Truck Wheels And Truck Rims

On a recent family camping trip, we decided to go “luxury”. So instead of packing tents, we hired a caravan. Almost belatedly I realised I’d need to get a towbar fitted to the jeep. (This was actually an accessory I’d wanted for ages, I just needed a good enough reason to convince my wife it was necessary)

So I made my way down to All Vehicle Accessories (AVA) in Thomastown to get a cheap towbar installed. The cheaper it was the better it was as far as I was concerned. After all, we were about to go on holiday and I wanted to use my spending money there. Luckily for me, the guys at AVA were professional enough to talk me out of using price as a means of discriminating when choosing a towbar.

The first thing they asked me was what I wanted to tow. I told them about the camping trip and the rented caravan. Also, we enjoy riding, my wife in particular loves competing in triathlons. So I’d probably come back later and get car bike racks (which I now know are called bike beaks) for the towbar.

From there is was a simple comparison of the increments (between cheap and quality) with the prices of the items the towbar was looking after. So between the two bikes we own, there is about $6,000 worth of equipment to start with.

I ended up Googling caravan sales to get a feel for how much they are to buy. I didn’t realise they were so expensive. I couldn’t find anything for less than $5000 and I found quite a few which cost more than $100,000. You can buy property for that much… The one we rented was mid range, costing around $50,000 new. Its quite a “load” on the towbar when you think about it in those terms.

The conversation really changed my opinion on the type of towbar I needed. When you really start thinking about the value of the goods you are towing, from bikes, to caravans, to boats, its a bit silly scrimping and saving on the only piece of equipment that is holding it to the vehicle. Its certainly a risk I decided not to take. I’d upgraded my preferences on quality lines. Instead of going cheap I decided I wanted as robust and safe a towbar I could get.

The AVA professionals pointed out to me that the Hayman Reese towbars are the only brand in Australia which carries a lifetime guarantee. This I thought was pretty telling, especially as quality was now the issue. I was almost sold. These particular towbars though had two additional features which absolutely convinced me.

They have this thing they call a “Weight Distribution Hitch”. When applied to your towbar, this hitch actually reduces the drag on your vehicle by reducing ball weight. And you know what that means. By paying a little more for a quality towbar and weight distribution hitch, all of a sudden you are saving money on fuel, on tyre wear and all the other things that wear out faster when you are pulling something. So it actually is a dis-economy to go the cheaper option on a towbar.

The second feature was their Sway Control accessory. Have you ever been driving behind a caravan which, when a truck drives past, swerves all over the road? The sway control accessory stops this. Given my family are going to be sitting in the car pulling my caravan, this is a safety feature I definitely wanted. They are just too precious to me.

Its good when you go to an auto store and the professionals there actually give you advice, help you get past your preconceived ideas and make a better decision. I’m certainly glad the guys at AVA helped me see sense when it came to my towbar.