Hi Simon and welcome to Eribafolk

That's a new one on me although the hitch is more reminiscent of a period ALKO hitch than a Winterhoff BPW hitch. Have you got a picture from another angle that we can possible show some of our classic Puck owners on our Facebook Group page?

Randa

If the Eriba was earlier I'd be thinking do you need to engage the lever to turn the brakes off when you reverse.

Colin

It looks like a simple lever with a tension spring, but no signs of a mechanism attached to it. I'm now thinking it might have been part of an anti-snaking fixture.

Colin

Hi Simon and thanks for the additional photos.

I've added a couple and have asked the question of our Eribafolk Facebook users as we do have a large number of classic Puck owners on there.

Randa

Hi Simon.

So far we've had 4 responses to your question:-

Tim Lewy
Top contributor
is it a manual reversing lever? If you pulled all the way forward, then pushed that down while reversing it would stop the brake from being applied. Not sure how it works without needing two people and risking running someone over though 🤔

James Allan
Top contributor
as said.. it's to prevent the brakes being applied when reversing.. move forward a tad to extent the hitch, stop, and push the lever in.. it prevents the sliding hitch moving back which would apply the brakes.. Vans with AL-KO hitches and axles have auto reversing brakes..

Suzy Amys Kinsman
Top contributor
As the others say, you lock the lever in place and it's supposed to stop the brakes from coming on when reversing.
However, I have the same hitch on my 1988 Puck and find it randomly doesn't appear to matter - you can still reverse back without locking them on even with the lever not engaged!!!

Dee Jackson
Suzy Amys Kinsman ditto. Used to use that lever every time, but then found it made little difference for short manoeuvring.

There'll probably be more but I hope that helps.

Randa