Tow hitch capacity question.

[drover]

Make sure you check the bolts are tight on the tow bar, mine weren't and its not a pretty sight to see cracks in the body. Sometimes the apprentice misses a few.

[fester]

For what it's worth I noticed on mine the other day that although the WG CRD is rated to tow 3350kg's my Mopar towbar is only stamped to 2950 or whatever the petrols are rated at. Maybe Jeep never produced 2 different bars (or at least put different rating plates on them) but this could also be a legal bunfight if involved in a towing accident and you were exceeding the bars classification. One could rightly expect the factory fitted bar to be matched to the vehicle but obviously not so.

[chrisk]

Originally Posted by fester

For what it's worth I noticed on mine the other day that although the WG CRD is rated to tow 3350kg's my Mopar towbar is only stamped to 2950 or whatever the petrols are rated at. Maybe Jeep never produced 2 different bars (or at least put different rating plates on them) but this could also be a legal bunfight if involved in a towing accident and you were exceeding the bars classification. One could rightly expect the factory fitted bar to be matched to the vehicle but obviously not so.

Fester,
Do you have the compliance sticker on one of the doorso of your GC? Mine was on the drivers door. I would be going by this than some random plate/sticker on the bar. The tow rating applies to the vehicle overall. It takes into account many factors and the tow bar is only one of these.
You could buy a tow bar that was rated to 10,000kg & install it on your vehicle, it wouldn't change the tow raing in any way.

[fester]

Yes I have the compliance but that is not the issue. All towbars these days have to be complied and rated so I think this would be a grey area that may take some battling with insurance companies etc. My towbar is only rated to the lower figure as per ADR's etc for towbars technically that would override the vehicle capacity. No different to putting a light weight standard non hitch receiver towbar on a vehicle that is only designed to tow the weekend box trailer. They are rated significantly lower than a receiver type bar and therefore cannot be used to tow to the vehicles rating. I believe there would be an argument to fight in the hitch receiver case but not an insurance legal battle I would be keen to be involved in.

[drover]

I think you will find that there is no difference in the tow bars, engine type/capacity and vehicle weight defines how heavy you can tow and as for ball weight, well my WG CRD has a 350kg ball weight and if you look at what the tow bar is bolted to on the body you wouldn't be putting anywhere near that on your tow ball, trust me I have repaired the mounting points on a ZG and a WG, they are not really strong points, as there isn't a chassis on these things.

This thread may add to the discussion, also posted a pic of my tow bar plate there as well. http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...ad.php?t=84905

[Marlin]

The OP is talking about his WH, obviously a very different vehicle to the WJ/WG.

My WH clearly say on the Mopar tow bar, 3,500kg capacity, with 327kg ball weight.

It IS worth re-tightening the bolts after a few thousand klm towing heavier loads, as they always settle in.

[drover]

The weight of a WG and a WH would be roughly the same and the mountings points for the tow bar probably wouldn't be much differn't either, if you put 300kg on the ball of these vehicles I believe you are asking for trouble. That is more like the rating for the ball not the mounting point as I'm pretty sure the manuals state somewhere like 140 -150kg ball weights. A more realistic weight for a packed vehicle I think you will find.