I paid £80 for my towbar mk4 golf and £70 for my trailer I called in to my local garage and asked the mechanic if he would do the electrics on the side he came to house that night and did the job for £20 it took him about 15 mins.its also worth ringing a few scrapyards as they often get cars in with towbars fitted.
Quote: Originally posted by George Hincapie on 04/7/2014
Coming to this thread late and haven't read all of the responses. I hope someone has suggested the OP just hire a trailer? No need to buy one.
He would still need to get a tow bar fitted though
------------- Tigermouse
I have a very temperamental personality - 50% temper and 50% mental
Quote: Originally posted by coastal~path on 03/7/2014
Trailers have other uses as well as camping you know. Tip runs, collecting large items (saving on delivery costs) Also, our towbar we use for our Thule extra load carrier thing, which also doubles as a bike carrier.
We can get all our camping kit in my Passat estate comfortably, but we still consider getting a towbar and trailer at this time of year when we're always down at the tip with garden stuff.
Thanks so much for all your replies, we really are in limbo at the minute, we sold the transporter as it was mainly being used just for my 15 mile round work run in the end, my frv has reversing sensors on could this be a problem when fitting a tow bar? When we first started camping we had a small trailer and to be honest I hated it bouncing around behind us. We have found a few small sites in the parts of Cornwall we visit which have a handful of statics on site, and the prices are surprisingly good, our two older children won't be camping with us much longer as my sons just stared work, and he's talking about hols with his mates next year, and our oldest daughter has just left school, we're thinking about these statics for this year then selling the frv, and looking for an accord estate( huge boot) and a roof box, and back to camping when it's the four of us. I can't explain how stressed we are at the minute. Gaz
------------- "sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy"
What type of weeks holiday would you look forward to. Camping, peace and countryside, or static on noisy site for the week. No contest.
If you can afford it,just get your trailer and enjoy your holiday. Of course you'll use it more and probably camp more. Like previous people said its worth it. we used to put it all in the car ,but I don't know how!!
You could be sitting in your static just wishing you'd bought that trailer!!
Quote: my frv has reversing sensors on could this be a problem when fitting a tow bar?
I have parking sensors on my car and the fitters fitted a swan neck towbar (rather than a flange type) to avoid triggering the sensors. Sensors work fine with swan neck towbar. Of course the sensors do get triggered when you reverse with the trailer attached but my car (and I'm sure many others) has a button to switch off the parking sensors. Towbar express fitted mine - probably not the cheapest but fit are your home or workplace and are happy to advise you on what is best for your car.
If you're worried about the trailer bouncing around you can buy trailers eg Erde/Daxara with dampers fitted. With some models of Erde/Daxara I think you can add them even if they don't already have them fitted.
I prefer driving smaller cars and my personal view is that is that it makes more economic sense to have a smaller car and use an trailer occasionally, than buy a big car just for the few times a year when the larger size is needed.
Don't stress - I'm sure you will get things sorted and have a great holiday
We have a removable swan neck tow bar. Slightly more expensive but that way you're guaranteed to be able to use your reversing sensors when not towing (as I just remove the tow bar)
------------- April- rosetta 3 nights
May - walled garden 3 nights
June- ??
July- monkey tree 14 nights
Gaz - we have parking sensors on our FR-V and there are no issues with the towbar. It's the detachable sort (Witter) but sometimes I leave it on between camping breaks with no issued at all.
Just a heads up on the Accord - if your commute is only a 15 mile round trip, might be a bad idea to go for the new shape Accord (2008 onwards) as they have the iDTEC engine with a diesel particulate filter - could be problematic not burning off the soot. Not sure if the old Accord was available with the ictdi diesel as in the FR-V.
Gaz - we have parking sensors on our FR-V and there are no issues with the towbar. It's the detachable sort (Witter) but sometimes I leave it on between camping breaks with no issued at all.
Just a heads up on the Accord - if your commute is only a 15 mile round trip, might be a bad idea to go for the new shape Accord (2008 onwards) as they have the iDTEC engine with a diesel particulate filter - could be problematic not burning off the soot. Not sure if the old Accord was available with the ictdi diesel as in the FR-V.
