Golf Mk7 Towing/Towbar Thread

[bru20vt]

Anyone had a Westfalia A40V installed in Sydney. Keen to find out who did the install.

[Euro Car Upgrades]

We probably can help with the installer if you like.

[Nudist]

Greg: Very astute observation -that might explain why I have to keep getting into the passenger side to drive the car!

Seriously, whilst I consider myself to be somewhat of a "newby" where ODB2 protocols are concerned, my deeply held suspicion is that there is a hierachy of "tick" marks in the structure of the Golf's software. There are many folk on here that know a lot more about this stuff than do I, so it's entirely possible that I'm incorrect in my thinking.

Anyhow, in respect of your observation, I suspect that the entry for RH drive in the engine controller (my previous pic) is subserviant to the over-riding entry in the "Central Electronics controller". I've inclosed below a copy of the entry for the first byte of the "Elect.Cont" which clearly indicates where my steering wheel should be.
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I had a look at the towbar on Kevin_67 's post. It looks interesting in that it appears to have a detachable tongue (wouldn't it be great if we all had one of these?). A detachable tongue seems to be a good idea because there is no risk of inadvertantly knocking your leg on the tow bar. However, I'm not sure if the tongue will rattle when it is attached. The good thing about the HR towbar is that everything is screwed together, so no rattles. But it's easy to knock your leg into the tongue if you're not careful. The other great thing about the HR towbar (for me at least) is that it is a "standard" fitting tongue which meant that the modifications that I made to fit my bike rack were quite simple. But I acknowledge that these issues might not be so important to others.

Hi hi ive just come across this thread. I'm getting one of HR towbars fitted in the coming week. Does the towbar come with any smarts to tell the car to adjust its braking behaviour? Which is what an ECU does if I'm not mistaken

[Euro Car Upgrades]

As far as we know, not.
HR connect positive negative and the lights, module is not a feature you can code on these.

Hi hi ive just come across this thread. I'm getting one of HR towbars fitted in the coming week. Does the towbar come with any smarts to tell the car to adjust its braking behaviour? Which is what an ECU does if I'm not mistaken

[Paul_R]

Hi hi ive just come across this thread. I'm getting one of HR towbars fitted in the coming week. Does the towbar come with any smarts to tell the car to adjust its braking behaviour? Which is what an ECU does if I'm not mistaken

Can't say about the Golf but I had a HR class 4 bar put on the Passat yesterday - I wanted the 50mm hitch. Local Pedders place did it and they sent the car off to the auto electricians to "have the optional ECU fitted". Now I don't know exactly what that means but Pedders said 'you can't just fit a bar onto these cars, the electrics are real tricky'. It was $200 on top of the bar for the ECU. I haven't hooked the trailer up yet so can't say if it does anything special.

[Euro Car Upgrades]

Tow Bar to work correctly requires a VW module. This is responsible for CAN communication with other modules:
- engine - when towing it works differently to cope with extra load - sometimes switches additional fan to cool
- ABS / ESP module - these work differently when trailer is hooked to avoid jack knifing.
- CECM - This power module distributes power in another way when trailer is hooked - also visually aids the driver when trailer is hooked on dashboard
- OPS - This is coded so when trailer is hooked up sensors do not beep
- CAN gateway - trailer module is coded into the gateway (main comms hub) so the car and other modules know what to do
- RVC - reversing camera - similar thing to parking sensors - recognises the trailer on the screen switches off dynamic lines
- 5F Information Electronics - ensures entertainment system displays all the trailer info correctly.

There is probably a couple of other which we are not aware of.
Overall when the proper VW / Westfalia module is fitted it is safer & easier for the car & driver to deal with the trailer. Many vehicles activate additional fan so the engine does not overheat (A5 cabrio is a great example).

[fastmk7]

try the Westfalia dist in ustralia , they have a tow bar and wiring kit avail.

[Euro Car Upgrades]

Westfalia is the go. For anyone in Qld we can help with supply & install as we are their distributor

[Paul_R]

I've hooked up the trailer to see what HRs ECU does. Remember I went with the HR class 4 to get the 50mm square hitch for a specific bike rack that will not use trailer wiring anyway. I might hook up my trailer to take some rubbish to the tip a couple of kms away once or twice a year? Whole job was $1300 fitted.

Good news is that it works. By that I mean the lights work, the car drives and no funny warning lights come on. There has been something wired in that requires a power feed from the battery. Other than that I can't see any other new electrics. From what I can gather the HR ECU just stops the car going nuts when the trailer lights come on which would cause voltage drop and trip bulb out warnings. The description is of the trailer being 'invisible' to the car ECU.

Bad news is there is no indication that the car realises it has a trailer hooked up as the rear parking sensors go mad when you put it in reverse. I assume from this that no coding of the VW ECU has been done. I also imagine that if the trailer is indeed 'invisible' then there is no point in hooking up VCDS to recode as there would be no trigger to tell the ECU when the trailer is hooked up.

I may be wrong on this last point and will email HR and ask them. I doubt I'll get the answer I want.

So, if you want a 50mm hitch for occasional short trips go ahead with the HR option. If you plan on doing lots of towing, particularly out of town, then watch this space. Can a genuine VW loom be used and coded up via VCDS? Probably, but at what cost?

[Euro Car Upgrades]

Genuine VW / Westfalia module with wiring kit which works with all the bits is $245+GST for Golf 7
You are looking at around 2.8 hours labour to fit and code it properly.
Pretty cheap for what it does to your safety