Tow Bar - HOW MUCH ??????

[bandit1]

Well,

Thanks Clock,

I have just picked myself off the floor, just been quoted £905.73 for a detatchable Towbar supply & fit to my (as yet not delivered) vRS Estate. This will be reduced to £825.29 if they can utilize the factory prep I have ordered.

Spoke to SUK & they said "dont bother with the FF prep, all it does is work with the PDC, I think" - Nothing changes there then SUK not knowing their own products

I can get the same towbar (Westfalia) for £480 including all the trailer stabilising software etc activated.

Anyone had any experiences here?

[Hauptmann]

I think dealer-fit towbars are always a bonkers price. When we got my wife's Fabia II they wanted something crazy to supply and fit. I did the job (exact same bar) with an OE electrics kit and it cost me about 1/3 the price. Needed to put a 'hatch' in the bumper, which was a little bit fraught, but it ended up a very tidy job. Took me about 3-4 hours. Only thing I've not done is enable the extra warning light on the dash (potentially can do it with my VAG-COM, but don't know how to!).

[M12MKD]

so dont bother with the towbar prep but still sell it to the customer! EEK!Have to say its not the most I've seen for having a tow bar fitted but still for what it takes and is that is alot of money!

[vrs442]

I have had a witter fixed on my Limited edition, cost fitted including single electrics was £240, used the same company my local dealer would have used. This didnt include the skoda electrics pack, but was including a relay kit to protect the canbus system.The detachable version was £370Jas

[sparky2]

Mine was factory fitted on the Scout (detachable) and cost £350 inc electrics, I think its made by Westfilla, the Skoda electrics talk to the car and it knows when the trailer is attached and displays an A-frame on the bolereo radio and cuts out the reversing sensors. cheers - Stuart.

[Lady Elanore]

Not sure if there might be something of interest for a Skoda owners here, but I had a retro fit towbar put on my little 123D. The best price for supply and fit was over £1,000. This might seem a lot, but it turns out that it is a 2 day job!! In the end got a BMW dealer to do the job for £350 (I sourced the towbar myself) and the dealer didn’t realise it was such a big job. But one thing that cropped up was once connected the cars systems demand a twin fan for the potential extra cooling required. As luck would have it my particular model already happens to have the twin fans anyway so it wasn’t an extra expense. Is it possible that there might be something that makes the fit of a Skoda towbar equally difficult and costly? Not necessarily extra cooling.

[M12MKD]

Not sure if there might be something of interest for a Skoda owners here, but I had a retro fit towbar put on my little 123D. The best price for supply and fit was over £1,000. This might seem a lot, but it turns out that it is a 2 day job!! In the end got a BMW dealer to do the job for £350 (I sourced the towbar myself) and the dealer didn’t realise it was such a big job. But one thing that cropped up was once connected the cars systems demand a twin fan for the potential extra cooling required. As luck would have it my particular model already happens to have the twin fans anyway so it wasn’t an extra expense. Is it possible that there might be something that makes the fit of a Skoda towbar equally difficult and costly? Not necessarily extra cooling.

I've read this before about BMW's needed an extra fan fitted for a tow bar. I'm sure to fit one to a X5 someone was quoted nearly £2k

[dan_the_v8man]

Extra fan is more than likely so the cooling system can cope with the extra load on the engine when the car is towing

[simonsheil]

Extra fan is more than likely so the cooling system can cope with the extra load on the engine when the car is towing

It is any used to be common years back, however since all cars have been adequatley cooled.

BMW then decided that a 4x4 should not be expected to be used for towing and bought in the additonal fan thing. Absolutley pathetic.

[Lady Elanore]

Perhaps one of the reasons is the efficient dynamics system? My car has an automated louvered blind in front of the radiator that is closed when the engine is stationary and only opens when the engine has warmed up. It means that the car doesn’t half warm up quickly. I wonder if this might reduce the air intake to the engine bay slightly, but it isn’t a problem with the highly efficient engines that BMW make (ie thermally efficient). This might mean that the car requires less cooling anyway, but once a big load like towing is applied, the car requires extra cooling. In any event I have 2 fans, a car that warms up super quickly (warm air in less than a mile in temperatures of around 5C) so I am happy.

