Beyond the Limits

At Witter Towbars we believe that new innovations should be tested beyond the limits ensuring the safety and integrity of each individual part. To achieve a level of safety beyond the minimum standards set by legislation requires a detailed knowledge and understanding of the Towbar's dynamics when used in the most severe conditions. We call this ‘going beyond the limits’. Witter collaborate closely with leading trailer and component manufacturers.

This provides an opportunity to share collected data from strictly controlled testing and helps us to fully understand the dynamic loading applied to not just the Towbar, but also the trailer and its component parts when extreme loads and forces are applied. Testing is carried out at various test tracks in the United Kingdom and these are widely recognised for their ability to test every type of vehicle in use today. The tracks are used by many of the leading vehicle manufacturers to prove the integrity and reliability of their vehicles and systems.

The trailers used are loaded with ballast up to the maximum towing capacity of the vehicle. This dead weight helps to simulate the worst case towing conditions the Towbar will endure during its working life. Testing is not a sunny day experience. In fact, we welcome the worst weather conditions, the worse the weather the better it is. Extreme conditions help us to ensure that every consideration is taken into account.

The test tracks that we use include a rumble strip, which is a series of ‘sleeping policeman’. The car accelerates as it drives over the rumble strip subjecting the Towbar to a broad frequency of harmonic vibration and stress.

The Pavé Road (sometimes referred to as a Belgian Road Test) has cobbles set at different heights creating extreme vertical loads. When driven over at speed, the fully loaded trailer ‘bounces’, at this point only the Towbar is keeping all of the fully ballasted trailer under control.

A handling strip in which a series of left and right hand turns are made at speed simulates emergency changes of direction, inducing massive loads within the Towbar. The twist bumps are offset to one another affecting first a wheel on one side of the car and trailer and then the other. This causes them to sway from side to side in opposite directions creating high rotational stresses on the Towbar.

After a predetermined number of circuits of the track that simulate many miles of ‘normal’ driving, the Towbar is checked and measurements taken. The trailer also has numerous sensors attached to it that take readings of the shock and vibration that it has experienced. These are also downloaded into a computer for analysis.

Numerous laps of the test track are completed, in all types of weather. The punishment is relentless and sometimes the extent of the testing is only limited by what the vehicle can tolerate. A mobile workshop is always on hand to provide a platform for the detailed examination of the Towbar to take place. Every part of the Towbar is checked and rechecked before setting off again and again for more punishing laps of the circuit. Our attention to detail, and an in-depth knowledge of how a Towbar performs based on nearly 60 years of Towbar manufacturing experience, guarantees that each of our many products can be relied upon when faced with the most extreme towing conditions to be encountered.

Testing is the key to safety, providing comfort and re-assurance that you can depend on. When you buy a WITTER Towbar, you can rest assured that we have tested ‘BEYOND the LIMITS'.