zroadster.net

Not for the Z3 but for my Citroen Van.

I'm struggling to make sense of the Towbar industry......

I can buy a Witter bar and electrics kit for self fitting for just over 100 pounds but have had quotes up to 450 quid to fit on site!

Another company who's price is better states 'we fit Witter, Westfalia and A1' - the latter a brand i've never heard of. On asking which one i'll get it's 'whatever we have in stock at the time' I smell a rat!

I'm now asking myself whether I can do this myself. I think the towbar should be fairly straight forward but the electrics not so?????

Thoughts and advice welcomed..........

The electrics are essentially the brake lights,the indicator lights and a number plate light. So, what would be required is to link into those three facilities on the car. - not very complicated.
The fitting instructions should come with the kit as far as the mechanical requirements go, and provided it's suitable for your van, shouldn't be too difficult.

An option for you would be to fit the bar and then get a local auto electrician to fit the electrics, depending upon the vehicle you either : -

• Splice the main loom at the rear with the tow bar electric loom
  Splice the main loom at the rear fit an auxilery lighting relay, the tow bar loom then connects to this.
  Fit a canbus electric pack which requires no splicing but some do need coding to the vehicle.

Have a look for a Citroen kit. It might be more expensive, but could well be plug and play. Towing kits are a lot more install friendly today than they were years ago.

Thanks all..........

I finally got to talk to a human being with a willingness to do business but typically he 's booked up for a couple of weeks so...........

I've bitten the bullet and ordered a towbar, electric kit, and double step all delivered for 127 quid. The bar alone has a recommended retail of 198 pounds and if all goes well i'll have saved well over 50% of the best fitted cost.

Lost a lot of time today by ignoring the first step of the online instructions which say to drop the spare wheel cage. I'd assumed the drawings which had no scale were showing the bar attached to the outer edges of the chassis when it actually attached to the inner edges. Lost more time as a cable was clipped over and hiding a rectangular hole in one of the cross members specifically cut out to allow a square cage nut to be slipped inside to accept an M10 bolt.I simply couldn't see it!..doh

Might be worth mentioning that the opinions of the suppliers are wide and varied. Claims of 3 hours plus to fit by some mobile fitting companies are at odds with the reality put forward by some manufacturers who claim 30 minutes - for the bar, not inc electrics. The one i've got comes in 3 parts, has 6(?) bolts to hold it together and a further 4 to fix to the chassis. Barring problems I think half hour will be doable..........particularly as in a weeks time i'll be 'an expert'......

Thanks again...

Final update in case anybody is sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for the outcome


Towbar fitted. 1 hour. Would have been less with decent set of spanners. Probably a 20 minute fit for a regular fitter on a promise

Electrics. Mindboggling to me and with no equipment to determine which wire goes to what I rang round some Dick Turpins.......sorry, auto electricians 100 quid! On yer bike!!! Best price 40 quid so going with this lad.