Millstone

I have mine already there as standard, but has anybody fitted one under drivers seat? (I have the 'standard' plastic box at the moment) I have a set of underseat storeage (both sides) for a Touran, but unfortunatly it won't fit the Yeti - As I'd paid extra for them I 'liberated' them before the car went back !!

Passed a Red (I think) one about 1.00pm this afternoon on the M66/A56 north of Bury in Lancashire, going up the hill towards Accrington - I was pushing it a bit as I was heading for Blackburn and trying to get round the closure of both the M6 and the M61, and still make a 2.00pm appointment (I did - just) I flashed my 4-ways when I had passed, but no response that I could see, looked like a slightly older couple ( not that I'm that young!!) Even though I had pushed it a bit the Maxidot still showed 44mpg when I stopped in Blackburn... M6, M61 (still)plus the M65 all closed when I returned, ended up going across country via Chorley, took hours, should have gone back down the M66!!

Tip - don't rely on the sticky tape to hold the stuff in place - put a few drops of super glue on the sticky bits before you place them, they stay on properly then...

Lights set on 'Automatic' - wiper stalk one click up (in the intermittent position) and engine running of course!! Try this and then chuck some water at the top of the screen to test (shut the door first !!)

Fair comment - I only suggested them for 2 reasons, 1. They are the only NTTA approved company in Scotland, which means they should be able to do the job and.. 2. They use wiring looms from 'Right-Connections' the same as I have fitted on my Yeti, I know that these work properly and he will have been trained to fit them (unlike some Skoda dealers !!) As to his web site... well.. I took the liberty of phoning them and asked a few pertinant questions without telling him why.. He agrees the web-site is cr*p and is in the process of re-doing it, he also told me that he has been away on holiday (in his caravan) for the last 2 weeks and hasn't yet caught up on his emails. But more importantly he DOES have the kit to re-program VAG cars (Oh and his rough price for a fixed swan neck bar with a proper wiring kit and caravan charging etc would be about £300) I suspect he will reply to your email soon, might be worth second thoughts.. regards Richard

Hi Breckie - these are the contact details: HOMEFIT TOWBARS 29 Osbourne Drive Kincardine-on-Forth By Alloa Clackmanningshire FK10 4RZ 01259 730426 Taken from the Right Connections web site..

Hi Graham My guy arrived at 9.00am on the dot, and reversed back down my drive at 12.30pm - That included 2 mugs of tea, all the paperwork and payment, coding, testing with his set-up and with my caravan. Admittedly I had pre-removed all the boot contents, spare wheel, boxes etc and taken the rear seats out as well so he had a 'clean' space to work in. He had the bumper off and the bar fitted in less than 20 minutes, and as soon as he had the loom through the bumper was cut and replaced. I was amazed at how quickly he managed to strip out all the lining,and the dash parts, but he told me it was almost the same as a Golf, or an A3, so it was relatively easy for him. I had a full 'Right-Connections' loom fitted (made I think by the same company in Germany who make them all for the VAG group) with full caravan electrics (fridge, charging etc) As I had a fixed swan neck bar I didn't have the removable hatch, but the trick with anything that relies on 'sticky tape' is to put super glue on the tape or as Tech1e has done pop rivet the thing in. My guy told me he usually does 3 installations a day - mostly with proper vehicle specific wiring looms, hardly any 'scotch-lock and 7 way relays' at all nowadays, and he had to drive to each one - his next call after me was in Liverpool - 47 miles away!! Also note Countryboy's experience at Phil Taylor Towbars where they 'hit' the car mob-handed and did the whole - full loom - job in 90 minutes! Even Tech1e's time is a bit prolonged - 6 hours at Skoda Dealer labour rates - no wonder they want £700 - £900 to fit one!

20 hours for a job that can be done by one man in about 3 hours !!! or in a couple of noted cases by 3 men in 1 1/2 hours and at about half the price quoted too !!! - see the other tow bar thread that's running at the moment...

