Towing electrics how hard can it be

[hedley pepper]

Hi all
After our trusty Tiguan met a flamey 🔥 end. Possibly resulting from an electric fault in professionally fitted towing electrics we now have a Citroen C4 grand spacetourer.

Our problem is that we have 7 pin electrics on the car and need to upgrade to 13 pin. We have contacted local citroen dealer and specialist also the huge dealer we bought the car from an cannot find anyone to do the upgrade.

Can anyone reccomend an either local to us installer that works Saturdays or mobile fitter that will come to us.

We are classed as Alfreton close to Mansfield, Chesterfield, Alfreton and only around 12 miles from Nottingham and Derby.

Many thanks our search continues as we are missing our caravaning.

 

[otherclive]

Hi all
After our trusty Tiguan met a flamey 🔥 end. Possibly resulting from an electric fault in professionally fitted towing electrics we now have a Citroen C4 grand spacetourer.

Our problem is that we have 7 pin electrics on the car and need to upgrade to 13 pin. We have contacted local citroen dealer and specialist also the huge dealer we bought the car from an cannot find anyone to do the upgrade.

Can anyone reccomend an either local to us installer that works Saturdays or mobile fitter that will come to us.

We are classed as Alfreton close to Mansfield, Chesterfield, Alfreton and only around 12 miles from Nottingham and Derby.

Many thanks our search continues as we are missing our caravaning.

Look at the NTTA website for towbar specialists in your area. Make sure any new harness for the car is dedicated Citroen and not generic. Also if you want the fridge to work whilst towing tell the technician.

NTTA

 

[GUMPY]

Anpro Waterproof 7 to 13 Pin Plug Trailer Caravan Electric Adapter Towing Bar Socket https://amzn.eu/d/3HHUG4Y

Will get you out temporarily until you can find a fitter.

 

[Challenger]

Used one of these perfectly satisfactorily for several seasons .
Much cheaper than the route you plan too !
https://www.towsure.com/towing-adaptor-7-pin-towbar-to-13-pin-caravan

 

[Jcloughie]

Hi all
After our trusty Tiguan met a flamey 🔥 end. Possibly resulting from an electric fault in professionally fitted towing electrics we now have a Citroen C4 grand spacetourer.

Our problem is that we have 7 pin electrics on the car and need to upgrade to 13 pin. We have contacted local citroen dealer and specialist also the huge dealer we bought the car from an cannot find anyone to do the upgrade.

Can anyone reccomend an either local to us installer that works Saturdays or mobile fitter that will come to us.

We are classed as Alfreton close to Mansfield, Chesterfield, Alfreton and only around 12 miles from Nottingham and Derby.

Many thanks our search continues as we are missing our caravaning.

You do not make it clear if you have two 7 pin sockets or just one.

If only 1, then I suggest you look at Otherclives suggestion.

Otherwise, an adapter can be used. but a hard-wired 13 pin socket would be better. Not the easiest to wire, but something any auto electrician can easily do.

Bare socket

or

Ready wired.

If you need a new dedicated harness look here.

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for the photo.

John

 

[hedley pepper]

Thanks for the advice.
We have single seven pin on the car.

Have looked at adaptors but as we have a stability brake system that will not work with an adaptor. Contacted two auto electricians neither were interested.

I know it's not going to be cheap but 100% we want it done right.
The only person we found does not do call out or Saturdays so that doesn't work for us.

 

[Mel]

Have you tried Dan Carroll. He has done serving for us before. Covers your area

Perfect Tow - The East Midlands' Leading Tow Bar Specialists and Caravan Servicing Company

Experience top-notch tow bar installations and vehicle servicing with Perfect Tow. Serving Derby and the East Midlands, we're your reliable partner for caravan servicing, vehicle parking aids, and more. Call us now at 07506154196.

www.perfecttow.co.uk

Good luck
Mel

 

[GUMPY]

The stability system will require a 13pin, however as the car is only 7 pin I doubt the wiring will be there so it's probably a new loom in the car.
Before I got my present Yeti I looked at one with a 7pin and the cost to convert it was almost as much as a full towbar. 😟

 

[Hutch]

The stability system will require a 13pin, however as the car is only 7 pin I doubt the wiring will be there so it's probably a new loom in the car.
Before I got my present Yeti I looked at one with a 7pin and the cost to convert it was almost as much as a full towbar. 😟

The cost. of just a towbar without electrics is very low. Possibly below £150 . It is the wiring that costs. Maybe. Not the physical cost but the design.

