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Saw this for sale on local FB sale group, a 9' x 5' "car trailer" for nearly £400, then I noticed the hitch looked offset from the centre, wonder how it would tow?.
- Thread starter Robotstar5
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123hotchef
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no not to me either
gordon stephenson
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Photograph angle makes it look a little off-centre but its not, Perfectly fine,
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I can see what you mean now, the hitch is hiding the end of the other box section?.
Lufbramatt
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Looks fine to me?
CompoSimmonite
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I had a "breadvan" type VW Polo and fitted a towbar. I used the catch position on the rear body lip to determine centre of car and then drilled the mounting hole. Later a mate pointed out the catch was actually off centre - and so was towbar. Never had any problem towing 
. I notice quite a few similar model Polo's also had the offset towbar so it must have been a common error when fitting !
. I notice quite a few similar model Polo's also had the offset towbar so it must have been a common error when fitting !normspanners
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Its the winch that is off set IMO giving an obstical illusion
beware the brakes are not damped by the look of it, those hitches can give a nasty snatch... and believe me I have suffered with some nasty snatches in the past...
beware the brakes are not damped by the look of it, those hitches can give a nasty snatch... and believe me I have suffered with some nasty snatches in the past...
Parm
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gordon stephenson
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I had an identical hitch, and it did have a damper of sorts, spring loaded inside the body, Under heavier braking the spring was overcome and forward motion of the trailer applied the brakes, Or flip the little paul over when you wanted to activate the hand/parking brake.
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I have no intention of buying it, it looks a bit of a home made jobbie with a quick lick of paint to make it look nice?.
brightspark
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its crap a 4 wheel ones better for towing a car
colnerov
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It's not going to be much of a car going on a 9' x 5' trailer.
normspanners
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the sprung ones oscillate, if your brakes are a little sharp causing snatching, it happen's with the ones that have a hydraulic / spring damping and the hyd cyl fails have seen them bend thick tow ball dropper plates backwards, ie towards the trailer by several degrees, before now, if the weight over rides the spring it jams the brakes on in that instance then the combination of the spring and the brakes forces the brakes off, and whole thing goes through the cycle again and again like undamped suspension, it causing a shuddering snatch, now while that might appeal to some people, (many of them are on here !!)
its not pleasant when you want a comfortable ride. 
I have seen trailer wheels literally locking because of it.
Overrun brake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
An overrun brake (called a surge brake when invented) is a brake system commonly used on small trailers, where the motion of the trailer with respect to the towing vehicle is used to actuate the brake.
The early systems were fitted with a spring system which was not very effective.
Later systems were fitted with a sliding mechanism within the coupling enables the drawbar to move back and forth relative to the trailer chassis. When the towing vehicle brakes, the inertia of the trailer slides the mechanism, this in turn uses the travel of this mechanism to pull on the brake rod which applies the brakes. The sliding mechanism contains a damper to even out the shock loading transmitted from the tow vehicle. Therefore,the inertia of the trailer provides the force to apply the brakes.
Issues[edit]
The older spring based systems had performance issues, and an insufficiently well designed and implemented system can be nonfunctional and undrivable. The problem with these spring based systems happens as follows:
- As the towing vehicle brakes, the trailer travels forward, sliding the mechanism, for a distance before trailer braking begins.
- The speed difference & inertia built up by now results in the trailer brakes being rapidly & progressively applied ever harder, until trailer speed drops to below towing vehicle speed
- due to this, the brakes are now soon entirely released
- since the towing vehicle is still slowing down, the whole cycle repeats itself. The result is not only severe vibration, but the lack of effectiveness of the trailer brakes leaves the towing vehicle to do nearly all the braking. The front vehicle thus also fails to brake effectively, and lateral stability is also compromised, risking a jackknife situation.
- as well the system can also result in unintentionally applying the brakes while reversing the vehicle.
- and during inclines, the angle results in a lower braking capability.
Because of its issues, all first world countries limit the maximum road legal towable weight (UK up to 3500 kg) using such a braking system. The newer damped systems operate more effectively and are not prone to the same problems as the spring systems.
A lot of the old horse boxes had them and have seen people even disconnect the brakes because of it, it used to frighten the horses, to extreme levels, so much so that they would'nt go in the trailers.
ajlelectronics
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Who is Paul and doesn't he mind being flipped over? ;-)
gordon stephenson
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Flipping anything is acceptable!!
