tow bar - dedicated wiring?
Discussion
It varies vehicle to vehicle.
It's a legal requirement to have some sort of indication that the indicators are either operating or have failed on the trailer. Simple wiring will have a buzzer or light that flashes with the trailer indicators. A dedicated wiring kit will integrate this into the vehicles system, so for example the flash rate will change if the trailer indicator bulb fails, some might even flash up a specific warning in the dash display.
Some cars also do lots of other clever stuff and can have different settings for stability and traction control systems and possibly other modifications for things like RADAR controlled cruise control distances and the like.
Are you planning on doing the fitting yourself, the dedicated kit will be a lot easier to fit, in most cases it's plug and play but extra labour might make a difference if you're not DIYing it.
It's a legal requirement to have some sort of indication that the indicators are either operating or have failed on the trailer. Simple wiring will have a buzzer or light that flashes with the trailer indicators. A dedicated wiring kit will integrate this into the vehicles system, so for example the flash rate will change if the trailer indicator bulb fails, some might even flash up a specific warning in the dash display.
Some cars also do lots of other clever stuff and can have different settings for stability and traction control systems and possibly other modifications for things like RADAR controlled cruise control distances and the like.
Are you planning on doing the fitting yourself, the dedicated kit will be a lot easier to fit, in most cases it's plug and play but extra labour might make a difference if you're not DIYing it.
If you are diy handy then they are fairly easy to fit.
My towbar was second hand but i bought all the electric bits from pf jones
www.pfjones.co.uk they also have an ebay shop.
Dont get overly hung up about canbus and so on, the electrics for the trailer can all be operated by a boot mounted relay, which also contains a bleeper to warn you of any failure.
The relay is connected into the vehicle lights with scotch blocs and is fairly easy to follow.
The only thing I did differently was to change the tow bar socket to a single 13 pin, which in your case you may not need but the plugs for them are bayonet which are so much better,the 7 pins can easily fall out,work loose etc.
My towbar was second hand but i bought all the electric bits from pf jones
www.pfjones.co.uk they also have an ebay shop.
Dont get overly hung up about canbus and so on, the electrics for the trailer can all be operated by a boot mounted relay, which also contains a bleeper to warn you of any failure.
The relay is connected into the vehicle lights with scotch blocs and is fairly easy to follow.
The only thing I did differently was to change the tow bar socket to a single 13 pin, which in your case you may not need but the plugs for them are bayonet which are so much better,the 7 pins can easily fall out,work loose etc.
I've got vehicle specific on my BMW 5 series. Well worth the extra as it means the rear parking sensors get turned off when the caravan is attached. Light bulb failures on the caravan come up on the iDrive, the stability control knows it's towing so works accordingly and the self levelling rear suspension also doesn't try to jack the caravan up.
But as others have said it does vary car to car.
But as others have said it does vary car to car.
bristolracer said:
If you are diy handy then they are fairly easy to fit.
My towbar was second hand but i bought all the electric bits from pf jones
www.pfjones.co.uk they also have an ebay shop.
Dont get overly hung up about canbus and so on, the electrics for the trailer can all be operated by a boot mounted relay, which also contains a bleeper to warn you of any failure.
The relay is connected into the vehicle lights with scotch blocs and is fairly easy to follow.
The only thing I did differently was to change the tow bar socket to a single 13 pin, which in your case you may not need but the plugs for them are bayonet which are so much better,the 7 pins can easily fall out,work loose etc.
If you were DIY'ing it I'd at least spend the extra few minutes and make proper connections, not scotch locks.My towbar was second hand but i bought all the electric bits from pf jones
www.pfjones.co.uk they also have an ebay shop.
Dont get overly hung up about canbus and so on, the electrics for the trailer can all be operated by a boot mounted relay, which also contains a bleeper to warn you of any failure.
The relay is connected into the vehicle lights with scotch blocs and is fairly easy to follow.
The only thing I did differently was to change the tow bar socket to a single 13 pin, which in your case you may not need but the plugs for them are bayonet which are so much better,the 7 pins can easily fall out,work loose etc.
I'd give your local friendly parts department a ring to see if they can possibly quote you for an OEM kit. As these are often not that expensive but will fit a lot easier and likely be less troublesome.
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