New product: iTow smart towball

Worried that you’ve got too much, or not enough load on your towball? You should be, as if you exceed, or don’t make the industry-acknowledged 8-12 per cent of loaded trailer weight, your rig may tow badly and be susceptible to swaying.

With too much ball weight, you also putting more load on your tow vehicle's rear tyres, making them more susceptible to puncturing on unmade roads.

While every traveler should weigh the ball load of their laden caravan on a set of scales before they set off on a trip, few do. In any case, most of these scales, which can cost less than $100, are not always accurate unless you set them up correctly.

Your ball weight can also vary during a trip and in the case of an off-road caravan, it might vary by 50kg or more, depending if your jerrycans are full or empty, where your water tanks are located and what you have decided to carry in your front boot, or in a big toolbox hanging out the back.

The high-tech answer is the new iTow 50mm tow ball, which has an integrated measuring system that gives constant ball weight readings – either via Bluetooth directly to your smartphone as you travel in the Deluxe version, or to a visual gauge that can be attached to your A-frame.

Rated for towing up to 3500kg for a maximum 350kg downforce, the two current iTow models cost $1250 and $595 respectively, but if state road authorities crack down on overweight caravans as they are threatening to do, it could save you a fine.

iTow (it stands for intelligent tow ball) is also currently developing models to suit Cruisemaster DO-35 and AL-KO’s Click-Lock off-road pin coupling.

Visit the website for more information and to purchase current iTow models.