Likely life of a Skoda Rapid 1.6 Diesel - is it worth adding a tow bar

[mattytowel]

My scout group has lost it's regular volunteer for towing our trailer to camp, but you can't blame the guy for being 75 and not wanting a Chelsea tractor. 

 

I could add a towbar and electrics to my wife's Rapid, and be sensible about not over packing the trailer, but the car is now at 9 years and 135000 miles, and I wonder how long it will last.   It was serviced by the main dealer for 8 years and 130000 miles, and it's just passed it's MOT with advisories for pitted brake discs, so it is looking to be in good shape.

 

What  mileages have you got on yours, or did you get, and what failed in the end that wasn't worth fixing?

 

Thanks in advance

[adamyt]

I have the 1.6 CAYB with a DSG, put a towbar on myself and used it moving rubbish and what not and was entirely fine.

 

Decided to go a bit further and rented a car trailer 500kg & towed a Skoda Pickup 1000kg, car trailer alone was like driving the car power wise, once the car was on you could feel it, but it still wasn't as slow as say a mk1 Fabia 1.4 auto (cough).

 

Driving was  entirely fine, cruise control at 50/60 just keep it in manual mode since it'll upshift and kill your momentum, I kept it in 5th and used my retrofitted paddle shifters.

 

Hill starts were painful, there's a steep bridge near me where I had to hill start and I could smell clutch. Otherwise just acknowledge you'll take a bit longer to get started and position yourself accordingly.

 

Total economy around 8.5L/100m over 400 miles round trip, 200 towing full load.

 

All in all I'd do it again but plan my route properly, no detours, as few stops as possible, and pray they don't put roadworks on steep as hell bridges!

 

Towbar I used was just an eBay special, had proper certificates and cost ~£150, easy enough to install you just need to find and peel off some blanking stickers on your frame rails. I didn't have electrics installed because it's only a £100 fpn & I only tow in the daytime. I plan on making my own box that interfaces with OBD and use a few relays in the future.

[adamyt]