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hi guys, thanks very much for all your helpful replies to my 'newbie' postings. have just receievd some caravan club info and it talks about hitch heights with ref to 4x4's.

We have a 2002 ford ranger pick up which had a tow bar on when we got it. We have checked the electrics and it all works fine but..the info page i was reading mentioned problems with some 4 x 4's as the tow bars are sometimes higher than normal to give off road clearance. how do we know if this applies to us? is there a standard tow bar height which we can check ours with?

many thanks again, hopefully in the coming months i might be able to answer some other people postings...eventually!

The main thing is that the caravan should be travelling level and so you need to ensure you set the towball at the correct height to suit.  Set up on a level piece of ground and adjust the jockey wheel to make the caravan sit level.

With a tape measure, measure from the ground to the crown or top of the tow hitch (the bit that actually sits on the towball itself). That is the height you need to set your towball. It's normally between 430 and 450mm.

To set your towball to that height might mean you have to buy a dropper plate which has a series of holes in and you bolt this to the actual towbar so that one of the sets of holes lines up with the required towball height. So unbolt the actual towball hitch, line up the dropper plate and then fit the towball hitch back on and bolt up. You may need to buy extended bolts but all the gear can be obtained from a decent caravan dealers. The only requirement for bolting up is that the bolts must be tightened to FT standard. F****** Tight!!

As Rumple says, the key isn't to get an exact height, but to get a height that suits your setup.

Ford Ranger bars aren't generally type-approved, but might be, so you might want to check your bar. If it's not, you can play with drop-plates. If it is, steer well clear of using drop-plates - the same goes for any vehicle. You'll be breaking the law if you stick a drop-plate on most type-approved bars so don't be tempted, even in search of a perfect towing setup.