Blobsta
Active Member
I spotted this on eBay last night: Towbar fixed for MERCEDES M-Class W163.1998-2005 With screws | eBay
I'll pop some pics and detail here for context but the real concern was the seller's statement that read "This is everything you need". He has since revised the advert to just what is included in the picture.
Essentially this is what he is selling:
Having casually looked into getting a towbar for the ML, I knew there was more to it than this so I asked if he had the support brackets for the bumper and sent a link to the fitting guide.
The response I received was:
Here are a few of the images from the fitting guide:
So essentially, this guy is suggesting that what he has is everything you need to achieve the plated towing capacity of a W163 which (I believe) is 3.5t. The problem is that it can only pull that weight if the hitch is reinforced as the standard bumper iron is not capable of sustaining that level of stress. Someone will buy this and I hope they are as lucky as he was or at least as lucky as the people following him were. There is no inspection for the fitment of a tow bar as far as I know so there is a good chance this will end in disaster for someone.
He immediately revised his description after I speculated that he was gambling with people's lives. I suppose he's not now as it's down to the installer to do the research and he's not stating it's "everything you need".
If I were to guess, I'd say he had no idea the strengthening plates were on the car and it's gone for scrap, if he knew they should be there, he'd have taken them off, or if he knew they weren't there he'd have known they should have been.
Be careful out there everyone!
I'll pop some pics and detail here for context but the real concern was the seller's statement that read "This is everything you need". He has since revised the advert to just what is included in the picture.
Essentially this is what he is selling:
Having casually looked into getting a towbar for the ML, I knew there was more to it than this so I asked if he had the support brackets for the bumper and sent a link to the fitting guide.
The response I received was:
Hi
I took it out of my car and it did not have those plates you say.
They just tighten the screws on the base of the car.
I have traveled by caravan 2 times to Europe without any problems
Thanks
Here are a few of the images from the fitting guide:
So essentially, this guy is suggesting that what he has is everything you need to achieve the plated towing capacity of a W163 which (I believe) is 3.5t. The problem is that it can only pull that weight if the hitch is reinforced as the standard bumper iron is not capable of sustaining that level of stress. Someone will buy this and I hope they are as lucky as he was or at least as lucky as the people following him were. There is no inspection for the fitment of a tow bar as far as I know so there is a good chance this will end in disaster for someone.
He immediately revised his description after I speculated that he was gambling with people's lives. I suppose he's not now as it's down to the installer to do the research and he's not stating it's "everything you need".
If I were to guess, I'd say he had no idea the strengthening plates were on the car and it's gone for scrap, if he knew they should be there, he'd have taken them off, or if he knew they weren't there he'd have known they should have been.
Be careful out there everyone!
