Tow Ball Height

Haji-Baba · Senior Member

Tow Ball Height

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Regardless of where your knee is, your caravan will tow better if its level, therefore the towball needs to be at the correct height to keep your caravan/trailer /whatever level.

We have learned (the hard way) to dodge protusions like towbars. They all hurt no matter which body part you hit them with!

Kiwi-as · Guru

GD. You are a knowedgable Lady, in regard towball height arent you, i am impressed.

rockylizard · Guru

Haji-Baba wrote:
We all know that the height of a towball should be xyz.
But in my opinion that is all wrong.
The height should be at about knee level, not shin level as you will find out if you bump your shin on one.
The knee won't hurt as much, try it sometime.

Happy new year have fun Haji-Baba

Gday...

When you're my height - it is a shoulder injury not a knee injury biggrin biggrin biggrin biggrin

Cheers

John

Popeye · Senior Member

One knee metal one knee not.I can tell you the pain in the metal one, hurts for much longer than the one that is me. Like god meant. biggrin

bill12 · Guru

How do you go through the metal detector at the airport?Are you bionic , like the six million dollar woman(or man)?Can you leap tall tobars with a single bound?Really , Gertie,s right-tow level is the right way.Bill

briche · Guru

As a new GN It took about 3 months and a number of blooded shins to finally learn to look down as I go around the back of the car. It did take a little while and just occasionally I get distracted and guess what. But after 12 months just about got it in my process. What really helped was getting into trouble with Cheryl when she spotted grease on the shorts. That really accelerated the learning curve.

dogbox · Guru

a tow ball at the right height hurts just as much as one at the wrong height if you hit it hard enough

-- Edited by dogbox on Sunday 1st of January 2012 09:51:57 PM

Ron and Shirley · Senior Member

bill12 wrote:
How do you go through the metal detector at the airport?Are you bionic , like the six million dollar woman(or man)?

Shirley has had a quite a number of back/spinal operations one of which saw metal plates, plus nuts and bolts, placed around her spine.

She was given a letter after that operation to show at the airport if she ever intended to fly anywhere.

She has since had them removed and it is quite surprising how big these metal bits are.

Returning to the topic.

There are quite a few tow ball protectors to save your shins etc on the market though I have been told by others that really they really only soften the blow a little.

Experience is really the best teacher biggrin

ozjohn · Guru

Thee Law states that "A Tow Bar must not not protude in a dangerous manner when a trailer is not attached".

But who detirmines if it's protuding dangerously.
Bit of a Grey area, until you hit your shin, then most of us would agree that it's protruding dangerously. A cop however (Who didn't hit his shin) may not agree. The Laws an ass.

Cheers, Ozjohn.

-- Edited by ozjohn on Monday 2nd of January 2012 09:06:30 AM

Haji-Baba · Senior Member

Ozjohn

If you hit your shin it is not high enough.

Besides if the ball height is too low every time you exit a servo or driveway the watching public won't know you are leaving unless they hear the little wheels at the back of the van scraping the concrete.

Anyway you have to keep them rotating to stop rust forming on the axel.

It is one way to get spectators to look at your van and comment on the old greybeards enjoying their super.

Have fun Haji-Baba

The Gnome · Senior Member

ozjohn wrote:
Thee Law states that "A Tow Bar must not not protude in a dangerous manner when a trailer is not attached".
But who detirmines if it's protuding dangerously.
Bit of a Grey area, until you hit your shin, then most of us would agree that it's protruding dangerously. A cop however (Who didn't hit his shin) may not agree. The Laws an ass.
Cheers, Ozjohn.

-- Edited by ozjohn on Monday 2nd of January 2012 09:06:30 AM

That's very easy, I remove mine when not touring.

Nicholstones · Guru

We only put ours on the car when we are about to tow, and always remove it as soon as we get to our destination. We do the same with the towing mirrors. I find it really annoying to try and park in a shopping centre car park and not be able to get into a spot because someone has left these bits sticking out of their vehicle taking up more room than they should.