Message Forums

Greetings,

Our caravan is now back on our drive after being on its own holiday for the past five weeks.

The Reason? A tale of woe that I will relate in order that EVERYONE can be made aware in the hope that it will not happen to anyone else.

In April I took our 'van, a perfectly maintained 2007 Swift to two agents in Somerset to obtain Insurance quotes for a slight rearrangement I had made to the offside panel when in Spain the previous month.

All was going well until my car developed a fault, (Don't ask. The bill was eye watering)

I have breakdown cover and the first Breakdown Company were on the scene in no time, getting the car and caravan to their depot. Because of new rules re, tachographs, that firm couldn't take me the whole way home so an exchange was conducted part way.

Up to then there had been no drama. The car was conveyed on the low loader with the 'van being towed behind.

After the transfer and before setting off both the driver of the truck and me checked that the 'van was correctly attached and the handbrake was not applied and off we went.

Arriving home I got out of the cab, went to the rear of the truck and discovered that the handbrake on the caravan was in the ON position. However, it was pitch black and the caravan was detached from the truck and put on the drive. The handbrake didn't work and the motormover was put on to prevent movement.

Now I know I could have checked everything but this was at the end of a very long day and quite frankly I just wanted to get inside and open a bottle (or three!)

On going outside later and on applying the Alko wheel lock it became apparent that there was something seriously wrong in the wheel/axel department. The wheels were covered in some form of dust and on shining the torch through the alloys I discovered that where the brakes should have been there was very little metal at all. The drums on one side had virtually disappeared and on the other they were very discoloured.

Those of you with any IQ will have worked out that somewhere on the way home the handbrake had applied itself. The question for me was how and why.

On ringing around the following day I was immediately informed by more than one source that it is apparently a known thing for caravans to self apply their handbrakes when being towed by large commercial vehicles (such as breakdown trucks?) Its something to do with the heavy duty nature of the chassis and suspension of the vehicles.

However, it was a mate who put me on the right road. He pointed out to me that in the plethora of info that comes with a new van is a document from Alko. It states in the document that any Alko chassis trailer has to be attached to a Alko towball and should this not be the case then the warranty by Alko will be nil and void. It's something to do with the specific design of the Alko ball and what will happen to the hitch if it's attached to anything else.

My mind went back to the tow home and I recalled that the breakdown truck was not fitted with an Alko towball but an 'ordinary' model with a spacer to prevent contact with the rear of the truck..

As a result of the damage and good information from a local Caravan repairer who unfortunately couldn't do the job on our drive (Although he wanted to) I was able to get the 'van to a local Swift dealer (thanks, Darren at Atlantic Caravans, Doublebois,Cornwall) who got us back on the road in the shortest possible time. 

The repair was carried out as an Insurance claim and they will be persuing our claim for carriage to dealer and loss of excess to the Insurance Co. of the Breakdown Co.

The Moral.

If you are unlucky enough to breakdown and need the services of a tow Co.

1. Make sure that if they attach your 'van to their truck, it has an Alko extended towball (if applicable) If your van has an Alko chassis and the towtruck hasn't got a suitable ball then refuse the service citing the above information.

2. Try to prevent the self application of the handbrake. Could I suggest a 'bungee' attached to the handbrake and wrapped under the chassis.

I offer the above in the spirit of friendship and advice. I apologise for it's length and will post it elsewhere.

Thank you for that information, We have an Al-Ko hitch, so this is very useful info.

One other thing I have been told regarding getting hitched up by a tow truck, is something to do with no grease getting on your stabiliser (if you have one), and that the ball of the tow truck should be cleaned well with a clean cloth to remove any grease before getting hitched up to the caravan.

Greetings Mrs Mop,

We have a small trailer that is inherently 'greasy'

Can I suggest a supermarket shopping bag, folded in four and put on the ball before hooking upwill prevent gunge getting onto your friction pads. 

Quote: Originally posted by Dave+Maria on 28/5/2010

---

What I dont get is, why do you have to use an AL-KO ball with an AL-KO hitch, the size of ball is the same, and if you use a spacer you get the clearance.

---

Greetings Grampian,

It's something to do with the Alko towball being 'undercut'. There is a clear warning of something that can happen if a non Alko ball being used to the seriousness that Alko will invalidate their warranty. (Something mentioned about angles from a straightforward line of towing)

I appreciate that you don't understand why. I still don't!!!

The fact is, the caravan has no faults (other than the ability to self impose the handbrake) It's been checked by a Swift dealer.

I have only reported what happened for the benefit of all

Quote: Originally posted by emmitdb on 28/5/20102. Try to prevent the self application of the handbrake. Could I suggest a 'bungee' attached to the handbrake and wrapped under the chassis.

---

---

Might one ask what breakdown service was used?

David

Greetings Again,

David, to half answer your question I am Breakdown Insured by 'More Than' and they use an army of private breakdown firms ranging from the first one which had the latest trucks etc.

The second firm was a one man band in deepest darkest Somerset (no offence intended to those on 'the level') but I don't wish to name them as the claim as far as the Breakdown supplier may not be over and I haven't got my excess back nor the cost of transporting the 'van to the repairers.

To answer you Eddie, the tyres were minutely examined and have fared very well. There was no sign whatsoever of any damage, nicks etc. That couldn't be said of the alloy wheel which came off second best to the unitentional 'turnings' caused by the metal coming off the drums.

Greetings Again,

The surprising thing for me is the wife thinks I'm nerdy in reading every bit of info. relating (and I mean even obscure stuff) to caravans, motorhomes etc.

I don't think of myself as the font of all knowledge but I've never heard of this problem and I thought, after the thousands of pages I've read in the last umpteen years, it would have crossed my field of vision and stuck.