Towbar Advice

[MLJ]

Can anyone offer any help/advice, I have recently ordered a superb hatchback 4x4 170ps, factory order due for delivery mid-end May. As a keen caravanner i need to equip this with a detachable towbar, dealer quote of £700+ sound a bit excessive. I believe that witter & westfalia both make suitable equip for this car ? any recommendations suggestions and advice would be helpful

Thanks

[GWR4936]

The most important aspect of having a towbar fitted is to find a reputable and well established fitting company, preferably one that is registered with NTTA (National Towbar & Towing Association). They should be able to offer a range of makes & types (detachable, swan neck, plate, etc). Make sure that they can fit electrics to the canbus system and that they can recode the VCDS system to recognise a trailer when attached. If you have any doubts about their abilities with electrics and electronics find somewhere else. A reputable towbar fitter will not be cheap but should not cost you more than about £500.

Chris

[Urban-Kodiaq]

My first skoda was a CR170 4X4 Combi I had a westfalia detachable tow-bar fitted by a NTTA fitter which tey seemed to have some fitting issues with the 4x4 and interface with Columbus unit for about £550 I think and thaught it was OK. When I bought my 2nd CR170 4X4 Combi had a dealer fitted skoda detachable tow-bar fitted which I still have. Skoda tow-bar appears to be more rugged with an easier and larger release mechanism. The skoda tow-bar also works fully with my Columbus unit showing a trailer image when reversing and disengages the reversing sensors from buzzing which independent tow-bar did not.

Just my experience glad I paid the extra for a dealer fitted tow bar. Car did not have tow-bar ready prep from factory and I think I paid about £725 all in.

Dealer fitting is neater and cable routing all sealed on entry in to car where as independent fitting caused water ingress into boot. Check they tape and seal cable into spare wheel well!!!!!

[Back9]

Take a look at my post from last year..might help..never had any issues with it..great bit of kit

http://www.briskoda....-flange-towbar/

[Llanigraham]

The Skoda detachable tow bar will be a Westphalia one, as they are the official supplier to Skoda.

[Urban-Kodiaq]

Skoda detachable does not appear to be a westphalia

Westphailia as fitted to my old combi 4x4 with rotating wheel for remove as per link

http://www.westfalia-automotive.de/index.php?id=32&L=1

Skoda detachable tow bar on page 17 with lever for removal as per link

If they are both by westalia they are completely different and in my opinion one is a lot earlier to use than the other and of a higher build quality!

http://www.accessories.skoda.co.uk/brochures/SuperbAccessories_Feb_09.pdf

[Inoffski]

I had a Westfalia detachable fitted by a local company, full integration with the onboard electrics, works with the Columbus display and disables rear parking sensors.

All in was £600,

MLJ - a long shot but were you at Meathop Fell Caravan Club site at back end of February?? I was talking to a chap there who had just ordered a Superb exactly as you mentioned and was enquiring as to how mine towed!!

[Supeeeeerb]

I have an after-market WITTER retractable tow-bar which works fine.

Only possible issue is the Electrics socket is retractable and accumulates water when in the retracted position.

[Coops]

Looking into towbar for mine and had a couple of quotes around £300-350 mark and one at £600+ - this is for a detachable, 7 pin electrics and coding.

MarkyB77 had his done recently with twin electrics and was very impressed - one of my better costs was from the same supplier as his.

[MLJ]

I had a Westfalia detachable fitted by a local company, full integration with the onboard electrics, works with the Columbus display and disables rear parking sensors.

All in was £600,

MLJ - a long shot but were you at Meathop Fell Caravan Club site at back end of February?? I was talking to a chap there who had just ordered a Superb exactly as you mentioned and was enquiring as to how mine towed!!

[MLJ]

Yes you got it in one, same person, maybe see you again on a site somewhere

[MLJ]

I had a Westfalia detachable fitted by a local company, full integration with the onboard electrics, works with the Columbus display and disables rear parking sensors.

All in was £600,

MLJ - a long shot but were you at Meathop Fell Caravan Club site at back end of February?? I was talking to a chap there who had just ordered a Superb exactly as you mentioned and was enquiring as to how mine towed!!

Yes that's me, maybe see you around on other caravan club sites, when it comes our superb will be shark blue

[lowedb]

There are two versions of the Westfalia bar, hence the different release. The handwheel type is the Westfalia SIARR version which is cheaper. I know someone around here had a real problem with one SIARR bar, but mine fitted my 170 4x4 no problems (well other than using the wrong set of holes initially, doh).

Many of the kits come with a dedicated electrics kit that if coded properly works fine with Columbus. Some of the universal beeper type warnings for the indicators are real rubbish and will cause problems. In fact there's one type that stops the indicators on the van working, but continues beeping to say it's working OK.

[unclerichy]

Witter detachable flanged and 13 pin electrics here on a car with no towbar prep. It cost me £599 at my local fitter including coding. I originally went via the Witter site which allows you to select a configuration and then pick a fitter. I went to the fitter direct and they did it for less than Witter's system quoted.

