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Hi,

I was wondering if someone could help, we have just bought our 1st caravan and need to buy a hitch lock & stabiliser.  Are all makes suitable? (We have an ABI Ace Courier by the way!) Or will only certain types fit?

Many thanks in advance

Jenny

Hi Jenny     We have an Alko stabiliser and find it easy to use.  Quite a lot of new vans now come with them fitted as standard apparently.   I think they can go on any van.  A caravan dealer will be able to advise you, or one of the mailorder places.   You may need to change your tow ball, depending on what yours is like.  Ours was ok so I can't tell you much about that.  Once you have your stabiliser you can choose a hitch lock to fit.  Alko also do them but there are several other makes too.

Welcome to ukcs by the way!      Lots of help & advice available from all the friendly people on here.

Hiya and welcome,

Combined hitchlock/stabiliser will fit any caravan....... ususally supplied with appropriate spacers.  Issue is to have the correct towbar, to allow the hitch "grab" the towbar properly. 

Other issue I've met is where the hitchlock can foul against a sparewheel on the back of 4x4s.... so, we changed our's for a Winterhoff, which poses no problem at all.

Regards.  J.

Hi

thanks for your help, we are going to our local caravanning shop at the weekend to see what they advise with regards to our towbar.

Jen

Jen: I have for sale a Milenco hitch lock and a Bulldog stabiliser that I used on my ABI ACE pioneer up to last month you can have both for £20 saving around £80 if you purchase new. I am in the Liverpool area so it would depend on where you are as your location is not listed. let me know if you are interested?

Bibjog - is Winterhoff a make of hitchlock/stabiliser, are they expensive and do you know of a supplier?

We are new to caravanning too and need both a hitchlock and stabiliser.  A friend of ours spoke highly of the Alko but I've read somewhere on here that they are no good for freelanders because of the spare wheel, so as this is the type of vehicle we have we need an alternative solution. 

Hi

Thanks for all of your replies, we have purchased an ALKO -hitchlock and stabiliser in one.  We had the problem that our car is leased through my husbands company and therefore could not attach a stabiliser to the towbar as the car has to be returned in the same condition as it was leased, but the ALKO will fit without "defacing" the towbaw!

Thanks again for all your help.

Jenny & Brent

When choosing a hitchlock make sure you go for one that can be used to lock the van to the tow vehicle - not all can as we found out the hard way!!!     So now we have two........a very secure one for when we are parked up uncoupled and a cheaper one for when the van needs locking to the tug.

As for stabilisers - personally I think they are a waste of time and do nothing other than make people tow faster!