Superb II Detachable Tow Bar recommendations

[Discusb]

Hi,

 

I'm intending to get a Westfalia swan neck detachable towbar with dedicated (swing up) electrics for my Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI CR DPF Elegance (170bhp).

 

With the dedicated wiring (which I assume is mainly plug and play) will the car recognise the caravan and enable all the required functions for trailer stability, reversing sensor cutoff etc automatically or will it need coding?

 

If it does need coding is it a big/expensive job?

 

Many thanks

 

Andy

[chimaera]

It needs coding with VCDS - it's not that difficult. Expense depends on who does it.

[Yearofthegoat]

Hate to dig up a thread long dead but it's the most relevant I could find.

 

Tow bar fitting for my 2011 Superb is coming out at around £700 for the 13-pin vehicle-specific electrics and a detachable swan neck (that's PF Jones).

 

Sound about right or too high?

 

Cheers

[Charade]

Greetings,

 

I had a Witter detachable with dedicated electrics fitted to my 2014 Estate in 2015 by Indespension for £525.

 

Working on 5% inflation per year thats around £670 today so £700 could be about right. Try ringing Indespension, they seem to be nationwide.

 

Hope that helps - AndyW

[Yearofthegoat]

Yeah, inflation and Covid inflation I guess.

 

The figure was actually £680.54 inc.

 

Will take a look at Indespension, cheers

[Yearofthegoat]

Inflation everywhere - Indespension come out at £687.60 and I'd have to drive out to them in Crawley.

 

There is a local trailer centre near me, will see what they can do.

[rover220]

20 hours ago, Yearofthegoat said:

Hate to dig up a thread long dead but it's the most relevant I could find.

 

Tow bar fitting for my 2011 Superb is coming out at around £700 for the 13-pin vehicle-specific electrics and a detachable swan neck (that's PF Jones).

 

Sound about right or too high?

 

Cheers

Too high, parts are under £400 at retail. 

 

It's a fairly simple job to do. 

[Yearofthegoat]

It's tempting.

 

Pretty sure I could do the mechanical stuff, it's the wiring that might be tricky, and I don't have the kit to do the coding.

 

Will see what other prices turn out like. £550 or thereabouts would be okay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 4 August, 2020 by Yearofthegoat

[rover220]

What's your location? I'm happy to help with wiring and coding if local. 

[Yearofthegoat]

That's a very kind offer, but I'm down in Surrey, quite far from you.

 

(And I wouldn't want to risk you catching covid just for this - like most folks I don't know if I've got it/had it/carry it or not).

 

A bit OT but I must look into vcds, could possibly get that and still be cheaper overall and I'd have it for future use.

 

Haven't looked for any how-to 's yet. Did see a YouTube vid, that was LHD (not too hard to 'flip' for a normal car ) but it didn't go into details re the wiring.

 

I'm guessing OEM parts won't come with instructions.

 

 

[rover220]

Get westfalia wiring. The lhd vid is useful. I was a little daunted by the wiring as the instructions aren't hugely clear but it's actually really straight forward. 

[chimaera]

I went with the Skoda OE towbar and wiring and it was straightforward, if time consuming, to fit. The OE kit comes with a detailed fitting guide. The first thing to do before you spend any money is check whether your car has factory towbar wiring prep: if it does then it means the wiring from the fuse panel down to the boot has been fitted at the factory and you need a simpler(and cheaper) wiring kit and a lot less work to install the remaining parts. It'll be in the option codes on the sticker in the boot, use the tool here to decode it: http://igorweb.org/equidec.aspx

 

The only really tricky bit of the wiring install is sorting out the CAN lines and the brake pedal switch line on the BCM connector. It's awkward to get at and the pins are small and fiddly. The stuff in the boot is straightforward once you've spent an hour removing all the trim first.

[rover220]

1d0 is no prep and 1d7 is with prep iirc

[Yearofthegoat]

Thanks for the replies - yeah, I'd already checked and it's 1D0 so no prep unfortunately.

 

My local trailer centre came back to say they don't fit vehicle-specific wiring as 'too many problems with them'!

 

I guess they don't want the hassle of removing all the trim.

 

[rover220]

Don't need to remove any more trim than if they fitted a crappy bypass setup. 

