Towbar electric socket plate offroad clearance

[threadlock]

Hi all,
Took my XC90 offroading at the weekend in a small way (at a pay-and-play site). All went well except that my towbar electric socket mounting plate got bent, as you'd probably expect.





It's a standard towbar with the socket mounted off to the side of the ball and the bottom of the socket plate is maybe 1cm below the bottom of the ball casting. Do you offroaders have a 'normal' solution for this that moves the socket up and out of the way? I can't find any socket plates online that seem to solve the problem. Some move the socket up slightly but it would still be vulnerable.

[KevinCamaroSS]

Have no definitive answer, but, perhaps to mount it into the plastic trim?

[threadlock]

Interesting idea - thinking out of the box. Thanks!

[chryslerben]

Installed one set of electrics that was tucked up behind the bumper facing vertical down, never caught anything and still easy to use.

[threadlock]

Hmm. I've seen a variety of mounting plates for the socket including some right-angle ones. Perhaps they'd fit in a different position from the ball mounting plate - I shall investigate. Thanks for that too.

[GIYess]

I always just bent it back if I needed to hook on a trailer . Plate can be made up or modifies to go above towbar or up behind bumper somewhere though I found that the plugs tend to get full of dirt then so better to keep them rear facing.

[jkh112]

I have used a double mounting plate with the lower mount cut off.