Fitting tow bar and wiring to a Yeti with tow prep.

[Transporter]

Some good towbars info here guys.

[allan2703]

Hello Joel,

I've accessed the same control unit which you used but am being told by the supplier (in Poland) that it needs to be wired up to under the dashboard even though the car is trailer prepped. There was nothing in your post to indicate this. Is your unit fully functional and has the car been recoded so that it detects the trailer? Congratulations on a brilliant post, by the way. It's the best and most thorough "how to" I've seen in a long time from any source.

[Hillbilly]

Boon

I'm no "expert" in these matters but have been looking at this very issue since before we got our Yeti nearly 12 months back. The 80kg refers to down force on the ball, the actual load the trailer puts on the back of the car The result for us was that we had to decide to sell our caravan if we went ahead and got the Yeti because the ball weight was over 130kg even though the all up weight was 1400kg - well under the 2000kg limit

Can't imagine the all up weight of a jetski and trailer being anywhere near the 2000kg mark, so it is just the ball weight you need to look at and with a jetski and trailer you should be able to gauge the ball weight just by lifting tow coupling by hand as they are generally pretty well balanced to allow for maneuvering by hand.

I am restoring a boat trailer for a rubber duckie with a 30hp engine at the moment and it will be set up so that there will be about 25kgs on the ball. The ball weight of this trailer can be adjusted by moving the boat to change the balance point so it is no big deal, but I want it nice and light for hand maneuvering into a storage shed

It seems on heavier things like vans, the compliance plate has 2 weights, GVM and I think ATM (someone please correct me if I am wrong here) One is the all up weight that the vehicle can carry including the vehicle itself and the other is the weight the axle or axles can carry. Obviously one is higher than the other and the difference is the ball weight. Some compliance plates actually have the ball weight - I have seen both types.

The simplest way is to get some electronic bathroom scales and a piece of 3x2 timber about 15" long plus another couple of pieces of 3x2 about 6" long. Wind the jockey wheel down to where the van is level or better to the height it will be on the towball, insert the timber and scales under the coupling, then slowly raise the jockey wheel. When the jockey wheel is off the ground the scales will tell you the ball weight
Did this on my (old) caravan and a mates Adria - his came in at 52kg ball weight, mine came in at 132kg
Similar featured vans, mine Australian and his European - won't get into that argument here but the Yeti is obviously designed for the Euro van designs.

Hope this helps

Here is quite a good explanation of vehicle and van weights Caravan / Trailer Compliance Plates and Weight Explanations

However there is one glaring omission which lots of vanners don't observe or don't know about.

The towball weight on the vehicle is part of the payload.

Hence if you have a Landcruiser which has a payload of about 672kg it works like this Fuel 135kg, towball weight 275kg =410kg leaving you 262 kg for you and mum and any gear you have in the back. So you 100kg. mum 60kg leaves 102 kg for all the stuff in the back.

So don't even think about a roof rack (40kg) and a tinny ???? and an outboard stuck underneath it, 2 jerry cans of diesel in the back etc..

Been there done that. Went over weighbridge, went home dumped a heap of stuff and went touring.

Even worse if you have a Prado or a Nissan with reducing ball weight limits over a certain figure.

Not all will have a van with that much ball weight but ours was actually 300kg and 2900kg ATM.

[Lucas_R]

Nice write up. Ive actually just gone through the process of removing a towbar from my 2010 Golf GTI (car was purchased 2nd hand and we didn't need the towbar) and re-fitting it to another 2011 Golf 118TSI (forum member on here).

The wiring box on the left hand side of the boot, bumper removal etc etc is all very much the same. Some pics here of the towbar arrangement while the bumper if off incase its of interest to anyone: Genuine VW Towbar kit for Mk5/Mk6 Golf GTI

It took me longer to remove the wiring from my GTI (as it all connects into the CECM under the dash) than it did to remove the actual towbar.

[joel0407]

Hello Joel,

I've accessed the same control unit which you used but am being told by the supplier (in Poland) that it needs to be wired up to "always waiting" under the dashboard even though the car is trailer prepped. There was nothing in your post to indicate this. Is your unit fully functional and has the car been recoded so that it detects the trailer? Congratulations on a brilliant post, by the way. It's the best and most thorough "how to" I've seen in a long time from any source.

Yes mate, I did have to have the car coded for the tow bar. As far as I can remember, the coding isn't to make the tow bar work it's just for the display and turning off the rear park sensors. Just installing the control box is enough for the stability control of the vehicle to work with a trailer. From memory, you know it's in trailer stability control mode from how long one of the lights takes to go out on the dash. I think it's the traction control light. I think normally it goes out in a second or so and once you connect a trailer, it takes longer.

Happy Days.

[allan2703]

Did your kit come wired for 7 pin or was it 13 pin?

[joel0407]

Did your kit come wired for 7 pin or was it 13 pin?

Pretty sure it's 13 pin but 7 wire.

Give me 5 minutes.

[joel0407]

Yep, 13 pin. They are an awesome plug. Those flat 7 pin rubbish that's so common in Australia is only used in Australia. As we are a little bit limited market, there aren't so many manufactures as no good ones.

The 13 pin euro plug being round has the cap screw in from the rear that squashes a rubber grommet around the cable and makes for a water tight seal. Even the connection of the plug from the trailer to the car is water proof. Hope that makes sense



All tucks away hidden like this.



Happy Days.

[joel0407]

Oh. Just remembered. They have a left and right tail light so you need to wire these together with diodes. If you just use one side for your tail lights, the canbus will show the other side is out.

[ploz58]

Nice write up, i was slack and ordered the tow bar with the new Yeti,