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Bosal AK6 Towbar - Faulty mechanism?
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nevefresca   
Thu Aug 22 2013, 07:57am
Joined: May 30 2012
Member No: #895
Location: Hampshire
 I had a new Bosal AK6 fitted to my new (June 2012) C6, by Citroen Slough, who also provided the vehicle and have only just got around to trying it!

However, when I come to insert it vertically into bracket, it is a little difficult to click into place but it does and is firmly in place but the locking knob doe not come far enough anticlockwise, for me to lock it and remove the key.

HELP - short of taking it back to a Citroen dealer, would you say the mechanism, even though it is new, is faulty?

Would really appreciate any advice, before I go back to a Citroen local dealer, today. Thanks.
gmerry   
Thu Aug 22 2013, 09:16am
Joined: Dec 11 2009
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland
 Hi Neve, I too have a BOSAL AK6, fitted in Feb 2010. It has always been a bit stiff and required firm pressure to push in the handle and then turn to activate the ejection mechanism.

I used to remove the towball, always say within one week of use, but last year the key became stuck and I had to leave the key in place always.

I then liberally doused everything with WD40 and the engine oil.

Now the mechanism has become stuck and broken. There is a cure for this which is basically unbolting the entire mechanism and sending it to Bosal UK (No longer actually Bosal UK as they went into receivership) where for the price of £65, they replace the internal bits and overahaul the entire thing.

However for your case, I would go back to the dealer and demand a new AK6 mechanism as clearly this is not right on a new unit.

Regards
G
nevefresca   
Fri Aug 23 2013, 07:59am
Joined: May 30 2012
Member No: #895
Location: Hampshire
 Thanks gmerry,

I'll go back to the Citroen dealer and get a new one from them.

Were you happy with it, when you first used it, from new?
gmerry   
Fri Aug 23 2013, 08:35am
Joined: Dec 11 2009
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland
 Yes, I was happy except:-

1/ Always had to lift car to maximum position to get the detachable bar in (otherwise it wouldn't line up straight)

2/ The electric socket was attached with M4 screws which went rusty within a couple of months, so replaced by me with SS (previous car same problem and socket broke away)

3/ Had to make and install an electric lead retainer on the detachable bar because the socket is so far away to the right from the ball.

Regards
G
e3steve   
Sat Dec 21 2013, 12:51pm
Joined: Jan 21 2013
Member No: #1163
Location: Warsash, Hants & Palma de Mallorca, Spain
 I had reason to use my inherited AK6 hitch this week in order to relocate my m/c trailer carrying two of my old Hondas.

I had the same problem as nevefresca, whereby the knob wouldn't rotate sufficiently a/c/w in order to remove the key. The hitch was in securely, so I hooked up and took the chance (it's a braked trailer so I was safe in the knowledge that, in latching the safety cable to the towbar's loop, if the hitch decided to part company with the car then the trailer would have dropped back, thus applying the brakes !).

Later in the week I removed the 'keep' from the towbar -- just two 19mm-headed bolts & nuts. I found that the pop-up rod wasn't being allowed to protrude for enough of its excursion, so I've re-profiled the face of the wedge, ground into the end of the rod, on my bench grinder. This needed to be carried out gently, and bit by bit, as there's a nylon insert within the moveable rod; this will start to melt if the rod gets too hot. Also, I didn't wish to relieve too much from the face of the wedge as such action would allow the rod to pop out too far.

From reading the experiences of others in this thread it seems that the keeps were not finished correctly.

In hindsight I feel that I should have re-profiled the upper boss in the keep; this would have involved plenty of filing by hand, as I don't have an electric finger-file and a Dremel's grinding attachments just wouldn't be man enough.

There's no critical load on the rod/wedge; it's there to maintain the hitch's preload when there's no downforce on the tow ball. This preload also prevents the hitch from rattling when it's not being used.

The knob should be allowed to rotate a/c/w enough so that it pops out and the key can then be extracted. If it's allowed to rotate too far then the notched-out window in the edge of the knob will reveal the green/red threshold extremity shown in the pictogram on the Bosal yellow warning sticker. Mine now rotates back so that this 'window' stops at about the ten-o'clock position on a clock face when viewing the hitch sideways-on and from the horizontal.

Whilst beneath the car I found out, to my delight and surprise, that the car also has the Citroën BSI electrics kit! The socket, on its plate, pivots in an arc downwards from behind the rear bumper valance. It's an oddball socket which, I guess, incorporates a newer, more up-to-date pinout than the twin-socket electrics I once fitted back in the 80s. There must be some kind of Y-split adaptor to accommodate the standard caravan electrics?

I tried operating the micro switch in the socket, with the rear fog lights on, but they stayed on. Must be a CANbus instruction, generated once a correctly-populated and wired plug gets inserted......

Any caravanners here?
e3steve   
Sat Dec 21 2013, 01:14pm
Joined: Jan 21 2013
Member No: #1163
Location: Warsash, Hants & Palma de Mallorca, Spain
 Just carried out a bit of Googling and gleaned plenty of info about the difference between the older 12N & 12S towing sockets and the present-day 13-pin Eurostandard & electronic systems.

Here's some useful info.
drummond   
Mon Dec 30 2013, 01:07pm
Joined: Sep 20 2010
Member No: #238
Location: Aldeburgh
 Yes, I'm a caravanner, I've got a couple of Carlights. They are somewhat old, though, and one has a 7 pin plug, whilst the other has a 12n and 12s. Neither go behínd the C6, though....
 

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