[andrehj]

The Skoda detachable tow bar will be a Westphalia one, as they are the official supplier to Skoda.

This is a common misunderstanding. The original factory-fitted towbar is not manufactured by Westfalia, but by Prof Svar.

[mikaelse]

I have a a 2010 Skoda Superb saloon . Also had the idea to fit a towbar on it for my Caravan. Have fitted towbars before with small effort.

However. this has dramatically changed the last few years it seems. The electrics fitting is a major thing. Absolutely no preparations seem done. The number of instruction pages have gone from around 6 pages for my older 2004 SKODA superb to a whopping 50 pages with really appaling things like drawing cabling to front of car under dash , fiddiling with several individual cables inside connectors etc,

reprogramming the software, etc. I would not like to have a hurried mechanic do this major "brain surgery" on my car even if it was free. The Dealer offered to do it for a equivalent amount of 1300£ !. It will add nothing to the Cars monetary value.. Only a removable towbar is available which is a drawback in swedish climate.

You can get a towbar +electronics from others for around 600£ mounted. However the electronics then seems dodgy especially in connection with the anti skid and ABS software etc.

So essence is that I will instead mount on my older 2004 Skoda which is pretty straight forward. Parts for a fixed towbar was about 200£ ordered from germany including shipping. Electronics was more expensive then the mechanics.

[Optimist]

Had a Westphalia detachable fitted after car purchase (Superb Twindoor 4x4 170Elegance). Was just over £600 (Skoda dealer quoted £1000). It has to be fitted by someone who is experienced in linking the electrics to the Superbs system otherwise not all the warning systems work and you could invalidate your warranty.

Bite the bullet and have it done by a towcar specialist. If you have a Trident Trailers near you, they are 100% reliable.

[halflife1973]

Just had a removable Westphalia unit fitted to my estate. I went to Chester tow bars who fitted the same unit to my twin door 3 years ago. Cost £550 + VAT but took the opportunity to get a discount on some roof bars at the same time. Would not hesitate to recommend either the tow bar or the garage.

[countryboy]

Go to a reputable independant fitter, most Skoda dealers outsource the towbar fitting work to them anyway and you cut out the dealer margin. Make sure it is one who will fit and code in a vehicle specific wiring kit. http://www.towbarexpress.co.uk/dedicated_wiring.html

This will ensure that all works as it should.

Ian

[viccot]

Can anyone offer any help/advice, I have recently ordered a superb hatchback 4x4 170ps, factory order due for delivery mid-end May. As a keen caravanner i need to equip this with a detachable towbar, dealer quote of £700+ sound a bit excessive. I believe that witter & westfalia both make suitable equip for this car ? any recommendations suggestions and advice would be helpful

Thanks

My Yeti has factory pre fitted wiring and I was quoted £535 for the towbar by skoda dealer. Witter quote £447.24 online including wiring.

[MLJ]

After having to change colour from shark blue to white, and discusssions of compensation !!! dealer has with some persuasion offered to fit detachable OEM towbar for 50% discount approx 350 pounds inc vat , as this makes the best economical sense, i will be accepting their offer, thanks to all who offered opinions and advice

[smiffy64]

The skoda tow-bar also works fully with my Columbus unit showing a trailer image when reversing and disengages the reversing sensors from buzzing which independent tow-bar did not.

This has me a bit concerned as the Skoda dealer I bought my car from fitted a Westphalia detachable on mine (£450 single electrics) but it doesn't show a trailer on the Columbus. Worse is it doesn't disable the electric tailgate when I have my towbar mounted bike rack on. Does this suggest that the Skoda dealer did not fit it to usual Skoda specification?

[unclerichy]

Sounds like they've forgotten to do the towbar coding and the car doesn't know that it has one fitted.

I had this when my local towbar centre fitted my Witter detachable. I got home and hooked up the folding camper only to find that the car thought I was about to reverse into something and wailed at me. I popped back to the fitter and they tried a different setting (I think) and now I get the A-frame image when I'm towing and put it into reverse gear.

[phil_taylor_towbars]

This has me a bit concerned as the Skoda dealer I bought my car from fitted a Westphalia detachable on mine (£450 single electrics) but it doesn't show a trailer on the Columbus. Worse is it doesn't disable the electric tailgate when I have my towbar mounted bike rack on. Does this suggest that the Skoda dealer did not fit it to usual Skoda specification?

does it have a buzzer on the indicators? if so the fitter has used a universal wiring kit. if there is no buzzer it's quite likely that it just needs recoding. I've never heard of the tailgate being disabled with a trailer/bike rack plugged in though

Edited 19 May, 2013 by phil_taylor_towbars

[smiffy64]

There is no buzzer.

I just assumed that the tailgate would be disabled.

Should I take it back to the dealer or is it something I can do myself?