Here's a little cautionary tale for Roomster and possibly Fabia owners

We bought a Roomster 1.2 TSI last July and the dealer fitted a Skoda towbar and electrics at prodigious cost. I then discovered how low the towing capacity was and bought a new 6x4 European trailer with brakes.

The trailer has lighting which complies with the latest EU regulations including side lights, reversing and fogs with a total load of 6.8 Amps. The trailer circuit on the Roomster is fused for 5 Amps. so with lights, brakes and indicators working the fuse blows. Skoda won't approve the replacement of the fuse with a higher rating threatening to invalidate the warranty.

To reduce the load I have looked at replacing all the trailer lights with LEDs which would cost £100+ but even with Cambus LEDs, there's no guarantee that they wouldn't upset the bulb failure circuit in the control unit. The annoying thing is that I have seen the installation instructions for a towbar on a Yeti and the supply fuse is recommended at 20 Amps.

So much for European manufactuers conformity with EU regulations!

Hello Carduelis and welcome along

Never had a tow bar but my father used to have one and always got it supplied and fitted at a specialist and never the dealer however, it'd still have to confirm to their regs re: warranty issues, so I don't know what you'd do other than swap the fuse out any time you went near a dealer.

Good luck getting it sorted :yes:

Hi and welcome aboard.

Here's a little cautionary tale for Roomster and possibly Fabia owners

We bought a Roomster 1.2 TSI last July and the dealer fitted a Skoda towbar and electrics at prodigious cost. I then discovered how low the towing capacity was and bought a new 6x4 European trailer with brakes.

The trailer has lighting which complies with the latest EU regulations including side lights, reversing and fogs with a total load of 6.8 Amps. The trailer circuit on the Roomster is fused for 5 Amps. so with lights, brakes and indicators working the fuse blows. Skoda won't approve the replacement of the fuse with a higher rating threatening to invalidate the warranty.

To reduce the load I have looked at replacing all the trailer lights with LEDs which would cost £100+ but even with Cambus LEDs, there's no guarantee that they wouldn't upset the bulb failure circuit in the control unit. The annoying thing is that I have seen the installation instructions for a towbar on a Yeti and the supply fuse is recommended at 20 Amps.

So much for European manufactuers conformity with EU regulations!

Could you perhaps, run a totally fresh heavy duty fused cable direct from a live feed at the battery, to the rear of vehicle?

This would by-pass all car electrics, whilst being separately fused and safe to use.

Possible kill switch to power as an added precaution, maybe, like the RALLY cars?