increasing the weight on the rear of the receiver. I made a bracket to bolt on the last chassis cross member so that the square tube that comes through the receiver fits into this bracket which helps take some of the weight off the rear of the receiver. Gee I hope this makes sense to you, but if you PM me, I can send you photo's which will explain the set up better.........
TowBall / Olley46
I know exactly what your talking about and a way to get over this is to tap a washer or a piece of plate steel into the top gap between the tongue and the receiver to take up the gap and that stops the scenario you describe.
OR if you are really adventurous, like I did, run a bead of weld on the hitch and grind it back to make a snug fit that takes out the "free play"
Towball - unfortunately your welding (as I read your post) is transverse ie ACROSS the square tubing, and for a structural item such as tow bar assemblies this in NOT ALLOWED and poor engineering practice, and in most jurisdicaions still illegal to the best of my knowledge.
If you have an accident with a transverse weld as you described across steel tubing, I would bet all insurance companies would decline the claim as a "modification" as the police would look to causal factors.
It is most like to crack and fail along the edge of the weld especially if there is any sign of undercut in the weld bead.
In my experience even with road train components welded improperly there were heaps of failures of critical components.
Beware of welding critical components as you may not even be using the correct welding filler (rods or wire) for the grade of steel.
Fair enough no problem on that end. Cheers Baz
It still happens.
Lance, the picture was not the one that the Gall brothers broke was it? Part of the problem with that one was the mistreatment they metered out to it. They had covered a lot of bush tracks where the WDH should have definitely have been removed. At any rate, the hitch was vastly improved. If you have a modern one there should not be any problems(unless you mistreat it.)