Car Insurance and towbars

Having previously had a towbar fitted for a bike carrier, I had not thought to notify my insurance company. I have just read that this can invalidate you insurance, whether using it or not.

Do you notify your insurance company ?

Is it just me that didn’t think about it ?

Some want to know about it, others don’t care. just check the “modifications” list and see if it appears

It seems to depend

One that told me they wouldn’t insure a vehicle with one unless it was OEM and fitted at the factory which seemed a bit extreme.  I feigned ignorance about when it was fitted.

It is a modification, and one that could potentially actually have an impact on a claim e.g. reverse into something, have a bike fall off the rack, someone rear-end you, any accident whilst towing a trailer. So probably worth declaring. 

Only really an issue if they’ve to pay you for a total loss, and you’re wanting £1-2k to put a towbar onto the replacement car etc.

I read about this and the driver had a claim turned down due to undeclared modifications. Even took it to be Ombudsman and lost the case.

I would declare it just in case given it’s going to be unclear on a price comparison site if you need to or not and now a precedent has been set (Flow at least) that towbars are modifications.

PS case involved a removal tow bar for a bike carrier that wasn’t fitted. Looking at £100k liability.

Yes you need to notify them.  From the insurers perspective, a car towing a trailer/caravan is a different risk profile than a car without.  Also it’s a easy way for them to get out of paying, as it’s easy to spot the modification.

Just checked mine after reading this and thankfully my car policy covers towbars as standard.

Yes. Didn’t change anything, but it was noted from then on.

Declaring the detachable towbar on our Merc Vito actually brought the insurance cost down!

I’ve always told them and it’s not had any impact

Better check my policy, new Octavia has a factory fitted towbar which is released from a boot catch.

Have had after-market removeables fitted on 4 previous vehicles and not had any issues (but not stacked it either)

Current car has a factory fitted electric folding tow ball, but I’ll check w insurance to be sure to be sure having read this report on Road.cc (was that the same one OP?)

https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-denied-car-insurance-due-tow-bar-bike-carrier-311579

Any new policy I take I email them and tell them I have towbar and use roof bars for bikes and canoes. So many sites don’t have them as modifications – yet they need to be declared.

The link above it a pretty sad read of a lack of transparency and weedling out of a claim, not helped by the Ombudsman.

I know insurance is a business, not a charity and goodwill is thin on the ground but creating possible hidden loopholes/escape clauses seems a new low after premium hikes which, when challenged on the phone result in instant reduction. Shysters.

Some want to know about it, others don’t care. just check the “modifications” list and see if it appears

It didn’t appear in the list in the case cited above as I recall.

others don’t care. just check the “modifications” list and see if it appears

If in doubt, select the “other modification not listed”. It’ll be referred to an underwriter for review

I declare tow bar, sunroof (both factory options from previous owner) and roof bars, doesn’t appear to impact price but wouldn’t want them to wriggle out of a claim.

Factory options are not a modification in the same way that metallic paint isn’t. A dealer for option could be argued to be a modification I guess.
Very unlikely to change the price but I guess quite possible that some insurers will have a “no mods” policy and simply won’t quote

Something I spent a fair bit of time looking into when I bought our last car was max towball weight. I wanted to be able to carry four bikes on the back plus the rack of course. At 15kg a bike plus 25kg for the rack it’s 85kg… a surprising number of vehicles I looked at wouldn’t do that (you need to check manufacturer’s specs). But that doesn’t even take into account the leverage of a rack. The manufacturer of our rack specified the max weight should be no more than 60% of the max towball weight.

I figure if I was exceeding this weight when involved in an accident my insurance company would reject a claim.

I’ve always told them, some insurers that used to be hard to work out how, but having renewed recently doing the usual comparison dance it was easy on all the sites this year.

The insurer has ended up paying the claim.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/exclusive/365458/driver-whose-towbar-voided-his-insurance-wins-payout

Good.

A slight divergence from the topic, not sure if it has been mentioned before in this or another thread, but some cars that you technically could fit a towbar to are not homologated to have one fitted. Mine is one example. I assume that this would invalidate any insurance if someone tried it even just for a small bike rack

some cars that you technically could fit a towbar to are not homologated to have one fitted. Mine is one example.

As far as I understand it the car is not homologated for towing. That means you can’t tow a trailer but it doesn’t prevent you from fitting a tow bar & using a bike rack.

This came up on a BMW forum concerning the M135\40 which isn’t homologated for towing whilst the rest of the one series are.

The discussion I saw seemed pretty conclusive but best check with your insurers anyway.

This came up on a BMW forum concerning the M135\40 which isn’t homologated for towing whilst the rest of the one series are.

The discussion I saw seemed pretty conclusive

The guy in the article linked above nearly ended up paying out a 6 figure sum for having a legal towbar fitted to a car that was certified and rated to tow (and it was even detached at the time and in the boot) and it was only because of the intervention of AutoExpress and a load of media attention that sanity prevailed.

Do you honestly think that fitting a towbar to a non-homologated car, stacking it with a 15kg bike rack and two eBikes and saying its alright guv, a bunch of guys on a forum said it was ok as long as I promised not to tow with it is going to end well?

Not a chance.

You ‘may’ get away with a Brink bikerack specific hitch but given the way insurance companies behave these days I’d no longer take the risk.

reeksyFull Member
Something I spent a fair bit of time looking into when I bought our last car was max towball weight. I wanted to be able to carry four bikes on the back plus the rack of course. At 15kg a bike plus 25kg for the rack it’s 85kg… a surprising number of vehicles I looked at wouldn’t do that (you need to check manufacturer’s specs). But that doesn’t even take into account the leverage of a rack. The manufacturer of our rack specified the max weight should be no more than 60% of the max towball weight.

I figure if I was exceeding this weight when involved in an accident my insurance company would reject a claim.

I’ve tried to suss out what is OK for my set up.

My car has a tow ball ‘nose weight’ of 100kg. ie the static downward force from the trailer / caravan’s hitch onto the towing ball itself.  But that has a ball connection that can pivot, so the loading will be different with a bike rack.

With a trailer / caravan there’s the nose weight vertically down (or up when the caravan pitches) + longitudinal loads during acceleration and braking, up and down hill etc. And some lateral loads when cornering + when the caravan starts to wag the dog !

I sort of concluded the loads (and more over the *bending moments* on the tow ball / it’s bolts)  will probably be lower with the bike rack than towing a 2 tonne caravan.

I’ve a Thule XTSpace bike rack + also use their ‘backspace’ box that is designed to go onto the bike rack.  Rack listed weight is about 20kg.  Box is 24kg.  Box instructions say limit of loading the box is 60kg.   So there you have close to the Ford specified max 100kg nose ball weight.

You’d have at least hoped Thule thought a little when knowing the box was specifically designed for use with their bike rack and a typical tow ball.

Cost me £30 ‘admin’ fee to add the towbar I had fitted between purchase and then having to make a claim following an unscheduled interface with a concrete bollard in a retail park.

The articles above are a bit all over the place, respectfully. They both leap ahead and leap around without clearly explaining what actually happened. There’s so much confusion about car insurance already…

Do you honestly think that fitting a towbar to a non-homologated car, stacking it with a 15kg bike rack and two eBikes and saying its alright guv, a bunch of guys on a forum said it was ok as long as I promised not to tow with it is going to end well?

That’s why I said, “check with your insurance company.”

The homologation is for TOWING, not tow bars.