Wheel Locks

I have been using an Alko lock for 11 years, adjusting the wheel position with the mover. Never found it a problem. At service areas I use a hitch lock instead 

and of course, not every one has a mover fitted to their caravan. And some of us have 2 locks to align. 😉

Its a preposterous piece of engineering garbage that is only marketed to keep alko in the money as you need one every time you change the van. 

Better designs have been marketed using a universal fitment to the chassis receiver but all have infringed alko patents and been withdrawn. 

As an engineer I hate this with a passion, alko recommend jacking the van to fit the lock. Like I am going to jack the van on the other atrocity to engineering principles the alko side scissor jack!

just to add insult to injury, my latest van now has 5 holes of one size and 5 that are fractionally shorter so I now only have a choice of 50% of the holes to fit the lock, yes alko chose the longer hole!

And just to promote alko attempts to enter the engineering hall of total engineering incompetence they chose the lock fitment that fits one of the holes that has the valve so I am now down to a 40% chance of roughly lining up with a hole of the right shape that doesn't have a valve in it.  This is beyond poor, it is not fit for purpose.

Somebody please design and sell a locking hub for conversion of the existing one so we can finally have a decent alternative to this garbage.

I swapped to a Nemesis Ultra 4 years ago to supplement my Alko hitch lock. It is lightweight, easy to store, easy to fit, insurance company likes it and I got it for about £60 2nd hand on Gumtree. What is not to like?

Colin

Thank-you all for your valuable input.

We did change to a Nemesis lock, but the insurer then required another additional security device, whereas with the Alko that alone was ok. Although we also use a hitch lock.

my brother had a Nemesis and accidentally pulled away with it still locked, and it just popped off - no deterrent at all.

I removed the wheel lock discount on my Red Pennant insurance. On the T/A it required both wheel to have the lock fitted, which meant having to jack up the van to fit the second lock. Ridiculous.

When travelling I only use the hitchlock, but always put one wheel lock on when in storage. Plus I have a tracker fittted.

Using a jack is more of a faff than moving the van. As the suspension arm drops the wheel turns so when you drop the van off the jack with the lock fitted it trys to turn the van as the suspension arm takes the van weight and makes the lock bind up dramatically on the bolt. Only way to do it imho is to move the van on the mover, if you have one, or dump the lock or change insurance company

Do you not find it hard work getting the hitch lock to line up with the receiver

Hi davetommo. No, I genuinely don't find it a problem.  I do appreciate that it may be a different story with a twin axle and I suppose some wheel designs might present more of a problem than others.  I have used the lock with a Bailey Olympus, a Pegasus and now with  Coachman VIP. I roughly line up the wheel aperture with the chassis location, insert the lock and then fine tune with the mover until the lock screws in easily. Seriously, it only takes me moments.