Towbar For My Rav

May 17, 2006

Hi there

I wondered if there is anyone that can help me with my towbar problems.

I have a 54 plate Rav 4 XT3 5 Door with a fixed Towequipe towbar fitted.

When I tow my caravan it sits so low because the towbar is so low. It tends to ground the jockey wheel on bumpy surfaces.

My previous Rav 4 was a 5 door VX and that had a witter fixed tow bar fitted and that sat even lower!

I think that my only option is to change to a detachable tow bar. But I really want some advice from someone that tows a caravan as I don't want to spend a lot of money on a detachable for the same sort of thing to happen.

By the way the Rav tows the caravan beautifully, I can't recommend it enough!

Ian

May 18, 2006

Just had a Witter bar fitted to mine (today actually !).

The one on my previous 3 dr (1997 model) was a Witter bar but only had one fairly low setting - this was to ensure ball cleared the door.

The new bar has 2 height settings - one is low for ball to clear door - the other gives an increased height but stops the door opening - I have mine set high as I am only using it for a Pendle bike rack.

Witter do a detachable ball fitting for the bar - so you could use the high setting and then remove the ball when not hitched up.

Hope that all makes sense ...

Oh - and I have the TTE twin exhaust which meant I had to spend all morning cutting and shutting the towbar so it would clear the LH pipe - but that's another story !!

Andy.

May 18, 2006

Hi there
I wondered if there is anyone that can help me with my towbar problems.
I have a 54 plate Rav 4 XT3 5 Door with a fixed Towequipe towbar fitted.
When I tow my caravan it sits so low because the towbar is so low. It tends to ground the jockey wheel on bumpy surfaces.
My previous Rav 4 was a 5 door VX and that had a witter fixed tow bar fitted and that sat even lower!
I think that my only option is to change to a detachable tow bar. But I really want some advice from someone that tows a caravan as I don't want to spend a lot of money on a detachable for the same sort of thing to happen.
By the way the Rav tows the caravan beautifully, I can't recommend it enough!
Ian

I have a 04 plate XT4 D4D fitted with a Toyota supplied detachable bar. I tow a caravan unladen weight of 820 kgs and a maximum gross weight of 1000 kgs. The ball has to be removed to open the back door, so it is mounted higher than the fixed tow-bars. This enables one to tow a caravan without the jockey wheel hitting the road surface.

I agree with you, the Rav4 makes a wonderful tow car :)

Check pictures http://rav4world.com/forums/album_personal.php?user_id=365

May 18, 2006

The one supplied by Toyota is actually a Brink, you can get it quite a bit cheaper from Towequipe, it's excellent. £180 when I bought one 3 months ago. Ball is at correct BS height so a twin axle trailer such as my wife's Ifor Williams horse trailer tows level. Very easy to remove.

Mike