Superb II Detachable Tow Bar recommendations

[Yearofthegoat]

Tow bar fitting is going reasonably okay so far. The crash bar is off, the tow bar is on, socket etc in place but have hit a bit of a problem which I'd appreciate some help with.

 

The Brink wiring kit needs to be scotchlocked into the high brake light feed - a Black/Red wire - and the instructions show this:

 

 

BR apparently stand for 'Brown'. So far so good but I have three blocks at that location - these are the rearward sides (presumably outputs):

 

 

Now the middle one seems to be Brown. It has 5 pins but only has 4 wires. The black one at the back also has a Red/Black wire.  Which has made me question what I was about to do (i.e. connect to the middle R/B wire).

 

Being super-cautious I want to make totally sure I attach the kit to the correct one. Any help gratefully received.

 

Once that's in I can take the wiring across the boot and up to the fusebox - a bit more trim will need to come off but that's okay and the wiring from there looks to be straightforward.

 

Cheers.

[rover220]

Sadly I'm not familiar with brink wiring. All other kits I've seen take the brake light feed from the bcm in the same connector that the can h and can l are. 

[chimaera]

Oh dear, scotchloks. Is this at the BCM?

 

The Westfalia and OE kits have all of the proper plugs and pin connectors to do this without resorting to scotchloks.

[rover220]

I would say it's the wire in the middle brown plug. I would not use a scotch lock though, I'd solder it on. 

[Yearofthegoat]

The Brink kit was the only dedicated one available that I could find. It's quite poorly manufactured, tbh. It came with a Jaeger module. Are they okay at least?!

 

I had 3 suppliers take orders for an ECS kit only to cancel and refund because they didn't have stock.

 

The Brink kit also includes scotchlocks (at least they operate like scotchlocks) for connecting to the twisted CAN-Bus wires.

 

Anyway, thanks for the advice, will go with the RB wire in the brown block. Hopefully no more issues.

[Yearofthegoat]

On reflection, I have a crimper and some crimps - might use those instead of the scotchloks in the kit to splice into the R/B wire.

 

Any suggestions re the CAN-Bus wires? I guess I could crimp, would just need to check the size of the wires.

 

The other connectors go into the fuse panel and have proper terminated wires for that.

[J.R.]

I have some Scotchlok type connectors but they are for telecoms terminations, similar to the Molex "nibs" in that they are glycerine filled, much much better quality, still a bodge but infinitely better than Scotchloks and I have not had one fail yet.

[Yearofthegoat]

Thanks. Reliability is what concerns me - the connection is behind the upper trim in the boot; accessible, but not easily, so I don't want to have to repair it. I think crimping it will work fine. It won't be moving about much.

[rover220]

Jaeger are proper electrics yes albeit the kits I've seen with them included are not the best quality in terms of how wiring is interfaced to car. 

[Yearofthegoat]

Cheers.

 

I've managed to get the wiring up and into the dash, all okay so far.  Like you @rover220 I managed to fish the wire through from the wheel arch to the dash. Didn't need to remove the B pillar trim other than a little at the bottom of the rear OS passenger door.

 

The last piece of the puzzle is the fuse wiring.

 

The instructions show this:

 

 

I got the pink secondary lock slid over okay, and the correct wires are in 43, 44 and 45. They've clicked in, feel sound.

 

However, judging by the diagram, it seems that the other end of the 3-wire connector plugs into the bottom half of the aircon fuse location (unless I've mis-read the diagram). There is no tab sticking up from that location and of course there is already a wire in there - for the aircon I presume.

 

This is probably a laughably simple thing for someone who's done this before, but where can I connect that "B+/30" end?  (B+/30 means positve buss 30A?) Do I shove it in with the aircon connector?

 

Thanks again. Nearly there now...

 

He says hopefully.

 

 

Edited 18 August, 2020 by Yearofthegoat

[rover220]

What you're basically doing with the 3 into one cable is taking the feed from the spare permanent live terminal in the rear of the fusebox and feeding the fuses in 43,44 and 45. The spare male blade can be hard to see in the mass of wiring but it is there. 

Edited 18 August, 2020 by rover220

[rover220]

It doesn't look like you have the switched live feed for pin 10 in the wiring mind. 

