[Closed] Towbars (Seat Leon ST) - talk to me

I would go for a bar with a removable neck.

With a 'fixed' neck or ball you will always be bashing your shins.

Modern car electrics will sense the extra load of the trailer/light bar and throw a wobbly.

You need to have a bypass relay fitted that prevents this issue. Coding, dialling in - just phrases used by the suppliers to frighten you.

I have just fitted a Brink bar and Maypole relay to my Captur. Cost £200 materials and an easy days work.

I suppose it all depends on how handy you are, or if you have the tools etc.

Indespension did my Leon ST with a Witter in 2017 for £330ish if that helps. I don't have reversing sensors or a camera though, and it's a manual with just the standard traction control/ESC or whatever it is.

Some racks and for caravans need a specific type of ball/mounting I believe..

I’d recommend going for a vehicle specific wiring kit if you have bumper sensors or anything like that.

Even with a vehicle specific kit fitting a westfalia towbar has caused a problem with the electrics in our VW.

Several attempts to program the car to recognise the towbar have been unsuccessful and as a result the car’s “front assist” system is showing an error and won’t work.

This is a common problem in VAG (vw, Audi, seat, Skoda) group cars and solving it has cost me the best part of £600 so far.

I bought a full kit including bypass relay from ebay - making sure it was a proper CE marked kit from a reputable seller. I fitted the metalwork myself, which took a while as the threaded inserts on the car were clagged up with mud etc and I didn't have an M12 tap handy.

The electrics defeated me, so I paid the local garage £50 for an hour to sort that out.

All in I paid about £220 for a fixed neck. This was my preference as whilst I take the point above about banging your shins, I frequently have to park up very close to a wall and the tow bar makes that easier.

Fitted a towbar and electrics to our car last week. To answer question on the reverse beepers the kit for me had the wiring options for both OE and aftermarket sensors so that when the towing electrics socket is plugged in it turns off the sensors so no need for a switch to turn off.

have done previous vehicles just using generic electrical kits and always felt a bit of a bodge with needing to attach to harnesses for rear lights and needing to cross reference to car manual that getting correct wires.

Paid a bit more for the vehicle specific electrics this time and would recommend it. Came with everything right length and with correct plugs and sockets to fit to lights and fuse panel so totally foolproof. Hardest bit was routing cables through tight spots in vehicle body, thought would be canny and use bike cable routing magnet but forgot there is a load of steel in a car!

cost of generic bypass relay kits was about £30, vehicle specific was £130 but in my view worth it for ease of fitting.

I got a fixed one without the dedicated electrics. Only thing you have to do is hit the button to cancel the parking sensor when you reverse when the rack is on. Find that a small inconvenience and wasn't worth paying the extra in my view. YMMV of course.

You need to have a bypass relay fitted that prevents this issue. Coding, dialling in – just phrases used by the suppliers to frighten you.

The last 3 cars we have had, had bypass relay fitted. The main thing i noticed was you had to manually turn off reversing sensors.

But, on the old Volvo and now on the Seat, coding in means that it is not a bypass relay and you can set various things such as stability control and gearbox (it is DSG) to work 'better' with a load on the towball.

As I understand it, from both the towbar fitters, is that a 'proper' install with coding is considered 'better' than a bypass relay.

They are not frightening me, it is two options and it is a case of 'is it worth it?'.

I am worried about is what @cheddarchallenged shares - I don't want to muck up the car...

I fitted an Umbra towbar to my Leon FR 5F with their basic lighting kit & you can turn the parking sensors down in one of the menus on the touch screen.

Matt, is it Blue? It'll match ours. We keep parking beside Blue Leons!

FWIW, Stirling Trailer Centre are fab. I've had one fitted (properly coded) so not at the cheap end, but their service and support is excellent. recommended.

Matt, is it Blue?

😆

I ended up getting a local fully fitted full-monty kit for my BMW.

The sensors work fine, it knows when there's something attached and when there isn't - there was a bit of messing around with the software, needing an update from BMW via the towbar supplier.

I went with an 'old fashioned' bolt on ball - wanted options for fitting a bumper protector etc if I needed to tow trailers etc. Plus good for 'bump' parking 🙂

£650 with a take back guarantee.

I have fitted my own towbar to my last 4 cars.

The physical fitting of the towbar to the car will be super easy on a VAG car. There will be threaded inserts in place that it will literally just bolt to.

Whether you have swan, removable or flange is up to you. Flange is most agricultural, but also most flexible. You can fit spacers (careful now!) and adjust the height of the ball for a variety of reasons.

The electrics are increasingly complicated. I had always used a relay and scotchlock kit in the past, but has some reliability issues with the most recent install and opted for an in-line plug in system that was easier to do that the scotchlock carry on, BUT my car does not have reversing sensors, or any fancy adjustable suspension.

Last couple I have had done by Buchan Towbars in Glasgow, also VAG (Audi). It has involved bumper off and then replacement of a large metal section with a towbar specific bit, bumper refit and then removable ball and electrics and coding. The large metal member is about a metre long, h section type thing, which is sat in my garage. The last one was about 18 months ago and cost £900 (on a factory fresh Q5)

I suspect you use it a lot, so yes. We had it on our Passat and it made life easier. It would set the alarm off if you fiddled too much with the bikes so a bit of peace of mind there. Also bulb out showed on the dash.

We fitted the cheaper version of the electrics to our last Passat (Witter tow bar, fitted via towsure), all worked just fine but you had to remember to mute the parking sensors when you put it in reverse.

For the amount we use it, we went for the full monty on the current car (aftermarket Westfalia bar on another Passat, fitted by VW) as it’s less hassle and you get the added bonus of the various towing assists should we ever need it. Judging by our current form we’ll be running this car for another 10 years or so, so well worth the extra in my book.

All have been the removable neck type and you’d never know they were there with the neck removed.