Very confused and apologies if covered elsewhere but can't find it... looking to get a towbar fitted for caravan towing and an independent towbar company is warning about coding and about the rear emergency braking kicking in and not letting me reverse with the caravan in place. Another has said they can fit a towbar but I'd need to take it to a dealer to get it coded.

I've contacted my local skoda dealer and they've quoted £1900 for a towbar to be fitted!!

I think that when in reverse I can disable the reversing sensor via the infotainment screen by pushing the green camera icon, but not sure whether that will also disable the emergency braking.

Am new to caravanning and towbars so completely clueless.... any advice greatly appreciated

I've a 2023 Octavia Vrs hatch.

First thing to check is what your car can tow, a lot have zero Kg limit, and that would stop you towing, you can check on the sticker on the drivers door slam (thats where mine is) and then find a decent towbar fitter that can code as well as fitting the bar, I had a removable one fitted to my VRS estate and had it coded and if it is coded correctly you wont have any problems with reversing, as when you plug in it detects the trailer(Caravan) and switches off the system for reversing !

10 minutes ago, RADIOTWO said:

First thing to check is what your car can tow, a lot have zero Kg limit, and that would stop you towing, you can check on the sticker on the drivers door slam (thats where mine is) and then find a decent towbar fitter that can code as well as fitting the bar, I had a removable one fitted to my VRS estate and had it coded and if it is coded correctly you wont have any problems with reversing, as when you plug in it detects the trailer(Caravan) and switches off the system for reversing !

Appreciate the reply. Can tow up to 1600kg so all good there as caravan is max 1450kg loaded. The towbar fitter I spoke to told me that the 2023 models onwards have so much electronic stuff on it now that it's not as simple as before and a lot of independent fitters aren't able to do the coding. Apparently same with other car manufacturers and is designed to make sure you are forced to go to a main dealer and pay through the nose. I spoke to another towbar fitter and they said they can fit a towbar but for the same reason they weren't sure about coding and I might need to then take it to a dealer afterwards anyway, who aren't going to touch another persons work. Right pain. I'm no expert but apparently it's all to do with the car detecting there's an obstacle behind it and it slams the emergency (manoeuvre) brake on and refuses to reverse?

Where abouts are you in the country ?

2 minutes ago, RADIOTWO said:

Where abouts are you in the country ?

I'm in Hampshire. One of the people I spoke to today reckon I need a different fan, fan cowling etc as the towing might overheat the car...wtf... I'm towing a small caravan not a 40t truck😁

I had a Westfalia towbar, who are the OEM supplier to the VAG group, installed to a Golf Mk8 last year, including coding, by this company in Poole.

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Rear reversing sensors and blind spot sensors are turned off when a caravan / trailer is connected

Wez Morrell

Manchester

1 hour ago, DaveSned said:

I'm in Hampshire. One of the people I spoke to today reckon I need a different fan, fan cowling etc as the towing might overheat the car...wtf... I'm towing a small caravan not a 40t truck😁

Wez Morrell

Manchester

0161 430 7591

I had mine done by this company I know it not near but give them a ring and see what they say ?

It's essential that a vehicle specific wiring kit is used that can integrate with the car's Canbus network, and that its coded.

Some of the cheaper options use generic wiring kits instead where the car is not aware that a caravan / trailer has been connected.

This leads to issues where the parking and blind spot detectors are not switched off.

We can supply & fit a genuine electric folding towbar with a 2 year main dealer warranty and 13 pin electrics. The installation is recorded against the cars build data, it's the same towbar they install from the factory.

Edited 20 February20 Feb by East_Yorkshire_Retrofits

28 minutes ago, clevoir25 said:

I had a Westfalia towbar, who are the OEM supplier to the VAG group, installed to a Golf Mk8 last year, including coding, by this company in Poole.

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Rear reversing sensors and blind spot sensors are turned off when a caravan / trailer is connected

Thanks for the info, much appreciated and will give them a shout on Monday👍

20 hours ago, clevoir25 said:

I had a Westfalia towbar, who are the OEM supplier to the VAG group, installed to a Golf Mk8 last year, including coding, by this company in Poole.

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Rear reversing sensors and blind spot sensors are turned off when a caravan / trailer is connected

19 hours ago, RADIOTWO said:

Wez Morrell

Manchester

Wez Morrell

Manchester

0161 430 7591

I had mine done by this company I know it not near but give them a ring and see what they say ?