As you say it's not that difficult - if you know what you are doing!! It seems that an awful lot of Skoda Dealers don't, problem with most garage 'fitters' is just that - they fit - they are not mechanics and their most used tool is the plug in diagnostic machine - if the machine says "break wind" they probably would do so... On the other hand people like MDS towbars (in my case) or in Countryboy's case Phil Taylor Towbars know exactly what they are doing, do it well and at sensible prices, instead of charging top dollar for something they can't do properly anyhow. Incidently as I understand it if you just 'scotchlock' the connections you will get a bulb failure warning every time you plug a trailer into the car' and as you have found you can't program anything to work properly (reversing lights, fog lights, sensors etc etc)

Ian Can I suggest that if you are going to have to pay for the wiring to be done properly rather than argue with the dealer about the cost, contact these people http://www.philtaylortowbars.webeden.co.uk/# who come highly recomended by members on here (they are in Hamshire) and get them to fit a proper wiring kit and reprogram it, I suspect their price will be cheaper than the dealer too. Richard

Brekie Try these people http://www.homefit-towbarsscotland.co.uk/ they appear to be the only NTTA approved company in Scotland and they use a wiring system from a company called 'Right Connections' - (http://www.rightconnections.co.uk/viewpage.php?page_id=1) which I have fitted to my Yeti and EVERYTHING works perfectly, including caravan electrics etc. - (Don't know if they have the kit for vehicle coding though) Incidently I paid just £355 for a swan neck (fixed) Westfalia towbar with full 13 pin electrics fitted at my home in just 3 hours!! (I'm in Cheshire) Regarding your trailer - (roughly) where do you want it moving from, and where to ? I'm in Scotland soon on business and may be able to help Richard

If it's Lombard they use Carrs at Bridgewatger (Helston Group) give Gordon a ring - he looks after 'fleet' sales and he will tell you exactly when (or if) the car will be delivered. Lombard told me 4-6 weeks initially, it took 7 months !!

I'm not surprised you are 'hacked off'- you dealer is talking a load of bull**it ! Fact: A single fixed swan neck tow-bar will NOT be seen by the reversing sensors - just compair the height of either of them. Fact: If they try to 'put a switch in' they will bug*er up the electronics - have they not yet worked out that the Yeti is run by a fairly sophisticated computer? Ask them if they know what a 'can-bus' is? Fact: an aftermarket tow bar will NOT effect your warranty' After all they are trying to sell you Genuine Skoda Accessories !!!and Skoda offer all the parts needed to do the job. Fact: You will be far better going to an independent tow-bar fitting company who know what they are doing, after a quick search I came across these people www.bankfarm-trailers.co.uk who are at Newport (not a million miles from Bristol) who should be able to fit the tow-bar, WIRE IT PROPERLY (!!) and also RE-CODE the Yeti to give you not only trailer stability, but also reversing sensors that recognise when you have a trailer attached, check the bulbs on the trailer and let you know when one has failed, and display a trailer on the Bolero screen when you select reverse. You will also save a ruck of money on the cost compaired to what the dealer will want to charge. To give you an idea I had mine done by a company who came to my home and did it, Swan Neck Westfalia fixed bar, 13 pin electrics included full caravan charging and fridge etc, reprogrammed all for £355 including VAT (June this year) - unfortunatly I live in Cheshire, so my supplier wouldn't come that far. But the firm I have mentioned above are a distributor for the same product (wiring kit) that I had fitted, and they are listed as being able to re-code as well. DON'T be fobbed off, or ripped off by the dealer!!! P.S. you might also try these people http://www.britanniabristol.co.uk/ who appear to have the correct kit as well.

You may find these people useful http://www.wheels.uk.com/ and they are reasonably close to you as well.

I wouldn't have bothered, the first thing Autowindscreens did with mine was to up the bonnet and remove the wipers completely!!

Sorry duplicate post - pressed the button twice !!!

