Our Eriba came with aluminum plating over the drawbar. Nice, but purely cosmetic. It's completely unreinforced, and you're definitely not allowed to stand on it. There was another odd thing: the plating rattled while driving. It turns out that ten self-tapping screws were missing to attach the plating to the underside of the caravan. See the photos below for the first thing to fix. Other improvements further down this page.

On the left are the missing screws from our new Eriba, next to them are the self-tapping screws with washers we'll use to fix it. The question remains: how can Eriba forget a whole row of screws during production? At least our caravan doesn't rattle anymore...

Even though the aluminum plating is now attached to the caravan, it's still very fragile. We're going to kill two birds with one stone: reinforce the plating and install an extra aluminum box that adds space to the small drawbar locker. 

We reinforce the aluminum plating with U-shaped profiles. A 15 x 15 mm profile is placed crosswise at the rear so it fits between the drawbar and the plating. On either side, a 20 x 20 mm U-shaped profile runs from back to front, precisely along the cutouts for the drawbar wheel. Mounted with 6 mm stainless steel screws and lock nuts. We also use sealant to make everything even more rigid. See photo on the right.

Below is the new aluminium box. Photo 1: Adding dividers in the box. Photo 2: Practical use. Photo 3: It doesn't look like a stylistic inconsistency?  

That little box frees up a lot of space in the drawbar locker. The stainless steel screws to secure the box go right through the aluminum reinforcements underneath.

 

Comments and questions:

Zebra_Hundra: In the last large photo, the gas tanks are simply loose, not secured with the tension straps. Why? Answer: Because the caravan wasn't moved. Don't be afraid: as soon as we start driving, the gas tanks are tied up in their straps.