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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?

         Many thanks for reading, Steve.

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.

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.

             Cheers Steve.

Have a look here, it identifies that...

Two problems using a standard towball.

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!