Towbar woes

[Thisisnotaspoon]

Whats going on?

I bought an Anker towbar for my new to me berlingo, but its being a pain in the ass.

Firstup it came missing one of the long bolts, no biggie can be sorted at toolstation.

2nd, the spacers, the diagram is absolutely useless, how are they supposed to fit into the chassis rails? The ones in the box are far too big to fit through either the inside or outside holes. In the end I just put it together without then and asside from point 3 it goes together fine?

3rd, it doesnt line up, by about half an inch even once wiggled, might be because ive put it together without spacers, but the other side fit fine. All done up loosely but they wont wiggle anywhere near.

Gaaaahhhhhrrrrhhhh........ this was supposed to be a quick job before lunch today ?

So, what are the spacers actually supposed to do? If I can figure that out then perhapse it would just fit ? 

2020-10-16_11-26-22 by thisisnotaspoon, on Flickr

[Sol]

Have you got the handed mounting plates on the correct sides? The diagram says cut the marked holes in the wheel arch liners and insert the spacers (in the holes you cut in the arch liners maybe) then bolt the side plates through the spacers. Looks like the spacers go outside the plates between them and the wheel arch liners.

[ffrenchie]

Did you do a trial assembly of the towbar before attempting to fit it to the vehicle ? I find it helps to see it how it should look once in place.

[cancunia]

Did you do a trial assembly of the towbar before attempting to fit it to the vehicle ? I find it helps to see it how it should look once in place.

The spacers (long tubes ?) Will only go into the chassis subframe from one side, it's odd that they won't go into either side. I bought a used A1 PT870S Towbar & downloaded the instructions, it's different from yours but maybe will give a hint. See attached.

[Sol]

Could be the holes in the chassis are reduced by rust/crud/dirt etc.

[Thisisnotaspoon]

Hmm, yea thats how i assumed it would work so the long bolts and clamp onto the inner face without crushing the rail. I'll try reaming out the hole with a drill the same diameter as the spacer and see how that works.

[cancunia]

Hmm, yea thats how i assumed it would work so the long bolts and clamp onto the inner face without crushing the rail. I'll try reaming out the hole with a drill the same diameter as the spacer and see how that works.

According to the A1 instructions, the larger hole is on the outside, if you ream the inside hole there's a chance that the spacer won't make solid contact with the chassis rail. Might be worth checking to see if the holes are simply clogged up a bit on the outside?

[Thisisnotaspoon]

According to the A1 instructions, the larger hole is on the outside, if you ream the inside hole there's a chance that the spacer won't make solid contact with the chassis rail. Might be worth checking to see if the holes are simply clogged up a bit on the outside?

Sorry, perhaps I didn't explain, ream from the outside so the spacer can slide in.

I've just done that with a step drill and it took the thinnest sliver of metal off, then de-burred the tubular spacers and chamfered the edges, now they tap in snuggly so that was just a tolerances issue. 

But I'm still a good 1/2" out with the holes on the bar-plate joint.

On the upside the electrics are all wired in and as I was running a permenantly live feed from the battery to the relay I added a 12V and USB sockets to the pannel in the boot.

[cancunia]

Things are looking up! I wasn't sure what side you intended to clean out so thought it best to mention that it's the outside. I think I had a similar problem with things not lining up & had to use a large screwdriver to persuade the holes to line up. Maybe start again with everything loose?

[Thisisnotaspoon]

It's in (appart from the still missing long bolt)!

I think the box must have been dropped off the back of a lorry in the post as when it arrived the plate was sticking out the end but being a big 1/4" thick plate I didn't think much of it. But when I tried tightening up the bar/plate joint first it was fairly obvious that the plates weren't ending up longtitudnal allong the car!

Bolting the plate up loosely to the bar then persuading the plates onto the chassis with some G-clamps got it close enough that a slight chamfer on the 100mm bolt and a big hammer was enough to get them started.

One thing I wasn't expecting, there's a empty bulb holder on the near side where the fog light would be which doesn't seem to be wired up. I guess LHD and RHD cars both ony had one fog light and they switched them over which seem a little daft, Citoren could have saved themselves an SKU for the loom for the cost of an extra bulb and wire! Now that I have the relay in I'm tempted to run another wire across from that and power the spare socket.