Just been to the local fitters, £320 for the detachable bar, I'd go for the 2.0 vetch accord torer, no need for a diesel for such a short journey, in the meantime I've just brought some vacum bags... So I'll try again in the morning.
------------- "sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy"
We didn't think we would get everything in our new, ( to us ), car & having a new tent. Well when the time came we couldn't !!!arggg But for our first trip it was ok as in laws had bought new tent with them from Holland & were over in their camper van so it stayed there until we got to the site.
Anyways we thought would have more time when packing up to be able to fit everything in the car ....wrong !! lol.
We then decided that the day after we got home we would do some serious repacking & more repacking of the car ....& well we did it didn't leave anything out & it fitted with space to spare ...well a tiny bit so we have now a series of photos showing how we packed it for future reference. It was going in the car it had no choice lol.
I hope you find a solution I'm sure you will. We use vac packs ...great things.
the washing up bowl was placed there to show how much space we have ...this will be used for clothes which I'll pack in carrier bags flat then sort where they go when tent up etc.
We do have a roof bag into which we put all our bedding ...in vac packs..our inflatable beds, towels & fleece blankets. Everything else is in the back of the car ...yay
As the old saying goes
'if at first you don't succeed, then try, try again'!
Just a heads up on the Accord - if your commute is only a 15 mile round trip, might be a bad idea to go for the new shape Accord (2008 onwards) as they have the iDTEC engine with a diesel particulate filter - could be problematic not burning off the soot. Not sure if the old Accord was available with the ictdi diesel as in the FR-V.
And a 2nd heads up on the Accord - we ruled these out because they are so low. the state of the roads round here, we reckoned we'd be permanently grounding the thing.
Just a heads up on the Accord - if your commute is only a 15 mile round trip, might be a bad idea to go for the new shape Accord (2008 onwards) as they have the iDTEC engine with a diesel particulate filter - could be problematic not burning off the soot. Not sure if the old Accord was available with the ictdi diesel as in the FR-V.
I'd go for around the same age as my frv, 2007, (petrol)not really got bad roads round here, apart from the transporter I've mainly had Hondas and they been great, anyway...back to the vacum bags, just put a couple of sleeping bags in one, and I'm amazed at how flat they go!
------------- "sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy"
Quote: Originally posted by mjdb on 04/7/2014
We didn't think we would get everything in our new, ( to us ), car & having a new tent. Well when the time came we couldn't !!!arggg But for our first trip it was ok as in laws had bought new tent with them from Holland & were over in their camper van so it stayed there until we got to the site.
Anyways we thought would have more time when packing up to be able to fit everything in the car ....wrong !! lol.
We then decided that the day after we got home we would do some serious repacking & more repacking of the car ....& well we did it didn't leave anything out & it fitted with space to spare ...well a tiny bit so we have now a series of photos showing how we packed it for future reference. It was going in the car it had no choice lol.
I hope you find a solution I'm sure you will. We use vac packs ...great things.
the washing up bowl was placed there to show how much space we have ...this will be used for clothes which I'll pack in carrier bags flat then sort where they go when tent up etc.
We do have a roof bag into which we put all our bedding ...in vac packs..our inflatable beds, towels & fleece blankets. Everything else is in the back of the car ...yay
As the old saying goes
'if at first you don't succeed, then try, try again'!
Maddie
Thanks for your encouragement maddie, we will persevere, if we don't succeed the sites I've found in Cornwall are small uncommercial ones that have a few statics around the edge of the site, I must say the ones I've found look very nice, with good reviews and good prices, if this is what I have to do for a couple of seasons until my older kids are not coming then that will have to do, looking back to when we very first started out we managed then without a trailer. So I've not give up yet! Gaz.
------------- "sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy"
Parking sensors:
Yes, when you have a trailer on and have parking sensors, when in reverse you will get that annoying beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep which means you have about 2 inches until you hit something (or it is too late!!)
Only a problem when reversing which you will probably not do too many times. Mr Frazzle always says 'follow the trailer', I always remember it as 'go the wrong way'.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Can`t fit it in the car!!!!!!!
Also, our towbar we use for our Thule extra load carrier thing, which also doubles as a bike carrier.
But for our first trip it was ok as in laws had bought new tent with them from Holland & were over in their camper van so it stayed there until we got to the site.
lol.
