I am looking at the possible purchase of a Scout Tdi. I would like to have a towbar fitted which will not be factory supplied. Skoda Dealer has suggested Towbar specialist rather than dealer themselves would be better value option..

Does anyone have experience of having this done associated costs, warranty issues etc?

Many thanks

Loskie

I am looking at the possible purchase of a Scout Tdi. I would like to have a towbar fitted which will not be factory supplied. Skoda Dealer has suggested Towbar specialist rather than dealer themselves would be better value option..

Does anyone have experience of having this done associated costs, warranty issues etc?

Many thanks

Loskie

Hi Loskie

I think I would agree with your dealer, they charge a fortune and are not the best qualified, yes they are good at servicing (thats not cheap either)but the times I have heard them messing up the fitting, that said its mainly the wiring that they cannot seem to get there heads round that.

as far as warranty I cannot see what problems !

Radiotwo

I bought a Bosal towbar on eBay for my Superb and fitted it myself.

All the mountings are already in the car (holes taped over with masking tape inside the boot and sprayed car colour) and fitting it was a piece of cake - the kit was an exact fit.

Wiring is straightforward on the old Superb (pre multiplex) but you may well need an interface kit for the Octavia II.

Do it yourself and get it right first time - and save money. I can't remember how much the local Skoda dealer quoted for the work but it was a silly price - especially when I found out how easy it was to fit.

rotodiesel.

Go for a specialist. Our Skoda's have both been fitted with brackets by local specialists prior to collection at a cost of under £400 for a fixed bracket with twin electrics.

Does it become complicated with reverse parking sensors?

Am having mine fitted at the Skoda dealership for about £400. Was quoted around £500 in other places. Have been recommended that a detachable towbar is fitted due to the reversing sensors. Fixed are available but am told it could screw the sensors up. Hope that helps.

Don't forget that if you have a tow bar fitted its now checked as part of the MOT

As regards price, I was quoted a lot of money by the dealer - forgotten quite how much, but ordered it factory fitted, cost about £250 for the detachable, which includes storage for it in the centre of the spare wheel.

Oh!! Fitted to a 4x4 last summer!

I was quoted over £800 for a detachable on my 2008 Octavia Scout.

Again the same dealer recommended a local towbar specialist.

Been quoted £300 for a Witter detachable with a hidden single 13 pin socket.

They also offered me the same towbar that Skoda use (same manufacturer, different box) for £390. After a quick demo I actually preferred the locking mechanism and the look of the Witter.

As the Scout has the parking sensors a detachable was strongly recommended.

Just had a Westfalia towbar fitted yesterday with a detachable hitch by a local specialist. £340. Skoda wanted £577. Reverse sensors are indeed confused whenever something is mounted on the hitch. But the special wiring to disable the sensors adds to the cost. I'll live with the beeping when I reverse. A very neat 'invisible' installation with the single socket hinging out of the way.Specialist recommended this brand over the slightly more expensive Witter.

:( Mine was factory fitted ( £350 ) and came with a detachable hitch with a 13pin flip down socket. Only trouble is that the socket WASN'T wired for a towing a caravan so I ordered the supplementary wiring kit ( £40 ) which turned out to be a box of wires a relay and some fuse connections, It also had a 3 pin connector to plug into the back of the 13 pin socket to be able to pick up the extra 3 pins that wasn't wired. Trouble then was that the socket had the pins missing ( 10/11/12 ) so there was noware to connect the 3 pin connector too so managed to have a refund on the £40, when looking at the 13 pin socket ALL of the wires were crimped and so couldn't be modified/reused, I ended up buying another 13 pin socket ( £12 ) with screw connections and refitting this onto the car with the extra pins wired, why oh why don't Skoda fit the extra pins and leave the wires behind the socket. cheers - Stuart.

My fixed towbar doesn't interfere with the parking sensors at all. Fitting it yourself isn't that difficult a job (It's not quick though). The electrics are a bit of a pain, but the kit I got from towequipe had plugs to go between the wiring for the rear lights and the lights themselves so no splicing wires or blown bulb warnings. The only other connection it needed was for power run from the fuse box and a ground to the body of the car (I used the same ground as the CD changer as the control box for the trailer lights fits behind the boot carpet under the CD changer. My setup is for lights only though, so no switched power to run a caravan fridge. The reverse parking sensors to beep continuously when reversing with a trailer connected - I think some kits may be able to tell the car when a trailer is connected and turn the sensors off but mine doesn't support this.