WESTFALIE TOWBAR WIRING KIT - dont buy it

[THE KICK INSIDE]

Well we decided to keep the superb, it seemed sensible....not so sure now!

We decided to get rid of one of the other vehicles that we use to tow so a bar/wiring was needed for the superb....

I have always made my own looms but decided to buy one this time....

Bought the westfalia towbar (removable) and the dedicated wiring kit (13 pin) and fridge extension kit from towequipe.

bar went on ok (apart from having to take half the car apart!)..

Wiring loom doesnt have provision for (the extension kit to plug into it (kit is for the loom....go figure) ) so we had to mod the end of the loom....then fit it, get it to the front of the car and its for a left hand drive car...so the fuse box is on the other side and it doesn't *beeeeeeeeeep* fit!

So now i will have to make supplemental loom and get it across the dash....i wouldn't mind but this total POS was £90 and supposed to be plug and play - no WAY am i stripping it out......to much time already gone into the fitting!

Looks like another family holiday is going to be canceled/delayed AGAIN due to the superb....

[Duffelcoat]

It's not all bad, at least that is one less caravan on the road for the time being - see every cloud has a silver lining!

[auroan]

Looks like another family holiday is going to be canceled/delayed AGAIN due to the superb....

Come on .... it's not the Superb's fault. Its the kit you bought.

[Gizmo]

WESTFALIE TOWBAR WIRING KIT - dont buy it

Or just make sure the kit supplied is correct for the car?

I assume you didn't check it was correct before you started fitting it? otherwise you would of sent it back for a RHD loom.

Looks like another family holiday is going to be canceled/delayed AGAIN due to the superb....

Sorry, but you can't blame the car or even Skoda this time when it is clearly towequipe's fault for supplying the wrong part(s).

[bryanp]

When you say you had to go to the front of the car was that for the auxillary 12v feeds for the caravan?

If it was, you can take the supply of the 12v socket in the boot, it's fed by a 20amp fuse thats situated behind the steering wheel in amongst all the relays you can see behind the fuse box, ( i know this as I managed to blow the fuse when installing my electrics and with the help of a Passat forum was able to find the fuse) this is more than sufficient as a minimum of a 15amp supply is needed and I was told by professional towbar fitters that this is the supply they would use, All you then need is caravan 12S socket relay, you wire a parmanent supply on to it from the 12v boot socket, it then gives you 3 ouputs, 1 is a permanent 12v supply and 2 are switch outputs (used for fridge and leisure battery charging normally), they are only active when the ignition is on and the Alternator is not loaded, it normally switches after about a minute of the engine running when its not pulling any extra power of the alternator.

Thats how i've done my as advised by the experts and its works great.

Hope that help BryanP

[THE KICK INSIDE]

Thanks for all the suggestions, i thought i WAS buying a right hand drive kit - specifically for a skoda superb!...but apparently such a beast doesn't exist! even the supplier thought they were selling me one!

The kit fits the back of the car perfectly (including the legal fog lamp requirements and killing the reversing sensors when the vans hung on the back).

The reason for wiring to the front of the car is that 20 amps wouldn't be enough to feed a modern caravan (the fridge can pull more than that - and my big leisure battery after using the mover can also sup like a good 'un!)

Plus the fact that i want to use the trailer fuse in the fuse box for the lights so i can change the fuse easily - separate feeds for the fridge and constant pins of course as per the regs.....

If anyone ever wants to do the job pm me and i can shed some light - including how a good 90% of the interior comes out (repeatedly in some cases!).

its about the 5th towbar i have chucked on and its been the biggest SOB to fit AND wire - always made my own looms before - sort of wish I had this time!

[rotodiesel]

I'm not usually in the habit of giving VAG credit for good design, but in respect of the Passat B5.5/Superb I can't fault it.

I bought my Superb as a towcar and it had to be fitted up for towing in double quick time - so I did it myself. I bought a Bosal towbar for a Passat on eBay (delivered the next day) and fitted it in a couple of hours - if I ever did another one it would be half that.

All the mounting points are there on the car and I didn't have to drill a single hole. There's even a blanked grommet to take the wiring - just stick a screwdriver through the membrane, fit the cable and seal with sealer to keep water out of the boot.

One detail though - VAG brake lamp switches are rubbish and my bigger trailer has 4 stop lamps. I fitted a relay in the boot activated from the car's brake lamp circuit and sourced the power for the trailer stop lamps from the back of the power socket in the boot via a 10A line fuse.

If only every job on a VAG car is as easy as this one was.

The PD diesel Superb is an excellent tow car and saves me a fortune in fuel when unhitched and in road tax over a Chelsea tractor.

rotodiesel.

[THE KICK INSIDE]

I agree the bar mounting is good (shame the boot interior isnt easier to remove...but like you say 2nd time would be easier)

why oh why dont manufacturers do like volvo do and just stick a big plug in the back....the bar took me maybe 2-3 hours the wiring...well lets say its done now but OMG what a pain!

the chelsea tractor took me less time to fit and wire than the superb did to fit the towbar AND i did that one solo!