Printable View
Some dealers will do that, so that people will come in and buy it from them, rather than shop around for the cheapest.
It's the oldest Parts Department trick in the book. They'll tell you they don't know it, so that you think the part number you've got is useless.
It was me that replied.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillbilly
The dealer said a tow bar wasn't available, I didn't have part numbers when I asked.
Sorry to be OT but no other way to tell you;Quote:
Originally Posted by Umai Naa!!
Umai Naa!! has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space.
The dealer (Bill Buckle VW) has just replied to my email;Quote:
Originally Posted by PranK
Correct me if I am wrong, but that says to me, that for $1000 I can have a tow bar on my 06 Passat wagon!Quote:
VGA803921PAS06 T/BAR PASSAT B6 06> ALL, $486.31 retail. In stock.
3C9055204G supersedes to 3C8055210 R36 WAG T-BAR WIRING, $541.46 retail, in stock.
Bill Buckle Parts
Unit E 134 Old Pittwater Rd, BROOKVALE, 9938 4011
Open 8am~5pm Mon~Fri.
300m from BV TAFE, same side, up ramp before NRMA.
Very good was all in the way that you wrote on Facebook that led me astray.Quote:
Originally Posted by PranK
However there was a thread on here a few months ago from a very upset member who had a towbar fitted to a Passat the cost him $1500 and he was most upset at the job that was done.
Here it is http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/foru...hip-70347.html
Inbox cleaned. Fire away.Quote:
Originally Posted by PranK
Regarding towbar downloads, the limit for Passat (Alltrack) is 90kg with 1800kg braked weight (2000kg in Europe, where gravity is different)
My wife is a bit of a camping nut, friends tow a Jayco caravan (with a Disco4).
When I look at the specs of all the different model Jaycos the downweights are all well over 100kg, excepting a couple of tiny ones..
so, no go with that?
edit: never mind I read some UK forums and 5% to 10% of gross weight is fine, you can make it what you want my moving stuff around. So 5% of 1800kg = 90kg = max tow ball down-weight. Yeah it would be nicer if the rated max was 10%, but I can't use it as an excuse not to tow a decent sized caravan!
No There is actually no towball limits posted In ADR's but should you exceed manufacturersQuote:
Originally Posted by nyc863
posted limits it could come back to bite you for warranty or should an accident be attributed to the excessive weight insurance could be voided
Its there for a reason and it could affect steering and stability if exceeded.
Have spent several years vanning and have seen some horribly unsafe rigs with headlights pointing at the sky.
Also before someone suggests it, a weight distribution hitch does NOT allow you to have a higher ball weight.
RE YOUR EDIT. Moving stuff around to get a lighter towball weight is fraught with danger.
Moving weight to the back will possibly start the van snaking and may cause a very bad accident.
Vans in Europe are built differently to Aussie models and can have a lighter ball weight than a similar weight model here.
They have different weight distribution to ours and frequently dont have water tanks etc and normally have kitchens in the middle whereas ours often have them at the ends
IT WOULD BE SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS TO USE UK ADVICE ON AN AUSTRALIAN VAN
Google Adria, York. Jurgens or European vans
I wouldnt lighten the recommended ball weight on any van below what its maker recommends.
I had a van with a ATM of 2850Kg and it had a ball weight of 300kg.
I wouldnt have liked it to be much less it did move around in side winds a bit but towed fine normally.
If you doubt me Google Collyn Rivers and read some of his articles especially on the Caravan and Motorhome forum and also the Caravan forum. Very interesting articles about why you shouldnt do what you propose.
There was a famous coroners report in SA few years ago where a van had been modified so much it literally had no ball weight, which is probably why when a B double went past a bit close it sucked the rig into it and killed all in the Patrol and the van continued over 100m into a tree. Had it had ball weight the A frame would have dropped on the road and stopped it.
Your car your life Just posting what I have seen during my experiences
Interesting however I'm always maximally suspicious when someone says something that works in europe can't work here.
I'm just being an armchair researcher here, please don't take offense and of course I'm not going to make any decisions in future about caravan weight distribution until I talk to others face to face, rather than just google around a bit.
However, I did find this interesting australian article:
Towball Weight and Trailer Stability
so it is plausible that people in Europe setting up 90kg towball weights towing 1500kg caravans might actually not be putting their lives at risk.
Of course they don't get passed by b-doubles or b-triples 4 lateral feet away at a closing speed of 180kmh, either. However apart from that one scenario, I can't think of any other uniquely australian driving condition vs europe.
On the caravan design, yes I can see how interior layout practices might differ. But caravan to caravan setup things differ remarkably in other ways as well - eg double axle, better or worse stability controls, etc. Can the typical kitchen location be the key to all this?
or perhaps Australia just imported the USA rule of thumb?
anyway it is all interesting stuff. I can visualize some exasperated German engineer reading pleas from VW Australia requesting double normal towball weight. Probably the same guy who gets emails from America asking for 14 more cup holders because "that is the way things are done here".
Interesting I have read most of the points in that article at least 3 years ago.
There is a glaring error which I had already mentioned.
You cannot lighten a towball weight with a WDH.
WHY BECAUSE THE TOWBALL WEIGHT IS MEASURED DISCONNECTED FROM THE CAR.
It is always the measured weight regardless of what you do to it when connected to the car.
Basically we are not comparing Apples with Apples here as the design parameters are vastly different
The Euro vans are designed with the wheels closer to the centre. Aussie vans usually have the axles further to the rear giving higher towball loads and supposedly better stability. The university article says that.
As I said and so does the article they configure the interiors to give a different weight distribution then they do here.
They are also built to a lighter construction than our vans.
Go to the two forums and have a read I have been a member for 6 years on there but have sold my van and no longer bother.
I dont mind what you do and won't comment further as there has been this disagreement innumerable times, usually from inexperienced vanners on the van forums and often its easier to just not bother.
Read Collyns (who is an Engineer specializing in this stuff) articles about the evils of stacking stuff on the rear bar and its effect on stability and you may be enlightened.
Gos a lot further than the English towball weight paragraph but what they say is similar.
The comments about truck pig trailers is totally irrelevant to Caravans and I have seen trailers in the outback swaying a metre from side to side making it very hard to pass them, so saying they dont sway is rubbish.
The incident I quoted was not coming the other way it was going the same way and when they pass you you can feel them coming as they have a "bow wave" and push your rig a bit as they get just behind you. Then as they come along side it starts to suck you in against it,. You have to resist correcting too much as just as it gets past you can end up going off the road to the left when the suction dies away.
That guy panicked and somehow the car ended up under the front of the truck and was squashed. The cause was put down to the instability of the van because of its lack of ballweight. There is a picture of it in a Police yard sitting there with the A frame horizontal, nowhere near the ground,