Octavia Towbar Blues

[gldgti]

Discovered why there's no electric brake pin on the Euro 13-pin - electric brakes are illegal in Europe. They have to use overrun mechanical brakes (whatever they are).

Inertial brakes - like is fitted to most car trailers. When there's compressive load applied to the drawbar (tow vehicle braking) the tailer brakes take up. Good system, works proportionally, and doesnt rely on working electrics.

[Mysticality]

---------(pins 1-7 are the same as a flat 7-pin connector)---------


Whoops, I put that line in the wrong group (now corrected).

When you say '7. Parkers' I presume you're meaning tail lights? Is it a northern states thing to call them parkers?


Good wiring diagrams info on the Narva site.

Wiring Diagrams - Products - Narva

"Parkers" is basically the switch position between 'low beam' and 'off.'

Front and rear 'tail lights' on.
Afterall, you don't call the front ones 'tail lights' do you?


EDIT: I hate inertia brakes. The 'thunk' is unnerving. And its detrimental to things stored in a caravan.

[wfdTamar]

No, but I don't call the rear ones parkers. I call the front ones parking lights, the rear ones tail lights. Must just be one of those quirky differences between states. Like what you call what you wear swimming.

[Mysticality]

What, swimmers? XD

Or budgie smugglers? -shudder-

[wfdTamar]

Here's a neat towbar install. Westfalia bar on Octavia. Removable neck and flip down socket. Barely visible when not being used.
6 photo's:

Tow bar neck | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[brad]

Looks good - very stealth.

I was considering a similar install untill I found out that you needed a special adaptor to fit a bike rack - so I figure I'm stuck with a best-bars style unit

[wfdTamar]

They have another type of neck that has a removable ball, held on with two bolts (flange type). You can put a bike rack on the two bolts, but it might be one of those standards peculiar to Europe (pricy).

Like this

Skoda Octavia Estate 2004 on Detachable Flange towbar


Good explanation of the different types here:

Tow bar types explained Swan neck towbars Flange Towbars Detach Towbars

[brad]

Thanks for the info

I've bought a towball mount 4 bike track-type bike carrier (courier delivered it at work on Friday after i left). I'll try it out on the wife's Outback first & work out what I need for the Octavia after that.

job1) Make it work on the Outback
job 2) make it modular so I can have it as 2 bikes or 4
job 3) buy/fit suitable towbar for the Octavia

[wfdTamar]

I think I gave a link to this page with wiring diagrams for 7 and 12 pin sockets, but they have the sodding pin numbers the wrong way around!

Wiring Diagrams - Products - Narva


The correct way is here:

Trailer Wiring Diagrams @ ExplorOz Articles


I pointed out the mistake to Narva and they said it's been there since 2008 and that's the first anyone has noticed (they haven't changed it yet though).

[wfdTamar]

Ok, for the record - the 13 pin electrics kit I got from pfjones.co.uk £195 seems to work fine and is simpler to code than the genuine one. All you do is go into the Canbus gateway installation list and tick 69 trailer.

All up it cost pretty close to $900 for a tow bar very similar to a Skoda one except the electrics swing up when not in use. So there is almost nothing exposed. The only slight drawback is the loop for attaching the safety chain is quite high up but I just put a shackle on that hangs down and it's ok. I might cut the trim a bit more just to make access to that a bit easier. Made by Westfalia (who make the Skoda ones).