After months of prep, looking for the right 1st van, changing the tow car, taking a towing course, buying new things Friday was our 1st trip. Everything was fab, all set up friends checked we had done everything ok off we went kids thrilled. 15 mins into journey doing about 10mph approaching a junction the caravan detached from the car and veered accross the road straight into a wall!!!!!!
Car had new tow bar, and caravan had alko, no one was injured thank god we were left rather shook up an the kids very upset.
My friend towed the my damaged caravan to the garage and it was rock solid on his car, i took his van back home an this was the same so niether tow bar or alko faulty, we had done some back roads with bend etc to get off our estate so why did it not come off before??
Insurance have inspected and written it off, the company have said this can happen an they deal with upto 10 cases a year which has left me a little nervous!! gonna have to re think the summer hols and start the search all over again for the ideal van (which we thought we had)
What a bad piece of luck! Really feel for you. How did the break away cable perform, obviously did'nt do it's job?
I have read on here that even with the green indicator showing on alko stabilizer they can still detach. They have suggested winding the jockey wheel up and check the back end of the car lifts slightly.
Glad you are still gonna look for another van, this will only make you extra careful and i'm sure you won't have another event like this.
Good luck!!
------------- Feb-Setthorns New Forest.
April-C&CC Certified Site, Corfe, Dorset.
The rest of 2012-Who knows??
I really feel for you,It must have been a scarey moment to say the least, dont let this put you off and make sure the insurance pay up the due amount.
Also shows that the 15 seconds it takes to wind jokey wheel back down until its slightly lifting tow vehicle may be the best spent 15 seconds.. may this be proof to everyone else that caravan may and can come off..
so what happend to breakaway cable ??
so glad that no one was hurt.. 10 claims for this sort of accident is very very low (considering just how many caravans are on the road) so the chance of it happening again is very unlikly especialy if youve done the checks first
So sorry to read what has happened to you. I'm going to be paranoid now. Our wheel fell off on the M5 and wrote our caravan off after we'd had it for just over 3 months and spent 4 months finding the right one.
We're not having much luck with our insurers (E&L). Be prepared to not accept the first or even 2nd offer. Who were you insured with?
We got our new one last Friday and are off to the south of france tomorrow. Hubby was very nervous Friday and checked the nuts when we collected our caravan and checked again before we left the site.
I hope you find another caravan soon and enjoy many happy times in your new caravan.
would just like to echo everyone else in saying sorry you had the trouble but glad your all ok.
my old lady thinks i have some kind of ocd, as i check the hitch at least twice before we set off and on all our tin tent trips with a 2 hour towing drive or more,i like to check the hitch at least once on route ,usually at the leg stretch/ toilet stop
------------- no tin tent outings booked as yet ,just another cruise in Sept' booked so far
Sorry to hear of you problems. Someone also here who checks with the jockey wheel each trip just to lift the back of the car - not to say that wouldn;t still have happened but it does gives some peace of mind
littlebasher probably has the answer , Alko hitches with stabiliser MUST have a ball suitable for the greater angle of movement that is required . Please have a look at the Al-Ko guide for the correct information , it is not always followed by sellers of caravans .
Sorry to here about your accident, can i ask did your tow car have a alko tow ball on it, if it was a standard towball that could be the reason it came off xx Gill
Are you sure you had an alko towball ? you cant use a normal towball with an alko stabiliser ,luckily someone told us this because the caravan dealer did not !
Sorry about your van .hope the insurance all goes through without a hitch ( pun not intended )
Hi All, we had an alko ball fitted as we changed the car an it did not have an alko, we knew that we wanted a caravan with one on or would be fitting one if not as felt more confident. The insurance company said this can happen although not often maybe 10 instances a year so out of the number of people who caravan the chances are very slim. Our friends are very experienced caravanners so made sure we did everything to the book
ALKO produce standard 50mm 2 bolt flange towballs and extended neck 2 bolt flange towballs .
I hope the the OP had the correct one fitted because a standard ALKO 50mm Towball would not be suitable for an ALKO stabiliser hence the detachment
Sorry to hear about your accident. We collected our in laws caravan with them the other day and they were told that they needed a different tow ball fitting to their car to accommodate the alko hitch. We asked the guy to check ours and that too needed changing. The caravan place changed them both free of charge and after reading this thread I'm so glad they did.
Thats really bad luck mate, its always easy to do things differently given hindsight, but this thread has made 3 of my freinds aware of the different tow hitches. One of them is sat with me and has just measured his towball and it needs changing. He says thanks very much, you might just have saved him from the same fate.
Credit to Alan hardware for the link.
This forum is proving to be a mine of valuable information, a credit to the organisers and of course the members.
------------- Never look down at anybody....
.....unless to offer a hand, to help them up
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Topic: 1st Trip Disaster
