northernmonkeyjones wrote:

just a note that when you picture it in its doesn't see properly locked in.

The wheel at the side should snap in and be flush with the bar, you shouldn't see any of the shiny bit adjacent to the knob.....

would not use in that condition. definitely not properly locked in IMHO. to my eyes it looks like its been little used there is lots of paint on it (needs sanding off before you use with a caravan hitch). it looks like its been Put in and left in, the lock has seized and has been removed. push the little lever on the back and see if the mechanism engages properly.

If you look on the back of the bar there is a small lever, this is the part which clicks the tow ball into position. As you push it in the receiver should lift (think lift could be press) and allows the locking pin to force the ball bearings outwards.

You should be able to activate this manually to shoot the locking pin into place. There are no moving parts in the receiver everything is in the bar itself.

If this is missing or does not operate properly the tow ball is effecitvely scrap. The fact that it is not snapping into position makes me think the lever is missing or jammed, can't be jammed locked as the hand wheel is out and you can insert the bar. Without looking at it its difficult to tell but iirc something is busted. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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I sprayed with wd40 and got it to snap in it seemed fine but I took it to the local westfilia fitting centre
They gave it a look over and checked the electrics there are two sockets that they checked
Everything was good so I bought a fly lead convert or that I plug in to both and it's got a 13 pin on the other end for the tin tent going to try it this weekend and see how I get on
A big difference of £11.00 for lead or the £600.00 LR quoted for new bar

Dare I say ....  John
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2005 TD6 Java Black Vogue - Written off!!
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if I was you, (I have the same towbar) I would beat it a few times with a hammer and kick it about a bit, stand on it, just to make sure you have still got tension in the balls, holding it on. and fiddle with the knob without twisting it etc, -you don't want to find it comes off, on the M4! I have sometimes offered it up and sort of thought it didn't look right, and just a touch and it drops off! you could also work out a checkstrap anchor location, as insurance etc.

there are two eyes on the armature to allow you to connect a breakaway cable or secondary coupling.

You're supposed to have a secondary coupling on unbraked trailers by law, but few people do. (ie a lump of chain or cable to stop the trailer and car separating.)
Braked trailers are supposed to have a breakaway cable to yanks the handbrake on if the trailer comes off.

Connected to tin tent all is good electrical connection via the
Fly lead worked as well as I mentioned earlier on this thread
I took the car and tow bar to a specialist westfilia fitting centre and he checked
It out and it was fine

Zirconblue wrote:

there are two eyes on the armature to allow you to connect a breakaway cable or secondary coupling.

They are because it's copied from the American system which IMHO is much better - you have twin chains or heavy cables mounted either side of the trailer tow hitch & cross them over underneath - in the event or a breakaway, the chains 'catch' the nose of the trailer before it hits the road

I miss those on my L405 - my trailer has the chains, but I've got nowhere to connect them to now - I need to have a crawl underneath & see what's there.

Andrew5331 wrote:

Connected to tin tent all is good electrical connection via the
Fly lead worked as well as I mentioned earlier on this thread
I took the car and tow bar to a specialist westfilia fitting centre and he checked
It out and it was fine

Here is the new work horse towing the tin tent at the storage yard

Click image to enlarge