Undertaking on Motorway... 182deleted due to the content being so ridiculous) ---------------- Anyone can thow up stats, by drawing them off some web page. It is best to know what...
Alex Heney
It obviously goes to show that the general public are not aware of what goes into designing and manufacturing a vehicle as it's not something the automotive world discusses outside of their gates.
Granted, towing is a secondary purpose, however, there is a lot of attention that goes into it otherwise no car would have the capability to tow anything as it would be clearly stated in the Whole Vehicle Type Approval document needed to manufacture a vehicle that the vehicle was not approved to tow and no one would design a bar for the car.
What in your exprience are these safety requirements for towing you refer to? Are they documented somewhere and what are they?
I would be very much of the opinion that type approved bars for a specific vehicle are better given the work we have to do to get them approved for a car. I know of some manufacturers bars that were not approved for the Rover 75 for example that were poorley mounted to the vehicle and in some cases, destroyed the rear end as the non approved bar was manufacturerd to a lesser standard than the factory approved bar.
I would say that it gets a lot of attention as if it wasn't the rear underrun protection of a vehicle might as well not be there as I wouldn't fancy having someone shunt my car from the rear and the towing kit puncturing the fuel tank, or bending the floor or worse!
I suggest that more research is made into what goes on within towing "design".
Nic