Cheers for the info. See how I get on with the company in Poole and maybe give them a shout👍

2 hours ago, DaveSned said:

Thanks for the info, much appreciated and will give them a shout on Monday👍

Cheers for the info. See how I get on with the company in Poole and maybe give them a shout👍

OK Dave, if you were a bit closer I would recommend East Yorkshire Retrofit as I have had some work done by them and the did a perfect job fitting a reverse camera, but would have liked the electric retracting towbar, but I guess the company in Poole will do the job right (hopefully at the right price) for you,

Good luck

I don't have any affiliation with the company in Poole other than being a satisfied customer, here in Essex I found it hard to find a VAG specialist to carry out the works, rather than a general tow bar fitters who may be fitting to a different make of car every day and not have a detailed knowledge of any of them.

So it was worth the drive for me, I guess it all depends on how close you are to a specialist you can trust.

On 20/02/2026 at 20:46, East_Yorkshire_Retrofits said:

We can supply & fit a genuine electric folding towbar with a 2 year main dealer warranty and 13 pin electrics. The installation is recorded against the cars build data, it's the same towbar they install from the factory.

Hello! I know this is a few months old but wondered if there’s an indicative price foR a 2026 vrs combi? I haven’t bought it yet but the car is out of factory already and I don’t think it has towbar or prep done. I’m potentially travelling from south to Crewe to collect. Thanks in advance!!

On 21/02/2026 at 19:22, clevoir25 said:

I don't have any affiliation with the company in Poole other than being a satisfied customer, here in Essex I found it hard to find a VAG specialist to carry out the works, rather than a general tow bar fitters who may be fitting to a different make of car every day and not have a detailed knowledge of any of them.

So it was worth the drive for me, I guess it all depends on how close you are to a specialist you can trust.

Assuming you got all this done and it’s as good as OEM??

11 hours ago, 417original said:

Hello! I know this is a few months old but wondered if there’s an indicative price foR a 2026 vrs combi? I haven’t bought it yet but the car is out of factory already and I don’t think it has towbar or prep done. I’m potentially travelling from south to Crewe to collect. Thanks in advance!!

We've currently put a stop on all UNECE R155 R156 towbar retrofits. We've had nothing but issues with the diagnostic system and it's not fair on our customers or us. We may resume once VWAG sort their act out

48 minutes ago, East_Yorkshire_Retrofits said:

We've currently put a stop on all UNECE R155 R156 towbar retrofits. We've had nothing but issues with the diagnostic system and it's not fair on our customers or us. We may resume once VWAG sort their act out

Ah ☹️ so it seems there are some coding issues then? why do things have to be so difficult? lol

40 minutes ago, 417original said:

Ah ☹️ so it seems there are some coding issues then? why do things have to be so difficult? lol

Installation instructions state perform all outstanding update campaigns before adapting towbar

Impossible to adapt without performing updates
Updates take 3-5 hours assuming they run properly (they rarely do). This is lost time to us.
Support/factory state dealers should perform the updates under warranty. Dealers claim "it's up to date"
The last Kodiaq we had in took over 40 man hours to update & adapt - in addition to the time taken to install the parts, it's not financially viable for us

so i can't assume that a car out of factory is going to be up to date then? No, I suspect not - why would it be that easy!!? 🫠

17 hours ago, 417original said:

Assuming you got all this done and it’s as good as OEM??

I used the company i mentioned in Poole and they were excellent. Have used the towbar around a dozen times with full caravan electrics & all works fine and couldn't be happier. Think they were about £900 & took around 6 hours, but maybe give them a shout & speak to them to see what they say. Their comms are very good and normally come back you with 24 hours or so. Can only base on my own experience but I'm very happy with what they did.👍

Me too, they were great. My Golf has SFD but I understand its the SFD2 cars that are the problem.

I’ve spoken to them and they have said that post-march 2024 is the issue.

They can fit but it’s connected to canbus and some features are disabled. Kind of their words. I don’t pretend to understand this in any details …

1 hour ago, DaveSned said:

I used the company i mentioned in Poole and they were excellent. Have used the towbar around a dozen times with full caravan electrics & all works fine and couldn't be happier. Think they were about £900 & took around 6 hours, but maybe give them a shout & speak to them to see what they say. Their comms are very good and normally come back you with 24 hours or so. Can only base on my own experience but I'm very happy with what they did.👍

Was this an electric towbar or just manual detachable one?

2 minutes ago, 417original said:

I’ve spoken to them and they have said that post-march 2024 is the issue.

They can fit but it’s connected to canbus and some features are disabled. Kind of their words. I don’t pretend to understand this in any details …

Had heard something similar. I did contact Skoda direct and they quoted me 2k. I was lucky as mine is

4 minutes ago, 417original said:

Was this an electric towbar or just manual detachable one?

Mine is detachable type. I can't be bothered to detach it but it's really easy to do. When the ball bit is not in place you can't see the bracketry under the car. When fitted it doesn't affect reversing sensors etc so just left it in place. I've got a 23 plate so might be different to yours. I did contact Skoda direct and they wanted 2k