Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

A few guys seem to have issues with their towbars on the Gen3 and 4's. I have seen some stuff around that looks realy awkward and very unpractical for off-road use. I have a Duys removable towbar on my Gen 3, and with the Ironman's and Air-helpers, I have a fairly descent clearance, although not great. I have to use a number of spacers to get the ball away from the sparewheel.

What towbars do you guys have and what sort of clearance do you get?

On the pic, the tape measures 44cm to the bottom of the A-Frame with my Xplorer hooked on. I towed it up a fairly rocky incline up to a bushcamp this weekend and the clearance was sufficient. The jockey wheel however gets caught when I drive deep tracks. Still need to fit a bracket somewhere to be able to remove and store it when required.

Any ideas?

Johan

Hi LowRange,
You have a removeable jockey wheel !

The best would be to remove it going on a trip and store it in the trailer

Your trailers clearance would increase considebraly

We have a Mitsu removeable towbar and airhelpers. We found however that if the back of the car is not at a certain angle it is difficult to get the gooseneck past the sparewheel. We bought an extention piece that moves the towball out about 10cm and a bit higher at Safari Centre. Used it for the Kruger trip and with the airhelpers only at 1,7 bar, the trailer was almost level. Also have a removeable jockey wheel.

Gina wrote: We bought an extention piece that moves the towball out about 10cm and a bit higher at Safari Centre.

Just watch those extenders when traversing rough terrain. They increase the forces at play on the towbar brackets CONSIDERABLY due to the effect of the increased leverage (Who said:' Give me a strong enough foothold and a long lever and I will move the world'? ) This can damage the towbar and the chassis! I speak of personal experience regarding damage to the chassis and towbar.


Lowrange - My towbar is slightly lower so the Xplorer run slightly nose down, but I can(just) open the back door on my Pajero almost fully with the Xplorer hooked up, which is great !! (My jockey wheel is obviously removed then and rests on a bracket on the A-frame, similar to the barcket that is used standard. Will take picture when I have it hooked up again.

CATS

You are right about the tow bar extenders, Cats. The safety issue has been bugging us the whole time in the Kruger, and today Anton removed it. Would rather struggle a few extra minutes to get the trailer hooked up that have a catastrophic incident!

Evening All

Standard Duys towbar supplied and fitted by Going Places Centurion. We were extremely cautious being concerned about the perceived reputation of the Ingonyama caravans breaking their A frames. The towbar was returned to Going Places (Christo) after this incident in Mabua with the promise to replace. This never transpired and 3 years later..............nothing. I had a heavy duty bar manufactured by Autobar in Pretoria and to date no problems.
The lesson learnt is that standard towbars do not take into account the nose weight of an offroad caravan compounded by the additional stressses exerted when driving offroad. My advice is to approach a reputable offroad fitment centre for advice who will also honour his warranty.

Did Mitsibushi ever think when approving a service provider that we would soft road.

Regards

Frans

Judging by all the safety links and chains (that did not help if the towbar failed) you played it safe. It Irks me to have the so called experts supply substandard goods like tow bars and recovery equipment. Failure could result in some serious consequences, I hate to think what could have happened on the highway at speed.

Frans, where did it break?? I know that the Duys is prone to shearing at the mouth of the fixed tube where the removable section is inserted, but yours seem to have broken off somewere?

I re-inforced the mouth on mine. It held up well in Mabua earlier this year with my Xplorer, which I think is a bit heavier at the nose than the B'rakah, but you now have me worried!

Johan

CATS wrote:My jockey wheel is obviously removed then and rests on a bracket on the A-frame, similar to the barcket that is used standard. CATS

CATS, where did you mount the xtra bracket on your van??

Johan

LowRange wrote:

CATS wrote:My jockey wheel is obviously removed then and rests on a bracket on the A-frame, similar to the barcket that is used standard. CATS

CATS, where did you mount the xtra bracket on your van??

Johan

I mounted it on the alutread plate on the a-frame with 2 bolts. Will take pic this weekend and post.

CATS