Towbar accessories are an essential purchase if you're looking to increase both the safety and ease of your towing experience.
Ranging from simple towbar covers to ALKO stabilisers, there are a wide variety of towbar accessories available.
To help you make the right purchase for your circumstances, we've:
- Listed the possible accessories available
- Detailed what each towbar accessory improves
And suggested a specific situation where this towbar accessory would be useful
Towballs
Did you know that different types of towballs can help you tow different things? Well, now you do.
There are two main towballs. The first is the standard 50mm, the Witter Z11. This towball has been designed for all your standard towing requirements, specifically trailers, horseboxes, boat towing etc. This towball will come as standard with the majority of towbars.
However, if you're towing a caravan with ALKO stabilisers, there is a specific ALKO compatible towball, the Witter Z13. This has a slightly longer shaft underneath the ball so an ALKO hitch can be attached properly.
The great thing about the Z11 and Z13 is that they are interchangeable. That means you can swap them out, as and when required.
For example, let's say you use a towbar for weekly towing of a trailer, but then in the summer, you take the caravan down to Cornwall. In this situation, you would use the Z11 for towing the trailer and then in summer you would switch to the Z13 for towing your caravan and rub the paint from the towball to prevent the caravan hitch from squeaking when driving. Simple.
Note: Towballs are only interchangeable on a flange style towbar
Universal Ball & Pin Couplings
This one is for all you commercial tow'ers out there.
There is a law that dictates the correct towball height is between 350mm and 420mm.
But what do you do if you operate a business using a whole range of trailers to transport equipment?
In this case, you would purchase a universal coupling. These Ball and Pin couplings are specifically designed to meet the requirements for mixed trailer fleets.
For the more technical experts, Witter's universal couplings are precision-engineered to provide full articulation both in the jaw and on the ball and are all certified to REG55.
Covers
Did you know that the UK is famous for rain? OK, I bet you knew that one.
As it rains a lot, your towbar is going to find itself subject to quite harsh outside weather conditions. Now, if you want to keep your towball protected from the elements when it isn't in use, then purchasing a towbar cover is a great way to keep it in top condition.
But as you now know, not all towbars are the same, that's why we've engineered a variety of towbar covers to meet the different requirements.
Let's go through them one by one:
Towball Boot
Our flexible towball boot is designed for any of our standard flange towbars with a Z11 towball. Providing cover to the towball and the rest of the coupling, the towball boot cover stops the nuts and bolts of your towbar from rusting.
ALKO Cover
Similar to our towball boot cover, the ALKO towball cover is designed for any flange towbar with a Z13 towball attached, which will be used to tow anything with an ALKO stabiliser. Again, this cover provides resistance to rusting.
Swan Neck Towball Cover
Our Swan Neck Towball cover provides protection of the towball for any swan neck towbars. The hard polyethene cover helps to keep your towball protected from harsh weather conditions and road debris.
Detachable Weather Cover
Our Detachable Weather cover is designed to give protection to the neck housing on any detachable towbar. When the neck is detached, the cover sits inside the housing, protecting it for when you next use the neck.
Stowbar Weather Cover
The Stowbar weather cover is designed for any Stowbar detachable towbars, silver or gold neck types with a semi-automatic mechanism.
Bumper Shields
We've all been there… Up early one morning, the rain is hammering down, hitching up the caravan - only to knock into the bumper, leaving an unfortunate scratch on your brand new Land Rover.
To stop this disaster from happening, we've developed a variety of stylish, heavy-duty bumper shields to protect your car. Easily bolted onto your towbar neck, the shield acts as a simple protective layer, stopping any unfortunate accidents even in the wildest of weather.
Towsteps
This is a towbar accessory that we know all you builders and window cleaners will love.
Simply attached to your towbar coupling, a towstep offers easy access to the back or onto the roof of your vehicle.
No more jumping in and out of the back all day to get equipment or struggling to get ladders off the roof, the towstep is a must-have accessory for all large commercial and fleet vehicles.
Winches
Another popular towbar accessory for commercial businesses are manual or automatic winches.
Bolted onto a boat trailer, the flatbed of a pickup truck or on the chassis of a car, winches can provide practical help in a range of circumstances when you need to move objects that cannot be towed.
For example, if you work on a farm or in the building industry, then purchasing a towbar winch would be an ideal towbar accessory for your vehicle.
