Towbars - What To Consider In A New One

As a family, we love to drive off and go camping for weekends, or weeks at a time. We mostly keep it really simple, a tent, sleeping bags and a car full of provisions. Last year though, for a change, we decided to rent a caravan and do it that way. Not having a towbar on the jeep, I clearly needed to get one installed.

So I made my way down to All Vehicle Accessories (AVA) in South Melbourne with the intention of getting a cheap towbar installed. On arrival I was thinking the less money I spent on the towbar, the more I’d have for the holiday. In discussing these ideas with the AVA professionals though, I quickly learned just how silly this attitude was.

To begin with, they got me thinking about the types of things I wanted to tow. Obviously there was the caravan for the upcoming trip. Following on from that though, I’d probably buy some bike beaks too as my wife loves triathlons. We could take the bikes up to the Dandenongs for a ride.

They then showed me the value of the objects I was going to be towing. To start with, my bike is a bit of a cheapie. I only spent about $800 on it. My wife’s though, well given her passion for triathlon training, she spent over $3000 for hers.

I had no idea how much caravans cost to buy so I had to look it up. Boy they are expensive. The cheapest I could find was $5000 and I have to say, it was pretty ordinary. I found many nice ones well in excess of $100,000. That’s a crazy lot of money to trust to a cheap towbar.

I was convinced. I had to change my attitude toward this towbar. If I was going to pay the money regardless, I may as well have it done properly. Instead of finding a cheap towbar, I realised I needed to find a quality towbar. Paying the few extra dollars didn’t matter anymore, when taken in perspective with the items being towed.

Having decided that, I delved further into the different towbars on offer. I was surprised to find out that there was only 1 towbar in Australia that offers a lifetime guarantee. Only Hayman Reese has that much faith in their own product. I thought that was a really interesting fact. So looking further at the Hayman Reece products, I also found 2 excellent accessories that really help with safety and efficiency.

Firstly, they have an accessory called a Weight Distribution Hitch. This important piece of equipment, when fitted properly, reduces the ball weight and therefore, the drag on the vehicle. If you are looking to save money on your towbar, think about this. Paying the extra dollars for this towbar and accessory will actually pay you back many times over down the track. Reducing the drag improves your fuel efficiency. That means that when you are towing, you use less fuel and save money at the bowser. This is an on-going saving, not the once off I was considering by going cheap with the towbar.

They also sell this cool gadget called Sway Control. It basically keeps whatever you are pulling on the straight and narrow, despite high winds, trucks coming the other way etc. Have you ever seen those retired people who are pulling a caravan behind them when a truck drives past the other way. Have you ever seen how much their caravan swerves all over the road when this happens due to the blast of air. The sway control stops this happening to you, making for a safer and once again, more efficient trip. This is very important to me given my family will be sitting next to me in the Jeep.

This experience was a rare one for me. Usually when told I am wrong its like a red rag to a bull. The guys at AVA explained to me the importance of a quality towbar though, in a such a professional way that I didn’t feel in the least bit miffed. At the end of the day, they are the experts and they were just helping me protect my family.