Trailer manufacturer Ifor Williams has responded to a video warning owners to fit breast bars correctly by stating they will work both ways.
Owner Garry Bosworth’s video of 7 July warned owners to ensure the collapsible breast bars are always fitted with the lynch pin, rather than the “curly end”, towards the outside of the trailer.
He demonstrated how if fitted the other way round, the bar would not drop when the trailer’s release system is activated from outside, for example in the event of a horse becoming stuck with its legs over the bar.
Some 300,000 people have watched the footage, many commenting to say they had not realised there was a right and a wrong way to fit the breast bars.
But an Ifor Williams spokesman said the bar will drop whichever way it is fitted.
“Our distributors talk customers through all the correct use and safety aspects for the trailers, including the fitting of the breast bar,” he added.
“The recommended orientation is to fit the lynch pin end to the outer side wall of the trailer and the curled end on the centre partition. Fitting the other way around does not mean that the external release system will fail to operate, but it is more likely that the pin end will break before dropping.
“This does not make it unsafe but is a failsafe if bars are fitted with the lynch pins nearest the centre partition.”
The spokesman said a user’s handbook and a photographic guide are provided with every trailer sold. He added that since 2008, the external release system has been fitted with eye bolts, which can be released using a wheelbrace, instead of allen key releases, so the system can be activated if the key is lost.
“Should customers with older trailers that are fitted with the allen key release system wish to update to the eyebolt system, they can buy the parts from their local Ifor Williams Trailers distributor,” he said.
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“We are also very happy to send out replacement user handbooks free of charge to customers who have lost them, or for customers who have bought the trailer second-hand.”
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