reece tow hitch

[blueystar]

hello you vdub riders with tow hitchs on your trike i need pics so i can get an idea how to knock one up thanks
have a nice day
bluey

[Rsw]

Heres whats on my trike. It was on there when I bought it.

[blueystar]

thanks for the pic looks easey enought to knock one up

[blueystar]

well went to the wreakers today found a reece tow bar now with a bit of cutting and grinding and paint i will soon have a tow bar on the trike

[Rsw]

Post a couple of pics when you get it done.

[ea81slush]

Gidday blueystar. Having towed a number of trailers in the last 3 years with my Panther (Aussie) trike I thought I'd post a full story to cover all bases on the topic that I have experience with.

Regular readers will know of my 'tweety' VW style trike and my youtube video. At the end of the youtube video is my latest trailer (called caravan here), a 'Guppy'. The Guppy weighs a whoppy 380 kgms dry 820lbs . Loaded likely around 500 (1100lbs).

Compare that to my previous camper trailer (trailer with canvas sides) of 250kgms (550lbs) and you have a concern with tow hitches.

Here are my thoughts.

Trailer brakes

I came close to a serious slow speed accident in Tasmania a year ago. We were towing the camper trailer (no brakes on it) down a steep bitumen road at 25mph. I was aware we were approaching a 'T' intersection at the bottom. There was debris in the middle of the lane and when I braked the front wheel locked up on the rubble. The trike began a 'fishtail' and I struggled to maintain control.

Luckily when we arrived at the intersection I had enough grip to swerve into a car park on my left side and we were saved. I immediatley realised that any loss of grip of the front wheel with VW/rear engine trikes can be potentially fatal. I decided trailer brakes on any trailer weighing over 100kgms (240lbs) was mandatory. This was regardless of my trikes 55 kgms downforce on the front wheel when not towing and more when I'm sitting on it which it seems is a higher downforce than some VW trikes!!

The camper trailer



Types of trailer brakes

There are two that I know of- electric and motion.

Electric

An electric controller can be mounted on the left side handlbers near your left hand. Set it correctly by allowing the trailer brakes to actuate just before your trike brakes come on. This will prevent the 'fishtail' event I experienced. You can control your brakes manually also and that can come in handy. You need to install two wires through to your trailer.

Motion brakes

This type, common in Australia on larger trailers. The inertia of the forward moving trailer applies the brakes from a hydraulic unit on the drawbar.

This type is less suitable because your trike braking must be applied and the momentum slowing up before they activate. Not ideal.

Manufacturers tow ball limit

Manufacturers here in oz have these. For a Aussie Panther is is only 25kgms (55lbs). That is equivilent to a small box trailer without much load. Not enough for some people. My camper as seen above had 24 kgms. Trailers often have tow ball limits stamped on the drawbar but I havent seen any of low tare weight. My towbar is a cantilevered set up and most VW trikes I've seen differ in the design of their tow bar. In standard form it can still take my weight of 130kgms (290lbs) but what if it hit a bump in the road? I've towed my Guppy with the bar in standard form but I always worried about it. See pics below.

My Guppy has a standard towball actual weight of 24 kgms, not bad for a trailer weighing 380kgms but after you load it up with a front toolbox, luggage and now water tank at the rear it has grown to 40kgms (90lb).

Strengthening for peice of mind began.

The plan was to run a 40mm square tube from the front of my ladder bars to the towball frame. One problem with this idea is that a front mount once made up should in my (non engineering background view), is that a second point should secure the bar prior to it being connected to the lower engine mounting points. I suggest this because a lot of VW trikes have "horns" as their only engine/transaxle hanging mount. Meaning any weight on the towball adds weight to the motor/trans and to those 'horn' mounts. Again not ideal. there is a serious risk in my view of losing the whole rig- engine and all, if the new bar isnt secured in two places.

These pics when I did my Subaru conversion. Notice how the towbar mounts are not even in the picture? So the bar is cantilevered way back under the transaxle.





This shows the original towbar hinged down.



This pic shows the 'horn' mounts that take all the engine/transaxle weight AND!!! all the weight from the towball!!!! Such is the need for a stronger unit to assist this mount in carrying higher weighs.



My Panther has a monocque chassis and is rather unique to the VW trike world as most are tubular chassis.

Nevertheless the neccessity of two secure mounting points are the same. Two mounting points prior to the engine will all but assist in the whole chassis strength. My first mounting poit is at the front the second on the rear of the fuel tank and rear of the ladders bars.

My strengthening tube

The front of the bar was made into a 'T' piece and U bolt mounted.



This shot shows the bar (with some heater hoses on each side) going towards the rear of the trike. Note the cross bar as the second mount on the left of the picture.



Another critical pic. The transaxle mounting horns are clear on the top left of the pic. They are two tubes joined together. Under it is a square connecting tube. To that tube I used U bolts to mount another square tube and to that the new tube is bolted and welded to it. The new bar then runs as close to the sump as possible and you can see it change direction slightly to achieve the maximum ground clearance Such welds need to be very good.



This pic depicts the rear tow bar. Notice the middle full length bar now.

Where is changed direction to a 45 degree rise (just out of this picture under the exhaust connector) the welded area is webbed for strength. Under the tow ball I welded a section of U bolt on the end of the tube so the towball bolts it all up.

Rear Vision when towing

For those riders that desire to tow a trailer larger in size that restricts their rear mirror view I purchased a 4K wireless rear vision camera from the UK (on Google). The unit costs around $260 and I ordered a second camera for my Guppy van. Being wireless all you need is 12 volts for power. My trike has its lights hard wired eg they are on all the time I'm riding so I just hooked up the camera to the lights. A switch on the monitor (see pic below) switches cameras. easy solution, great for reversing...piece of mind. Its in colour I've yet to make my monitor waterproof. A plastic bag in used when needed.



The rear vision camera.



My Guppy





Safe towing





I'll post this also as a new thread.

[blueystar]

Rsw here a pic of what i knock up got a reece tow bar from the wreakers it came of a 1996 rav 4 toyota
just 4 u bolts still need to tidy it up abit and paint it
only towing a 60 kg trailer when loaded be 200 kg max

[blueystar]

ok what happing to the pics i uploaded them help

[ea81slush]

Hey Blueystar.

To upload pics you need to go to a web site like 'photobucket'
Then once you log onto it you can browse your computer to select a pic and upload it to photobucket.

Then on photobucket, where it is stored there will be a URL number under it. When you post a story you just copy that number onot the story and it should add the photo.

give it a try.

[Nana]

ok what happing to the pics i uploaded them help

Hey bluey...... Most likely your pictures were too "large". The forum program won't accept high resolution photos because we have so many pictures here, and the high res ones REALLY slow the site down and would even lock it up for everyone.

Go to this thread to get detailed instructions on loading pictures: http://www.triketalk.com/forum/forum...-pictures.html

[ea81slush]

gee you are on the ball Nana.

You are a valued person on this site and I for one thank you for your efforts.