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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!!

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

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

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 )