You might try these people http://www.wilmond.co.uk/ they would probably do a you a better deal than the dealer, and they have the (Westfalia) kit to 'code' the vehicle properly.

The Westfalia detachable tow bar is effectivly a 'swan neck' that also comes off... (I have a Westfalia Swan neck) No problems at all with an Alko stabiliser, it will fit OK and will work OK, it's just the length of the 'neck' which is important for Alko. More importantly make sure the dealer knows how to code the Yeti properly !! He needs to activate the trailer stability program, make sure the lights are recognised by the Yeti (i.e. if a bulb fails on the Caravan it should tell you on the maxidot, activate the reversing sensor cut off - when the caravan is connected the sensors cut off and a picture appears on the screen showing a trailer connected. You will also find that if you have the lights on automatic then the caravan lights are on with the DLRs. If you have any problems over programming forget the dealer and find some body on this site with a VAG-COM who can do the job properly (and in about 3 minutes!!) therte are a few people in your part of the world who can assist, check some of the previous posts on the subject.

Slightly off subject... We stopped at Agincourt in June for some lunch, pulled very carefully off the (narrow) road into a very wide farm road, and parked carefully out of the way. We had just settled down to 'Le Picnic' when there appeared a tractor towing a very large cutter followed by an even larger combine harvester! They proceeded to negotiate round our parking and hooked the two togther in order to combine the field next to us. They assured us that we were no problem and we should stay where we were and enjoy our lunch. SWMBO would have none of it - it was all my fault because I should have known that a combine would arrive, etc etc, so I had to leave my lunch, pack up and set off in a hurry. We left and headed for the main road, in the village we met the rest of the 'gang' 2 x tractors towing huge grain trailers - narrow road and I was towing 7.4 metres of caravan behind the Yeti !! - Just managed to sqeeze through, The Agincourt Battlefield has a totally different meaning for me !!

They are absolutely correct - it's a 'Hairdressers' car !!! (goes well though....)

What the 'Yeti Spare Bulb Kit Zenon' actually contains is a special adaptor anda Halogen Bulb, which can be used in place of the Zenon bulb in an emergency, it does NOT contain a Zenon bulb, nor I am afraid does it contain a DLR bulb !! ...but that's another bone of contention.....

Interesting stories... My handover was done 'by the book' - my car was leased from Lombard who INSIST that a full handover and explanation is given to EVERY customer, and they phone to check that it was done properly a few days after.. However I have no complaints, I had not had a Skoda before (though I did have a Touran 3 years ago) so it was nice to be shown the features and have an explanation of how they (should) work. Having said that I drove away from the dealer, pulled into the first layby and got the hand book out to see how to connect the blue tooth (information overload at the dealer) and made a quick test call to my daughter to check it worked. I then had to drive about 160 miles to an exibition I was due at later in the day, but as soon as I had settled into my hotel (and eaten) I was off out to try the cornering bi-zenons - in the country lanes around Newbury, climbing roads through woods - they were fantastic !! and still are... As to 'hammering' the dealer for every last penny and free gifts etc, please consider one thing.. the dealer MUST make a profit - if he doesn't he won't be here tomorrow and who will look after your car then? Profit is the one thing that keeps the world going, you sell your labour for a 'profit' just as the local shop sells it's goods, and car dealers sell cars. Don't knock the word 'profit' without it the economy would totally collapse... Mind you we all like a discount !!!

Looks very nice, and obviously keeps your jacket nice and tidy, BUT... boy does it obscure the 'quick glance' over your right shoulder, with my 'Good quality beechwood hanger with rubber inset cross-bar' I turn the coat at a slight angle so that I can see clearly out of the rear off-side window if needed - Motorcyclists call this glance 'The Lifesaver' !!

Ah...But there's no bar to hang your trousers...!!!

I use a good quality Beech-Wood coathanger (with rubber inset in the cross bar) hung on the grab handle behind the driver. It's angled so that I can see over my right shoulder if I need to, works in every car I have had.