People may or may not be aware that when purchasing a new German car
complete with a factory fitted towbar it will not (in all likelihood) be wired
up to UK specification for caravan towing.We purchased a new BMW X3 in September, with factory fitted towbar.We are currently waiting for delivery of our
new caravan, and have just discovered that BMW only set up the wiring for towing
a trailer.Without now paying out extra
for retrofitting the additional wiring we cannot charge our leisure battery,
power our fridge or power the Al-ko ATC whilst towing.
I’m not happy about this, and OH has spoken to the
dealership, as no mention of this shortcoming of the BMW Towbar was made when
we ordered it as an extra.The excuse given
– German market doesn’t require it – so they don’t do it.Well if you follow that argument to its’
logical conclusion then why bother moving the steering wheel – it works OK in
Germany!! Grrhh
On doing research online it appears that this problem isn’t
confined to BMW as VW owners have also discovered.
So – if ordering a factory fitted towbar that you want to
use to tow a caravan ensure you confirm with the dealer that it will be specced
up accordingly.
This has been mentioned on here several times before. The problem is that the 13pin socket configuration is regarded by BMW, VW etc as standard whether required for caravan towing with all pins live or trailer towing with just roadlight pins live. New trailers will eventually be fitted with 13pin push&twist configuration plugs but with only 7pins inside as 7pin 12n is phased out.
The confusion arises because car salesmen do not understand the difference because the OE towbar wiring comes with a 13pin socket even when only the 7 roadlight pins are powered.
The OE towbar wiring looms will consist of a 7pin roadlight loom & a separate loom for the caravan pin functions to be fitted if required at extra cost. At point of sale the customer is not told this, perhaps due to lack of salesman's understanding of caravans.
The customers needs to ensure that when purchasing car with dealer fitted towbar that they have invoice clearly marked '13pin socket with all pins live for caravan use' or similar so then both looms must be fitted, if they are not then the dealer has little choice to fit it at no further cost.
The German market does indeed require all 13pins to be live if German caravanners want their fridges to work although Germans tend not to bother with leisure batteries so perhaps are mostly ok with only 7live pins.
Very clear
in the sales brochure when I ordered my new car, factory fit towbars only include
wiring for trailer road lighting; if needed for towing a caravan then purchase
a dealer fit towbar, which I did and no problems.
I also
ordered factory tow bar preparation, wiring for trailer lighting put in at time
of build to rear of car and ECU and canbus was set up at the same time, fitter
just plugged in for lighting and put in extra wires for caravan fridge, battery
charging etc.
Unfortunately it was not mentioned by the salesman at our local BMW Dealership or any mention of it in the sales brochures, as believe me OH went over the various options for months before deciding to buy. At the end he knew more about the car than their own so called "Product Genius" - yes a genuine job title!
I did do a quick search on here to see if it had already been raised, but couldn't find anything obvious without reading every topic with the word "towbar" in it, hence my reason for posting - to try an avoid anyone else having the same issue.
VW seem to have got their act together ... my new VW Tiguan has a fatory fitted bracket with all pins wired ... ATC, battery charger and fridge all working as the should.
When I ordered the brochure clearly stated that wiring was in place for fridge, charger etc.
Believe this is the same for other VW models.
Skoda I believe are also looking at this for their factory option.
------------- 2020 Volvo XC60 B5 R Design Geartronic / 2018 Swift Elegance 580
If you are ordering a new car order your factory prep and factory fit towbar at the point of ordering the car itself if you decide to order the same after delivery it will cost you a lot more.
Another example factory fit Cruise control, if an extra, £250.
fitted after delivery £500.
Have just ordered a factory towbar on a vw passat...this post made me panic but have just checked. Phew... Brochure says
'With 13-pin connection and 12 electrified poles providing vehicle lighting plus additional power supply for caravan auxiliary battery charger, internal trailer lighting and fridge'
I think this is pretty standard on vw's with factory option towbars.
Outgoing car is a 4 year old 3 series touring with factory towbar...I didn't check this last time and the 13pin socket was fine with caravan. Maybe things are model specific or depends on factory options. Both towbars are the retractable type.
We've done more investigation on our towbar with OH testing the current through the pins and it now seems that everything will work except the fridge when towing. If this is the case I can live with that - it'll take a long time for us to spoil £500 worth of food, which is the discounted price quoted for retrofitting.
When we ordered our new VW Touran (collected on 01/03/2009), it was a special order because it has 5-seats and full sized spare wheel, and a towbar with detachable ball was included in the order.
VW sent from Germany, along with the car, a Westfalia towbar, towball, electrics and rear fender with cut out, as a kit for assembly and fitting at our supplying dealership.
I still have the supplied fitting instructions and the electrics (single 13-pin socket) are fully compatible with our previous Coachman (adaptor for vans 12N/12S sockets) and direct connection to our current Swift with 13-pin plug.
Bertie.
This issue has been around for years, I first encountered it on a 1997 Ford Galaxy. Even the pin was missing from the socket. I found Mercedes used a similar 13 pin socket with microswitch and paid £40 to get one of these and wired it myself. When buyong my current Sorento I asked the salesman for a fully wired tow socket and he didn't know what I was talking about, on enquiring from the service guys he said they would do a dealer fit.
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Topic: Factory Fitted Tow Bar Issues