[Pud]

Just had my 2.0 tdi 4X4 Octavia fitted with a detach towbar here in France. Cost just over 1100 euros, expensive, but I have to say a job very well done. Car seems to have been already wired for caravan use ie charging battery , fridge etc. Found four extra fuses in the dashboard unit,one 5, two 15 and one 20 amp. Price included new preshaped underskirt and an adapter for use with a seven pin trailer. Only ten pins in place in the cars plug, but on recent holiday test all worked extremly well. Having seen some of the problems encountered by other members I think it must be something to do with the difference between left and right hand drive build cars.

[sparky2]

Check your caravan is charging its battery when hooked up and you fridge is powered up on 12v as mine wasn't !!!! the 3 pins missing are for the above 10/11/12 ( 1 is a spare ) cheers - Stuart.

[Pud]

After a 5 hour tow down the autoroute I had ice crystals forming in the milk, so yes its working OK. In the fuse box in the dashboard fuse numbers 19- 5amp,43 and 45 -15 amp and 44 -20 amp are marked with a towbar sign. The 5 amp is for the device that cottons on that a trailer is connected, the others I assume are for the permanent feed for the van, battery charger and fridge.

[broere]

I know nothing about the practical side of placing tow bars. My former (VW) dealer, selling over 2000 cars a year (so not a small one) said he didn't place any after market tow bars any more, because of the enormous problems he encountered with the electronics afterwards. "Want a tow bar? Get one factory fitted!" was his message. Even spoke to a Mercedes dealer, who admitted having the same problems with after market tow bars and electronics.

And indeed, it is not only the fitting of the tow bar. What about the extra warning light in my dash, telling me that lights don't work at the back? And twin fans (my Passat needed them most certainly) or a bigger fan? Perhaps the clutch? The rear suspension?

My Skoda has a factory fitted (detachable) tow bar, for sure.

[simonsheil]

I know nothing about the practical side of placing tow bars. My former (VW) dealer, selling over 2000 cars a year (so not a small one) said he didn't place any after market tow bars any more, because of the enormous problems he encountered with the electronics afterwards. "Want a tow bar? Get one factory fitted!" was his message. Even spoke to a Mercedes dealer, who admitted having the same problems with after market tow bars and electronics.

And indeed, it is not only the fitting of the tow bar. What about the extra warning light in my dash, telling me that lights don't work at the back? And twin fans (my Passat needed them most certainly) or a bigger fan? Perhaps the clutch? The rear suspension?

My Skoda has a factory fitted (detachable) tow bar, for sure.

Fitting of bars is easy these days due to type approval which generally means the bars bolt straight on to pre-determined munting pointsand makes them very strong. Suspension, clutch will wear out quicker but thy would if you drive around with the car full all the time. Electrics are trickier than they used to be with canbus but I do not believe the realy kits work fine, as for the light on the dash all is required is that you know if the indicators are not working. This is generally done with a buzzer. As for extra fans I stongly think this is just car manafacturers cutting costs to the bone.

The dealer do very little to what aftermarket providers do and charge a lot more. In additon you are probably paying more for someone who knows less about what he is doing.

[Web Ferret]

Whitter fixed bar, twin electrics, plug in wiring kit, VagCom download, extra cable from fuse box through car for fridge.

Cuts rear fog and parking sensors when trailer plugged in and bulb warning light works with trailer lights.

£400 all in from independant specialist with lifetime warranty.

[sparky2]

Whitter fixed bar, twin electrics, plug in wiring kit, VagCom download, extra cable from fuse box through car for fridge.

Cuts rear fog and parking sensors when trailer plugged in and bulb warning light works with trailer lights.

�400 all in from independant specialist with lifetime warranty.

I need to pick up a switched live for the fridge, do you know where they have picked up the feed from ? or connected to which fuse ? cheers - Stuart.

[YMe]

£630 plus for mine, a removeable OEM towbar, dealer fitted to 11 month old Ambiente 1.9 TDi DSG.

15 pin socket and converter to 12n/12s socket supplied. No buzzer for indicators but hadn't realised about the warning light indicator until recently. A bit pricey but no trouble since fitting. Very neat even the socket tucks away when not in use and the spare wheel holder has a cut out for the tow ball when not fitted.

[Chipping]

Aftermarket Brink bar and electrics fitted to my 1.9 DSG two years ago for £350. No issues with it.

Bar is a swan neck with sockets tight against the lower bumper skirt so looks about as neat as these things can.

[StevoTDI]

Can you take some pics please...

Mine is fixed, I am looking for converting it...

Thanks

[pmc]

I bought the tow bar from ebay and skoda wiring kit and fitted them myself. Took me two days and lots of swear words.

Can't decide if any savings I made were worth two days of my life!

pmc