Detachable towbar

[Martyy]

Hi

Ive searched through a few posts on towbars, but my question is a non genuine detachable towbar such as a witter, be compatable with skodas genuine towbar wiring harness?

Is it actually worth getting skodas wiring, for rear sensors etc? Bearing in mind im looking at towing 1300kg.

Cheers

Marty

[countryboy]

You will find that the Skoda towbar is actually made by Westfalia if I'm right. If you want to get wiring so that the parking sensors and fog lights etc stop working when you have something connected up then go for a vehicle specific kit. It will cost more than a bog standard wiring kit that just connects to the wiring at the back of the car but it will be worth it in my opinion. It will plug into the convenience unit at the front of the car and providing you have gone to an independant who knows his stuff and has the coding equipment then he will set it up so that the car knows when you have a trailer/caravan on the back. The car will then disable the parking sensors and the fog light, will engage the trailer stability programme if you have a car with ESP and you will get bulb out warnings if an indicator fails in the trailer. Any good independant will be able to fit a kit suitable for your car and it won't affect the warranty.

Ian

Just looked at your post more closely and no, the towbar will not affect the wiring as the electrical and mechanical bits are entirely separate, apart from where the sockets are bolted to the towbar of course.

Edited 10 October, 2011 by countryboy

[Wayne Kerr]

How much is the Detachagle tow bar EEA 600 001

And the Electrics for tow bar EFA 600 101A EL4.

Fitted by a dealer?

[matt_theforce]

I have a detachable witter towbar, I didn't fit it or the electrics but they work fine on my car .

Personally, if you get the option for a Westfelia I would go for that as the detachable part fits in the foam insert inside the spare wheel

[silver1011]

How much is the Detachable tow bar EEA 600 001

And the Electrics for tow bar EFA 600 101A EL4.

Fitted by a dealer?

A quick search on here Wayne will reveal loads of threads on tow bars.

The common themes are:

- The huge variation in cost as some dealers fit them themselves; others contract it out to local fitters.

- The general lack of knowledge of the dealers on all things tow bar related, including the factory fit wiring kit.

- The confusion over electronics / wiring compatibility - disabling rear fog light, radio display compatibility etc.

- Suitability with reversing sensors.

- Fixed vs. detachable debate.

- Whether it is necessary to cut the bumper.

- Plus loads more!

There was a thread on the Yeti forum recently showing a new tow bar option from Audi/Porsche which lowers itself down from behind the bumper electronically. Just tick a box on the factory order, all sorted no messing around with uninterested / incompetent dealers.

More annoyingly is it costs £800. People on here have been known to pay more than that for a genuine Skoda Westfalia one fitted by their dealer which then takes several attempts for them to 1) fit and 2) code to the car. This would be so easy for Skoda to sort but they clearly don't want to.

This is why I went to a local professional fitter instead. Paid £350 for a detachable Witter, fitted in a few hours. Job done.

Edited 16 October, 2011 by silver1011

[Wayne Kerr]

My reason for the question was to haggle with the dealer to fit one on a 10 plate vRS that I'm just about to purchase.

Are you saying don't bother with a dealer fitted one because it will be agro?

[matt_theforce]

I doubt the dealer will fit the towbar, they are more likely to outsource it to a towbar specialist, that is what I was told by Bickerton Skoda when I asked them for a quote.

[Wayne Kerr]

So can the outsourced tow bar fitter code the car also?

[matt_theforce]

Yes, I bought from Barnsley Towbar centre and they provided everything needed

[countryboy]

So can the outsourced tow bar fitter code the car also?

A bit of research will find an independant with the necessary equipment like this to do the job at the same time. You don't say where you are but I used a company called Phil Taylor towbars at Horndean in Hampshire. They fitted a swanneck towbar with vehicle specific wiring kit and coding for about £350. Took them just under 2 hours.

Towbar express is a nationwide company who will do the wiring kits and coding too according to their website.

Ian.

[Wayne Kerr]

Thanks for all this 'peeps'.

Countryboy, my avitar must have changed, because all the info was there.

Anyway, I'm in NW kent.

I'll do a web search for locals and post it here. It may come in usefull to someone.

[queeg]

I doubt the dealer will fit the towbar, they are more likely to outsource it to a towbar specialist, that is what I was told by Bickerton Skoda when I asked them for a quote.

That is also my expirience, infact, the last time I spoke to a dealer he gave me the name of the fitters they use, and I saved the dealer markup.

[Wayne Kerr]

Yup ,,, they quoted me 850 squids for a detachable one so that got the big elbow!

[FUBAR]

my main dealer would fit it themselves and quoted me something like £450 ish a couple of months ago IIRC but I only wanted single electrics as I am not a pikey :p

[digidoctor]

The top notch retrofitted westfalia detachable towbar with 100 kg so called Stützgewicht had cost me 585 Euro. Everything included.

[Rab-k]

Ingrams (Ayr) outsourced the fitting of the Westfalia OEM detachable bar on our Octavia to ATC (Ayr). Seems outsourcing is quite commonplace.

