Recently, at a free canp, I met a lady travelling solo, and she mentioned that there was a 'rattly noise' when she was travelling with the van in tow. Naturally I decided to have a look. I pulled the shank out of the receiver and soon determined that this was the problem.
Somebody, in their wisdom, had cut a portion off the shank so that it then had excessive movement up and down.
After determining that the receiver was indeed deep enough for a much longer shank we travelled to a nearby town and bought a more suitable shank for the car. Although I carry a suitable aluminium shank in my box of tricks I preferred to keep that "just in case".
She texted me a few days later, saying that all was good, but I wonder why anyone would cut the end off a perfectly suitable shank when fitting a drawbar? Cheers
The previous owner of the vehicle must have been reading your various comments on this site about the hazards of long towball overhang and decided it needed to be shortened. Or the shank was cut short for a vehicle that had the front of the receiver blocked off. The position of the pin dictated the length. Then realising the mistake with it being too short, it was repurposed into her vehicle before she bought it.
For the record I have posted a few comments about the benefit of keeping that overhang to a minimum as well, although I don't have as much concern about it as you. But we agree in principle.
The previous owner of the vehicle must have been reading your various comments on this site about the hazards of long towball overhang and decided it needed to be shortened. Or the shank was cut short for a vehicle that had the front of the receiver blocked off. The position of the pin dictated the length. Then realising the mistake with it being too short, it was repurposed into her vehicle before she bought it.
For the record I have posted a few comments about the benefit of keeping that overhang to a minimum as well, although I don't have as much concern about it as you. But we agree in principle.
Great to see your suggestions of reasons for the cannibalisation of this shank, all of which I had considered.
Seems that some people have no conscience, and will happily get rid of a virtually useless piece of steel by selling it with a new towbar. Cheers
P.S Great to see that we concur on the dangers of long TBO.
I think that whoever did it owned a vehicle which has the spare tyre up against the receiver.
I had to loop off quite a bit of the WDH tongue to fit it to my Pajero Sport.
I think that whoever did it owned a vehicle which has the spare tyre up against the receiver. I had to loop off quite a bit of the WDH tongue to fit it to my Pajero Sport.
Hi Dennis, Had you read my initial post properly you would have seen that I wrote "after determining that the receiver was deep enough for a much longer shank ". Job done. Cheers
