Many thanks to those who have responded, particularly those who are on holiday or should be working... Randa's measurement of 370mm isn't too far away from my estimated 355mm, so I think I can say with some confidence that my van tow hitch sits at a 'normal' height when level. That leaves the car. Tipsywitch's measurement from their V70 at 410mm centre ball height clearly shows the culprit - as I suspected! Pepe's pointers of differing swan necks gives me hope for finding a replacement. Quite why mine is so tall, I really don't know, It could have been a specific requirement for a previous owner, perhaps. Oh, and Volvo customer care were pretty much as useless as I expected them to be, they 'didn't have that information to hand but if I care to contact the local main dealer, they would fall over themselves to help..'

The van did sit perfectly behind the Mondeo, but the poor old Mondeo, bless it, had a significant shortfall of horses beneath the bonnet which, thankfully, the Volvo provides in spades..

Giddy up!!

I'll follow up on a replacement swan neck and will report back with my findings and, hopefully, a report of a resolution..

Thanks once again to all..

could the tow bar be high because the suspension on a Volvo have more travel when weight is added?

try towing down m42 am sure the tow bar height will be correct after that road, cost me 2 springs, did me shocks in, and lit up the space station with me head lights, and me teeth nearly were dentures, eye balls were over exercised, by time got to end.at service station..
was thinking the road cement was laid on a Monday
been 6 years since last travelled...

For the first time since I started this thread, I've been able to hitch the van to the car and look at it a little more objectively. When hitched (car and van unladen) the centre height drops to around 420mm (from 475mm centre unladen). This is still slightly nose up an the heights of the floor are 410mm ahead of the axle, 330mm to the rear.

But the I look at the photo and wonder whether I'm being a might over-concerned. What thoughts of others?|addpics|17v-5-0398.jpg-invaddpicsinvv|/addpics|

Or in the front of the Eriba😀

I fitted a drop plate to my witter tow bar fitted to my Land Rover as the nose was way up on my troll 550. Nice level tow now.

I'm reminded of this thread having seen it mentioned in new thread that has just appeared. Shortly after the above photo was taken, I set off for France and did a couple of thousand trouble free miles. I did pay attention to the nose weight - which I set around 75kg, and the set up towed perfectly. I was also just a little concerned about the tail of the van grounding in extreme circumstances (eg on a Ferry ramp etc) but that wasn't the case either..

So my fears were unwarranted..

Thanks for all the help and advice - particularly the one about cases of wine as ballast....