tow bar for a bike carrier

[chrisski]

hi all im looking at possibly getting a tow bar fitted to my octavia estate to fit a bike carrier. any tips on what to get? detachable or fixed? flange etc?

 

[Stuart-h]

I'm going to follow this topic as I'm looking at getting  a tow bar on mine.

[themanwithnoaim]

I'm gonna bang your wallets & tell you to do it properly with all the OEM coding as the next owner of your car will believe it has been done properly.

 

I know you only want to carry bikes but, if you see your old car in the news with a family of 5 all dead from towing a capsized caravan, how are you gonna feel ?

 

I've towed over 1,500kg with the correctly fitted/coded towbar & its awesome handling & braking, thats what will get it the reputation which, will be why yours will sell to a caravaner

[crispymorgan]

When I enquired about the towbar at the local Skoda dealers on my pre-reg car, they said they would just send it to the local towbar fitters?

 

Edit: I rang the fitters in question, and they said they use a westfalia unit that is manufactured for skoda and would use vehicle specific wiring and code the tow bar to use the trailer stability and disable parking sensors etc.

 

The detachable unit is £525 and the fixed unit was £415

Edited 10 November, 2017 by crispymorgan

[POWYSWALES]

If it helps I recently got a brink fixed tow bar, supplied and fitted with dedicated wiring for £230 from Salop towing in Shrewsbury. I also got the same quote from direct towing in Wrexham, although they never mentioned if it was decided wiring but I assume it was as it was recommended by my Skoda dealer which as said above did not fit towbars. Only reason I went with sallop towing is because they were also doing me a good deal on an erde trailer which beat halfords price by £75.

 

They also give you the rear crashbar back which you can sell on eBay for £50.

Edited 10 November, 2017 by POWYSWALES
Edit

[themanwithnoaim]

5 minutes ago, POWYSWALES said:

If it helps I recently got a brink fixed tow bar, supplied and fitted with dedicated wiring for £230 from Salop towing in Shrewsbury. I also got the same quote from direct towing in Wrexham, although they never mentioned if it was decided wiring but I assume it was as it was recommended by my Skoda dealer which did not fit towbars. Only reason I went with sallop towing is because they were also doing me a good deal on an erde trailer which beat halfords price by £75.

 

They also give you the rear crashbar back which you can sell on eBay for £50.

Is that coded to include TSC, if you CAN use Eco mode when towing its NOT coded properly & won't optimise the braking system to stop snaking

Edited 10 November, 2017 by themanwithnoaim

[Adcooper]

Paid £500 for our detachable westfalia with correct coded 13pin electrics from a vw specialist the only option in my opinion! 

[chrisski]

Think ill stick to using the roof!

[gregoir]

Fixed Westfalia and coded wiring. For the reasons stated above by the aimless one. I had a detachable Westfalia on my Mk 2 but that was complicated to detach and became fixed due to impact damage anyway. I use an excellent but expensive Thule cycle rack on the towball.