 

[hedley pepper]

Thanks,
I have contacted perfect tow now. Fingers crossed.

Diy is not an option not because I can't but because I do not want to risk invalidating insurance. Or tiguan fire 🔥 was only covered because I could prove work had been done professionally

 

[audiorob]

You may have tried it already but I googled ‘towbar electrics Mansfield’ then the same for alfreton and Chesterfield and came up with several options for auto-electricians and towbar fitters. Maybe one will be suitable for your job.

 

[GaryB]

PF Jones manufacture dedicated wiring harnesses and have a few fitting centres in the Midlands

 

[otherclive]

I think I would opt for a professional towbar fitter rather than an auto electrician. Both can clearly route cables as required but the auto electrician may not be aware of some of the nuances around caravans such as fridge operation, battery charging, smart alternator and any recoding of the car.

 

[RogerL]

I think I would opt for a professional towbar fitter rather than an auto electrician. Both can clearly route cables as required but the auto electrician may not be aware of some of the nuances around caravans such as fridge operation, battery charging, smart alternator and any recoding of the car.

On the other hand, some towbar fitters may not be aware of how modern cars operate electrically - some of them haven't got to grip with smart alternators despite it being about 25 years since Ford introduced them and everyone else followed suit.

 

[otherclive]

On the other hand, some towbar fitters may not be aware of how modern cars operate electrically - some of them haven't got to grip with smart alternators despite it being about 25 years since Ford introduced them and everyone else followed suit.

Well it’s an imperfect world and for each force there’s an equal and opposite one.

 

[Davidaryder]

Adding the wiring to power pins 8 to 13 only requires a 2.5mm cable from the battery or fusebox, an inline fuse near the power source, and a voltage-sensing relay to switch it on and off automatically. You also, of course, need a 13-pin socket and a wiring diagram for the socket. Such a diagram can be found easily online.
Most towbar fitters fit this equipment all the time and should do yours for a modest price.
Google "Towbar fitters near me"

 

[Sam Vimes]

When I swapped my old Qashqai for a newer one which had the same engine but updated, it went from a DPF to Adblue system. It never occured to me that the Towbar kit would be different between the two.

The introduction of the Adblue tank needed a different towbar than the previous one.

 

[RogerL]

Adding the wiring to power pins 8 to 13 only requires a 2.5mm cable from the battery or fusebox, an inline fuse near the power source, and a voltage-sensing relay to switch it on and off automatically. You also, of course, need a 13-pin socket and a wiring diagram for the socket. Such a diagram can be found easily online.
Most towbar fitters fit this equipment all the time and should do yours for a modest price.
Google "Towbar fitters near me"

There's a phenomena known as Voltage Drop where the cable size acts as a restrictor over longer distances, eg from the car battery to the furthest point in the caravan. The last car I had done used 4AWG cable rated at 85amps which reduced the voltage drop.

Also note that some cheap voltage-sensing relays will "chatter"when used with smart alternators, depite the decades they've been in use.

Personally, I'd use an auto electrician rather than a towbar fitter - my experience of the latter hasn't been good.

 

[RogerL]

When I swapped my old Qashqai for a newer one which had the same engine but updated, it went from a DPF to Adblue system. It never occured to me that the Towbar kit would be different between the two.

The introduction of the Adblue tank needed a different towbar than the previous one.

As an aside, the SCR/Adblue would have been additional to the DPF, not instead of.

 

[Sam Vimes]

As an aside, the SCR/Adblue would have been additional to the DPF, not instead of.

Accepted

 

[Woodentop]

Fitting is not just a case of a hefty cable to the rear of the car, the Engine Management Unit (EMU ) or Engine Control Unit (ECU) also needs to be updated to tell it that a towbar is fitted and you will be towing. Most towbar installers are able to do it quite easily, dealers charge a lot more! When the reprog has been done, if your car has a large LCD screen you will find that the reversing picture changes to show an A-frame so you know the caravan has been detected. The reprog <should> override and stop/start operation and may also override the smart operation of the alternator - it varies from car to car let alone between manufacturers.
Given you are in Alfreton I can suggest two possibilities. There used to be a towbar place on Storforth Lane trading estate in Chfd. If you go A61 through Clay Cross etc, as you enter Chfd you will come to a traffic light junc with a single right turn - that is Storforth Lane. It used to be signposted to Hasland but its a long time since I've been there. There are two (3?) industrial estates down there from memory, one or two on the right and one on the left immediately after passing under the railway bridge. I would suggest you find which IE as it floods under the bridge often if there has been a lot of rain.
The other possibility is Towsure in Sheffield who do installs. You can go browse their towing/camping/walking supermarket and have an eat whilst they do it. They are not far from Hillsborough.

