Disco Breakaway Cable Location?

[JohnW]

Any one know of a good place to hook the break-away cable to, on a Disco2, and anywhere I can get the associated bracket, if needed?

[Janine]

Try Towsure.They have a web-site,but I don't know the address:p

[lynx]

hi john

in ref to your post on break away cable bracket it bolt's onto the tow hitch in between tow ball and hitch you will have to use longer bolt's though . janine's right try towsure the web site is www.towsure.com hope this help's you .

richard

[JohnW]

Thanks all,

I was, however, hoping that there was a better option as I assumed that the breakaway cable was a failsafe in case of failure of the tow hitch / bracket / bracket's bolts etc.

I might get hold of the bracket and bolt it through one of the chassis x-member holes instead.

J.

[Bush Tucker Man]

John, you'll find that the breakaway cable won't be long enough to allow you to fit it through one of the factory tie-down rings (or similar)
If you do the handbrake will come on every time the cable tightens (cornering)
If it's for a safety chain, it'll need to be so long that the chain won't stop the hitch from grounding.

[Bush Tucker Man]

John, I took a photo of my arrangement.

The eye-bolt is for the breakaway cable on a braked trailer - or the caravan, as the eye is large enough for the clip to pass through & hook back around the cable.

When I've got an unbraked trailer hitched up, I put the chain around the pin as the eye-bolt probably won't be strong enough to withstand the shock-load of the loaded trailer.
(legally an unbraked can only be up to 750kg)


***Before anyone points out that the safety clip isn't through the base of the 25mm pin, I'd just met a friend who'd borrowed the trailer & was handing it back over.
I took the photo whilst I was talking to him.

[JohnW]

Thanks for the info guys.
I popped in to Towsure down in So'ton whilst taking the wife shopping - Incidentally, the car park at Gun Wharf shopping village is tall enough to park yer Disco!

Must say, the online catalogue has much more stuff than the shop.

Picked up a combined galv steel/black powder coated bump-plate c/w integrated dual electrics mounting points (handily slotted to avoid having to de-wire my electrics) and breakway cable slot, which I bolted to the top hole on the bracket - Not as great as having it separate to the towbar, but I feel more assured now, having seen that it's de-rigeur.

Will drop a piccy on later.

J.

[accywingy]

Originally posted by Bush Tucker Man


When I've got an unbraked trailer hitched up, I put the chain around the pin as the eye-bolt probably won't be strong enough to withstand the shock-load of the loaded trailer.
(legally an unbraked can only be up to 750kg)

Looking at your arrangement i would say that the eyebolt would be much stronger than the chain that is attached!

[Bush Tucker Man]

Originally posted by accywingy


Looking at your arrangement i would say that the eyebolt would be much stronger than the chain that is attached!

Probably so, as the chain isn't long enough to allow the hitch to contact the road surface, thus there should be no 'shock-loading' on it.

By the way, the eye-bolt (dynamo lifting eye) is about 1/2" diameter.

[s.stirley]

Incidentally caravan break-away cables shouldn't just be 'clipped' to these brackets with the hook on the end. If they are the hook tends to tear open before the handbrake is properly applied - there was a huge article about it in the CC magazine about 6 months ago.

Looping the hook back to the cable was the advised method still, ideally passing through the bracket as a 'guide' first and then around another part of the towing bracket. If that's not available their advice was still to loop around the ball ..

[DEANO3528]

Well I just recently read that it is now illegal to wrap the breakaway cable around the coupling.

[s.stirley]

I had read that previously also, but then this article explained rather better what was involved. At that point (6 months or so ago) it wasn't illegal to hook over the ball.

Looping around the ball has the obvious problem when the ball shears off - the brakes won't get applied :( guess it's time to get around to extending the cable and mounting the guide properly then !