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Hi there    

Can anybody help me out? I have recently bought a small trailer to transport our ever increasing camping equipment but I 'm concerned about the hitch undoing itself will driving along.  There is a hole on the trailer and I'd like to put some sort of padlock through the hole, this would do the trick and I could drive with peace of mind.  Is there such a padlock out there? If so, where can I purchase one?

Ta

Dai Bach

If the trailer is hitch is new and put on properly it should not come un-hitched, having said that I used to worry about our ERDE 102 coming off till I had towed it a few times and it did'nt, ours has a small brass hitch lock but I use it more as a security thing when the trailers unhitched from the car

david and jenny

It is never good practice to have the trailer locked onto the car whilst towing.

Towsure sell (or used to sell) a secondary coupling cable for trailers which when used with a bracket attached to the towbar should keep both together in the event of the hitch failing.

AllanD

Thanks for all your comments, very helpful and reassurring.

have a good weekend!

Dai Bach

No idea why it should be a legal requirement to have a safety cable on an unbraked trailer - probably some EU thing to bring us into line. (Braked trailers a little different - the "break-away" cable then is to pull the trailer brakes on should it come uncoupled - cable designed to pull on brakes & then snap, not designed to support the trailer).

Certainly as a family we've been caravanning since the 1960's & have never come across a properly hitched trailer coming uncoupled as long as you make sure the coupling has clicked into place properly. Indeed in cases where for eg a caravan has overturned, it's not unknown for the actual coupling still to be attached to the car and for the overturned caravan to be lifting the back end of the car, just as a measure of how strong & secure the coupling is.

Bear in mind the coupling doesn't just rest on the towball, it "clicks" into place and is locked onto it & won't come off unless the coupling handle is lifted. So it can't accidentally come off. Indeed to help you be sure it's clicked properly into place, on some hitches the handle is at an angle when unhitched, then snaps down to the horizontal as you couple it to the towball, to confirm it's firmly in place. As a further measure, once coupled we always used to test it by trying to lift it off without lifting the handle. Invariably the back of the car just lifted with it.

Actually, having a cable is a great idea.  I have never had it un-hitch, but when I had my small boat ( un-braked trailer ), I have had one snap.  If it hadn't of had the secondary cable it would have gone all the way down the road on its own.  Instead we just got a crack in the bumper which was a small price to pay for what could have happened.

The hitch locks do ware over time.  I always replace mine every couple of years including the towball.  There is some measurement you can take to see if they have worn beyond certain limites but since it is so cheap I just replace the hitch and tow-ball every 2 or 3 years.  Always make sure that the towball and hitch is greased as this helps prevent the ware.

Quote: Originally posted by nigel16 on 10/4/2006

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I beleive that it is now law to have your trailer on a secondary cable.

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