Caravan stuck on tow ball

I just had this as I dropped the van off at the dealer.

The front friction pad had broken en route. Very simple solution, put jack under hitch, lift the handle as it to unhitch and then start jacking up the van, the weight of the car will pop the hitch off, all that is needed is to replace the friction pads now

Hopefully the OP hasn't had it stuck on there for a year.

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I recall the hitch locking onto the ball with an earlier ALKO 1300 anti-snake unit. This was a not uncommon occurrence and the fix was mentioned somewhere on the ALKO website.

I posted this on another forum some years ago:-

"To resolve this issue use a 13mm socket or similar, place it up into the centre of the wheel so that the socket is sitting on the black plastic and the centre pin will go into the socket. You then need to apply force with a hammer which will release the circlip, and the ratchet wheel."

 

Colin

We bought a new van in October and have been away in it four times. On two occasions it wouldn't lift off at all when returning home and wasn't easy at the caravan sites either. Each time we drove to the dealer who, is not far away and of course they didn't find a problem, it unhitched - but great effort was needed to pull the small small handle up. They said just wiggle the stabiliser to loosen it off. They said there wasn't a problem.

When demonstrating that everything was working ( to make me feel foolish) they they said the small handle didn't need to click up and stay on its own when coupling. They said you had to hold the small handle up as the stabiliser was dropped onto the tow ball.  I'm sure this is not the case, surely the small handle must click up before attaching? 

I've a feeling there is a problem but and not sure what to say to the dealer as they are less than keen to do any work on it. Does the small handle have to click up and stay there before connecting? Should it be such a great effort to lift it off when disconnecting? 

Any help much appreciated. 

I'd agree that there's a fault if the small handle doesn't stay clicked up by itself. Not sure if the reluctance to unhitch & not latching up are related though 🤷‍♂️ Sometimes if there is load on the hitch, forwards or backwards, it can make it difficult to unhitch.