Hi there can anyone out there put my mind at rest? I am about to fit a tow bar to my honda crv with supplied tow ball. however I have just read on a towing web site that if you have an alko trailer you must only use an alko tow ball. The unit I tow is a 1995 pennine pullman FC which I think I am right in saying has an alko tow hitch. What is the difference between an alko tow ball and a standard tow ball? In the past I have towed this unit with a standard tow hitch fitted to my citroen picasso. Was I wrong to do this?
Hiya, its summat to do with needing a narrower bit just below the actual ball, ordinary ones stop the Al-Ko fully locking on. Have to remove all the paint coating as well and never use any grease. Have you by any chance got one of the new shape CRV's cos we're having a lot of problems with ours?
Its a mark 2 model (O2 reg). Have only just picked it up this week. But can let you know how it goes. What problems are you having and what make is the towbar?
Hi,
We've just bought our first caravan & thought we'd got everything ready but it was fitted with an alko towing hitch & our car had a new shiny towing ball. The guy took ours off & gave us his off his car just to make sure we were all fitted correctly. -Bless him. Then he gave us our new ball back.
A detachable Witters with the Al-Ko towball. Only used it once but very happy with it. New CRV has some design faults. The shock absorbers were replaced only yesterday ( car only 10 days old) and have gone again today!!! Wind noise +++ on drivers window, needed an extra new filler, known problem. Turbo whine so that you think there's a police car or ambulance following you. New air box fitted but made no difference. Niggly annoying things that will get sorted and then we'll be very happy.
Oooh Purplehat, it sounds a nightmare. Hasn't it put you off. My new Scenic has had a few minor faults i sorted but then the turbo went & since getting it back 2weeks ago i don't really want to drive it. The car itself is ideal for my with the space & little extra stuff for the kids ( little secret floor compartments, under seat drawers & built in window blinds) but it's really put me off this car.
I have to say though the new CRV looks loooovely.
There are alko hitches and Alko Stabiliser hitches. With the ordinary Alko hitch which most trailers built 1995 will have on any tow ball will do. With the satbiliser hitch there is a need for a bit more clearance in various places so the Alko Towball is required.
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Thanks for reply Bill. I reckon that my camper has an ordinary Alko hitch as I would imagine a stabiliser hitch would be a lot bulkier. I am just about to look on google images in a minute to try and find picture. May put picture of my tow hitch on forum so that someone with better knowledge on this subject can tell me one way or the other.
There are many towballs on the market that are not suitable for use with AL-KO stabilisers as they do not have the necessary length of neck to allow the correct amount of axial rotation.
These tow balls should
NOT be used with an AL-KO stabiliser. Use of
this type of ball could result in the vehicles becoming in-hitched, your
stabiliser being damaged and/or a very serious accident happening.... this refers to standard tow balls, so definitely worth a look if unsure !
I had an old sierra diesel which pulled my van from london to john o groats to norwich and wales over every mountain happily. Unfortunately it got nicked and I'm fitting a towbar to my "new car" I have a alko 1300 and didnt know till then about a special alko towball. My sierra had a normal towball and covered 1,000's miles. Was I lucky or is it that necessary? I got a normal towball free with towbar, it moves through a good angle when connected to the stabiliser. I really dont want to spend another £20 for a "fancy" towball. It is a bit of emotional blackmail or have any readers actually had an incident with the stabiliser bottoming and coming off?
The first is the amount of clearance under the towball, however it's only in one set of circumstances that it becomes a problem. This is where the car is going up a steep ramp while the van is still coming down a steep ramp, ie, the loading ramp of a ferry at certain tides, (that's where the problem was first found), or it could simply be a steep hollow in a road somewhere. Once all the clearance is taken up, the hitch will try to force itself off the tow ball and even if it does not succeed, it will damage the locking mechanism and could lead to an accident at some point further down the line.
The second problem is constant, this is the relatively soft zinc coating on a standard ball, the pads will tear into this and the bits become embedded in the pads. Even if this does not impair the hitches performance requiring the pads to be replaced, it will certainly make it very noisy in operation!
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Topic: Alko tow ball?
just to make sure we were all fitted correctly. -Bless him. Then he gave us our new ball back. 