 

I didn't remove any trim in the car, only the rear right boot panel. Managed to thread wiring through and tucked under the sill trims. Bit of a cheat but saved a lot of effort. 

[Yearofthegoat]

Right. I've decided to go ahead and do it myself.

 

Any recommendations for wiring/module kits? The Westfalia one is out of stock (will check again before hitting buy) but I could get ECS or Right Connections kits.

 

The blurb for them doesn't mention any incompatibilities with VCDS etc.

 

PF Jones's eBay shop prices are quite a bit lower than their main website, wonder why? Not a problem if the products are the same.

 

 

 

[rover220]

£149 from pf jones  for westfalia on ebay. Says its for hatchba k but shouldn't be any different to estate. 

 

They also include the optional pin 10 wiring for fridge so works out cheaper than anywhere else. 

[Yearofthegoat]

Thanks for that. I've got a TowTrust detachable swan in the cart, to get 2000/100 weights. Plus ECS SK017D1U - says it comes with active pins 9&10 and the instructions show a separate link wire.

 

£320 altogether leaves budget for OBDEleven or VCDS 3-VIN.

 

Will take a look at that Westfalia though.

[rover220]

Ecs just as good. My work t6 van has ecs and my superb is westfalia. Both code and work the same. 

 

You'll need pin tools like these

 

https://www.idparts.com/pin-removal-tool-set-p-6236.html

 

And a small screwdriver or pick to release bcm connections. 

[rover220]

9 hours ago, Yearofthegoat said:

Thanks for that. I've got a TowTrust detachable swan in the cart, to get 2000/100 weights. Plus ECS SK017D1U - says it comes with active pins 9&10 and the instructions show a separate link wire.

 

£320 altogether leaves budget for OBDEleven or VCDS 3-VIN.

 

Will take a look at that Westfalia though.

2000kg limit is good, my pct is limited to 1800kg even though its a 4x4 so good for 2000. The 100kg nose is OK but you are still limited to 80kg to match the car. 

[Yearofthegoat]

Yeah, 2000/80 in the manual. Plenty really as we're only going to be using a trailer or bike rack - although some of those come in at >20kg.

 

Hope this weather holds.

[Yearofthegoat]

Ordered all the parts, after being messed around by sellers taking my money with no stock (that's you, PFJones).

 

Should all be here by Friday, then the fun can start.

 

Astonishingly the first parcel to arrive will be the OBDEleven from Lithuania - tomorrow (Weds 12th) having been ordered on Monday afternoon. Just hope I don't feck up the car with it!

 

Thanks to all for the help - including @rover220, @DEZMONDE , @Lutz and @3T51704x4 👍

[DEZMONDE]

8 hours ago, Yearofthegoat said:

Ordered all the parts, after being messed around by sellers taking my money with no stock (that's you, PFJones).

 

Should all be here by Friday, then the fun can start.

 

Astonishingly the first parcel to arrive will be the OBDEleven from Lithuania - tomorrow (Weds 12th) having been ordered on Monday afternoon. Just hope I don't feck up the car with it!

 

Thanks to all for the help - including @rover220, @DEZMONDE , @Lutz and @3T51704x4 👍

Good luck, and please remember to make scans of the car before you change anything. That way you have some to reference at a later date if something is wrong.

 

Enjoy the install, I bet you will feel like you needed smaller hands at various points (I did on the octy), just walk away, catch breath, have a brew then continue. Saves breaking something.

 

 

 

[Yearofthegoat]

Thanks. Yeah first thing will be to get familiar with OBD11 with something simple (power tailgate beeps or something)  but before that will be making a scan and a backup.

 

I'm not going to use any of the 'apps' - maybe later if they're known working ones. But there's not that much I want to do to the Superb. It came with needle sweep, reversing mirror dip. And it doesn't have a toy engine sound maker.

 

There's no real hurry so I can take my time and get it right.

 

Slowly slowly catchee monkey, as they say.

[Yearofthegoat]

Might be even slower - Benbudet has emailed to say they took my money when they didn't have stock to sell.

 

So no wiring loom.

 

😞

 

Discount Towing Supplies to the rescue. It's a slightly different kit (a Brink).

 

Edited 12 August, 2020 by Yearofthegoat