Tow Bar

Hi, I'm thinking of fitting a Tow-bar to my Jimmy, I prefer the robust Flange type that Tow Trust make, but have noticed a few faults with its design.

• the tow bar seems to be around 10-15mm off centre to the left, does this cause any problems.
• the electrics look as though they could get knocked when off-road.
• does anyone have problems with some trailers being unlevel.
• the holes in the chassis seem to be 14mm yet bolts are only 12mm some other tow-bars are worse, having only 10mm bolts.

Do the witter detachable make a better choice. Cheers

Not sure about the other bits but on all my off road Suzuki's I have got a metal type 7 pin plug and painted body colour and fitted it to the rear door just below and to the left of the spear wheel that way it's well out the way of any mud and rocks

I've got a fixed one and can't see that its off centre. Its not from towtrust but i can't imagine they are that different, mines a towsure iirc. Tows a small trailer a treat, theres not many weeks go by where i'm not using the trailer, bikes and garden rubbish in summer and firewood in winter! Its so much easier to hook it up than fold the seats down the combination of the jimny and trailer make for a great workhorse.

The electrics have been nailed offroad, i forgot 1st time out and bent the plate right up. I've bent it back but eventually i'm going to sink it flush into the bumper. Someone on here has done this already. I also broke the cover off so it often fills with mud, i tried covering it up but it still filled up with water. Before i go out now i spray it with plenty of wd40 and give it a good clean after and spray again.

The witter detachables are something like 3 times the price iirc.

And if your worried about damaging the electrics just think about how much mud and crap is going to end up in the female part of the tow bar. I know from experience that they don't like road grim getting in them let alone mud.

electrics on the back door, I like the sound of that, good idea. Cheers..

What's the towing weight limit on a Jimny? I'm not planning on towing an Ifor Williams with a 110 on it - but it would be useful to know!

Si

1.3 tonne braked, something like 800kg unbraked?

I have a witter detachable, looks great and works great, but i too have bent the lecy braket more than once. I'll get round to having a heavy duty stainless one made at some point!

Mud doesn't seem to be an issue in the removable mechanism, dust and water is though.

I use a Hayman Reece Hitch. The sticker on it says it is "Rated 2,500kg". If I need to tow someone out of a bog I remove the hitch tongue from the towbar and put the pin back in, through the loop of the tow belt. I am not much in favour of snatch straps (Kinetic energy) because they seem to lose their stretchability after 5-6 heavy recoveries.

The manual that came with my Jimny says towing capacities are 550kg unbraked, 1,100kg braked.

I use a Tekonsha electric brake controller and fitted electric operated disk brakes to my 690kg "Cabana" caravan and electric operated drum bakes to my small yacht trailer.

1300kg braked and a measly 350kg i've always seen but even a quick google shows varying figures.

Here is what is written down on page 7.1 of my original manual, which I have since replaced with a Haynes manual.

Quote
"Your SUZUKI was originally designed to be capable of towing a trailer which does not exceed the following towing capacity:

Towing Capacity
(Trailer, Cargo & Tow bar)
Braked trailer: 450 kg ( 1000 lb)
Unbraked trailer: 350 kg ( 770 lbs)

However, some countries have regulations which specifically allow trailer weights greater than the capacities shown above; vehicles sold in these countries have towing capacities which match the maximum trailer weight permitted."

Unquote

This is the sticker on drivers' door edge, showing the max in kgs, 1100 and downforce max of 75.

Australian Design Regulations waffle on a lot but basically say that a vehicle may tow up to it's own weight braked. and 30% unbraked.



What they allow in the UK is any bodies guess

I mounted my Topbar electrics to the rear door. here, the socket is 10cm above the top of the bumper, with the wiring passing though the rubber cable duct into the off side inner wing.

So unless I reverse into deep water, there is no way its going to get mudded up.

I use a 1 meter coiled extension cable to connect to a trailer

mcjimny wrote: 1300kg braked and a measly 350kg i've always seen but even a quick google shows varying figures.

This is what it says on parkers.com but it is wrong

The Jimny tow's:
450kg braked
350kg unbraked

I regularly tow something 320kg and it copes pretty well but I wouldn't like to tow something 450kg long distances. Anything over 450kg would technically be illegal and I dont know what the punishment would be. I suppose if you were a chav you would get a slap on the wrist but an upstanding citizen would probably get 12 points and a £20k fine