[Martyy]

I bought a witter detachable flanged towbar and dedicated wiring from pf jones ordered tuesday, arrived wednesday. This came to £400 so I fitted it myself, wouldnt say it was hard, just time consuming. Just need to get it activated now. Reason for the flange type is so I can fit a bumper protector. Bumpers are already pre cut as well.

My car is 2008 vrs.

Cheers

Marty

[Wayne Kerr]

Got a price from a local (ish) place to me, Hornchurch, Essex. £320 with the proper electrics included (they tell me).

I'll post their details to see if any body knows them.

[lamlash]

I can't believe anyone would pay upwards of £500 for a towbar. I did my Scout towbar for £250 and felt that was too expensive!

I bought a second hand Witter detachable off ebay which came with multi-relay, split charge relay and 13 pin connector all for £120. I tidied it up with a few coats of spray applied black hammerite which cost about a tenner. After this it looked better than new and I'm sure won't go rusty for quite some time. I then took the easy option and got Indespension to fit it and do the electrics which came to £120. This included a new bolt kit from Witter which Indespension said was essential for a second hand bar. Fitting the towbar evidently involves removing the crash beam. Unforunately the Indespension technician carelessly placed this in the boot of my car with the bolt flanges face down and the mastic residues stuck to my boot carpet, but otherwise they did a tidy job.

As I didn't use the Skoda wiring loom there was no need to get anything recoded and the swan neck when attached doesn't interfere with the parking sensors when solo driving. I think I can live with the beeping of the parking sensors when I'm reversing with the caravan, but time will tell!

[Wayne Kerr]

which came with multi-relay, split charge relay and 13 pin connector

Maybe this is how independant fitters get over the re-coding malarky then.

Sounds reasonable to me.

Yup, that's how it's done.

Visited Tow-Rite of Upminster today, they mentioned about cutting the lower edge of the bumper ,,,,

Martyy you say it's pre-cut ,, does the Witter require more cutting?

[CJSVRS]

If you are towing a caravan or large trailer with your vRs then I would recommend the dedicated wiring kit, and get the car coded via VCDS. The reason is it give you a trailer stability program in the vRS handling as soon as you plug in the trailer. Not important with a little box trailer, but I think important with a 'van.

I got a Westfalia and dedicated wiring from PFJones delivered next day for about £400 and fitted it myself. I've seen bars on ebay, but I would still buy a wiring kit and get a friendly Briskoda person to recode your car.

The Westfalia detachable you buy doesn't fit the cutout in the spare wheel jack carrier. I think Skoda had a one-off from Westfalia.

The facelift vRS has a cutout in the bumper.

[countryboy]

Maybe this is how independant fitters get over the re-coding malarky then.

Sounds reasonable to me.

Any fitter can get over the recoding that way, all they are doing is splicing into the wiring at the back of the car. However on a car like the Octavia which used canbus technology there is an uncertainty as to how the additions will affect the wiring of the car and things like the bulb failure warning system. The best way without doubt is to go the specific wiring loom direction and coding,this will give you the additional features and ensure that the system is fully integrated and will not affect anything on the car already there.

Ian

[rustyGT]

I fitted a witter bar to my 57 plate octavia vrs. No bumper cut needed, and very easy to do yourself (I'm a novice at these things).. used a 7 way smart bypass relay, just because the cost really. And the amount of trim that needs to come off to run the dedicated wiring.. not for me! I have no wiring issues, and the whole lot was £.110 inc delivery. Suppose it depends on your budget.

[lamlash]

The Skoda loom is very expensive for what it is and involves ripping a lot of trims out to fit and then a visit to the dealer to have it coded which will cost yet more money. I would only consider it if I was lucky enough to have a newer caravan with trailer stability programme, and I'm not sure I'd be driving a Skoda if I did have that kind of cash.

I've owned 3 cars which have had multiplexed electrics and have been fitted with a multi-function bypass relay for towing (Pugeot 406 (D9), VW Passat (MK6) and now Skoda Octavia Scout FL) and none of them had any electrical problems. Even the notoriously unstable French electrics of the Pug weren't upset by it. My last car, A Volvo V70 didn't need a bypass relay because Volvo had taken the time to work out a proper solution: you just buy a simple "trailer module" for about £60 and the appropriate (i.e. 7 or 13 pin) towing electrics socket/cable assembly and literally plug them in behind an easily accesible cover in the boot and add two new fuses. No recoding, no faffing about trying to run power feeds from the engine compartment / fuse box etc.

Skoda's tagline is Simply Clever, well there's nowt clever about their dealer network or customer services department when it comes to towbars and they could do with having a look at how Volvo go about it. The only saving grace is that the Scout didn't need a bumper cut and the finished job is very tidy. When I fitted a towbar to my old 406 estate (which is sadly missed) I didn't even have to take the back bumper off.

[Wayne Kerr]

The Westfalia detachable you buy doesn't fit the cutout in the spare wheel jack carrier. I think Skoda had a one-off from Westfalia.

Can the Westfalia detachable be sourced from Skoda Spare parts?