[Yearofthegoat]

That's great thanks, I think I've found it - there's a spare tab and behind it a thick wide bar/rail with a thick red wire coming off it. (Sorry for the crap tablet photo):

 

 

Is that the one?

 

Yes, there's no pin 10 power in the kit - it's wired for an optional extra kit but has no feed.

 

Thanks again for the help.

 

 

[rover220]

Yep that will be it. Just check it's a permanent live mind.

[Yearofthegoat]

Righto. Yeah, it'll need a permanent live for the alarm going off if some scrote nicks the trailer etc.

 

I'll fish out the multimeter.

 

 

 

 

[Yearofthegoat]

Yep, it's a permanent live, thanks again.

 

Car seems fine - no errors in the Maxidot at least.

 

In the morning I'll test it as far as I can (I can't code for towing just yet as the new 'nextgen' OBDEleven device was DOA, and has to be sent back to Lithuania).

[rover220]

lights will work without coding. coding needed for additional features

[Yearofthegoat]

Thanks. I tested it with a bike carrier this morning , got bloody soaked but the lights all work fine and the car displays don't show any unusual errors.

 

Am waiting for it to dry up a bit and I'll get the trim back on and call it job done.

 

Many thanks for all the tips - def couldn't have done it myself without the help from you and others on here. 👍

 

 

[rover220]

That's what the forum is all about. 

[mushroomnr]

Hello All,

I think about install tow bar for my superb, but I'm a bit confused. There are few options in the market but I'm not sure about which one I should use. The best one will be obviously using genuine parts with dedicated module. 

As this tow bar will be mostly use for bike rack, I came across that product - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Superb-Estate-09-15-Detachable-towbar-WESTFALIA-7-pin-universal-el-kit/173649097623?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

My main question is, is that electric module will be enought to run electric on bike rack, and how you wiring electric ? Is it just basic plug and play to lamp socket or add cables to existing looms ? Will that cause any issues with electrics in the car ? 

 

[LuPuS]

I've bought a genuine loom from VW Polo for £10 - (£50on ebay) add to 2 wires and job done.

It won't p&p with universal kit. Even with dedicated kit you need to some wires swapping etc.

[3T51704x4]

I would advise a electrics kit from PF Jones. I bought a 13 pin kit OE kit with the trailer ecu and additional wiring for fridge etc. I went for the removable Westfailia bar kit. Straightforward  install after ripping out the Mickey Mouse kit previously installed with crappy scotchlock type connectors. DONT USE THEM, you will have wiring faults in years to come.

[mushroomnr]

10 hours ago, 3T51704x4 said:

I would advise a electrics kit from PF Jones. I bought a 13 pin kit OE kit with the trailer ecu and additional wiring for fridge etc. I went for the removable Westfailia bar kit. Straightforward  install after ripping out the Mickey Mouse kit previously installed with crappy scotchlock type connectors. DONT USE THEM, you will have wiring faults in years to come.

I'm not sure if I need 13pin socket, 7 will do the job. I expect to have some wiring to be added, and cuts which need to be done, just wondering if the one which I have found will do the job ? 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Superb-Estate-09-15-Detachable-towbar-WESTFALIA-7-pin-universal-el-kit/173649097623?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

[3T51704x4]

Why not go for the specific kit?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Superb-Estate-10-15-Detachable-towbar-WESTFALIA-7-pin-specific-el-kit-/173649098401?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

 

Only reason I went for the 13 pin kit is I didn’t want two plugs on the back of the car (can’t fold them away when not used) and I can plug my charger into the 13 pin plug to keep both 12v batteries charged when the car is unused.

[mushroomnr]

8 minutes ago, 3T51704x4 said:

Why not go for the specific kit?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Superb-Estate-10-15-Detachable-towbar-WESTFALIA-7-pin-specific-el-kit-/173649098401?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

 

Only reason I went for the 13 pin kit is I didn’t want two plugs on the back of the car (can’t fold them away when not used) and I can plug my charger into the 13 pin plug to keep both 12v batteries charged when the car is unused.

 

Thanks for that. Will that kit required any software coding or just plug and play (and cut few wires etc )  ?