Towbar sag, advice please

[thedogsbollox]

The MOT has spotted some welding that needs doing so I have decided to get the towbar bracket welded at the same time.
My towbar is in two parts, bolted together towards the nearside bracket.
I removed his portion to reveal the bracket in question and can clearly see the problem.
There are 4 spot welds holding the bracket in place, 2 on the bottom face and 2 on the rearward face under the bumper.
I can see that the problem is the top 2 spot welds have come apart and the whole bracket has dropped a little and only held by the other two.
I will get the welding done but figured previously that jacking the bracket till the bumper was in place would give you the place to weld the bracket. But to weld the bracket the bumper must be removed. Bit of a catch 22!
Is it therefor the case where it is jacked up into place then bumper removed with the jack in place?
Or when removing the bumper it will be obvious where the bracket should be?
Should it all be welded, top and bottom, all round as much as it can?

[mikeWalsall]

Some advise from a previous post ...

the nearside towbar mount, above the exhaust is just spot welded to the chassis leg,this can come away, look for a gap between the lower edge of the nearside light cluster and the top edge of the bumper.

quick cure,
seam weld it all the way round to the chassis and floor pan etc.

[g8dhe]

I've just had a further problem with our Tow Bar, it bent again
However whilst ordering another TowTrust replacment, I checked the two designs and in the future I will be changing it for the A1 Towing design much more rugged, and they seem to know about the near side weld problem!
Here are both manuals, as you can see the nearside construction is much more robust, even if more difficult to fit! The off side mounting on the TwoTrust design bends at the single bolt on the under surface, the other design eliminates this problem by not having an underside to bend! The bar is bolted directly to the end plate which is much stronger!
http://www.g8dhe.net/bongo_images/A1_To ... 65_A-3.pdf
http://www.g8dhe.net/bongo_images/Tow_Trust_TMZ168.pdf

[Simon Jones]

I've fitted A1 towbars to both Bongos I've owned and chose their design as it bolts thru the main chassis members to spread the load. It's by far the strongest model I've seen, but the paint coating is very thin so give it a good coat of Smoothrite before fitting it.

[Northern Bongolow]

that does look a better job, you could possibly modify your own to spread the load forwards up the nearside chassis leg if desired. mines been seam welded now for a good while now and has not budged.

[thedogsbollox]

Yes. Mine is the second type shown there. Possibly this is the problem and not the welding at all. Looks to me that bracket is only designed to carry the bumper.
So what advice on resetting it in place for welding? Or will I have to live with a sagging bumper?

[Northern Bongolow]

if yours is the second type tony, that is the problem,it needs the support bracket welding, or use the first type.

[g8dhe]

We noticed our towbar sagging again shortly after replacing the damaged bar, so spoke with our new garage and showed them the A1 design and they have added an extra support welded to the original towbar and then up to the nearside chassis member. Only thing to watch out for is it passes very close to the exhaust box, and is likely to cause a knocking sound if not spaced by a bit of rubber!

[lpgimports]

A1 offer their Towbars with rough black paint on or powder coated with a nice thick well baked on coating...price is obviously different around £15 retail I would think.