One other point. Have you checked that your C4 GST can tow your caravan, both in terms of weight etc, but more importantly that the vehicle is homologated for towing? Some vehicles produced by Citroen over the last 10-15 years or so which you would expect to be good towing vehicles were in fact not homologated. If you need to check it find the vehicle rating plate - on most EU produced vehicles it is on the bottom of the B pillar, that's the pillar between the front and back doors. It will have four lines of numbers: the top two are Gross Vehicle Weight and the Gross Towing Weight. Obviously the GTW is much more than GVW and subtracting the smaller number from the larger number gives the maximum weight that the vehicle can tow (all in kg of course.) The other two lines of numbers designated 1 and 2 are the front and rear axle load limits respectively. If there are only three lines of numbers - you have a GVW but no GTW - it is not homologated which makes it illegal to be used as a towcar.

 

[trevormonty]

There's a phenomena known as Voltage Drop where the cable size acts as a restrictor over longer distances, eg from the car battery to the furthest point in the caravan. The last car I had done used 4AWG cable rated at 85amps which reduced the voltage drop.

Also note that some cheap voltage-sensing relays will "chatter"when used with smart alternators, depite the decades they've been in use.

Personally, I'd use an auto electrician rather than a towbar fitter - my experience of the latter hasn't been good.

Heavier gauge cable is really only important for high current loads ie fridge. Power draw on caravan running lights isn't that high especially newer vans with LED lights, on older vans 2x25w (4amps) for stop lights is highest draw lighting circuit. Most important cable is 12v negative as it carries combined currents from all circuits. Small voltage drop won't make any difference to lights.

 

[Beachball]

I have use this mobile fitter MTS give them a ring i hope they can assist .

Mobile Towbar Services Sheffield | Mobile Towbar Services

Sheffield Mobile Towbar Services? Providers of high quality Towbars services throughout the Sheffield area. For towbars call 0114 248 6325 Towbars Sheffield.

www.mobiletowbarservices.co.uk

 

[Ukdave2002]

Most modern, (circa last 10 years, Peugeot Citroën certainly 15 years ago) vehicles are factory, semi pre wired for 13 pin towing, by that I mean that the wiring will be factory fitted to the rear of the vehicle, terminated within a socket. There will be an off the shelf vehicle specific wiring kit that has a plug at one end that plugs into previously mentioned socket and the 13 pin socket on the other, normally not connected to ease routing the cable. Fitting this is a relatively simple job.

Some vehicle software will automatically detect when something is attached to the towing circuit, and disable things like reversing sensors, blind spot warning etc, and enable things like trailer/van bulb failure, re the later it is a legal requirement to have some form of knowing that indicators in the towed unit are functioning. However many will require a simple software config change to enable correct execution of mentioned features.

Fitting, whilst not complicated has, in most cases, gone beyond DIY capability because of warranty/ liability issues and most DIY's don't posses a code reader (although these are cheap these days) , any reputable tow bar fitter or auto electrician will sort it, or if you have a decent independent garage , give them a call, many have an auto electrician who calls in on a scheduled basis, adding this job where they can benefit from a ramp & work indoors would make it more attractive.

Re adaptors, avoid! apart from not being able to power all 13 plug pins, they double the chance of a failure especially where the towing vehicle is 7 pin; the extra length combined with the weight of the 13pin plug wants to pull the plug out. I have converted all my trailers to 13 pin, and will only use an adapter if I have to tow someone else's 7 pin trailer, even then I often use my lighting board as frequently old "7 pin trailers" have lights that don't work, and or lack of number plate clips!

Finally 13 pin is so much more reliable than 7 pin, I have a trailer that only gets used once or twice a year, when it was 7 pin, I could guarantee that the plug pins would need cleaning every time, since conversion to 13 pin, its "plug & go"

 

[Gozza2]

Some vehicle software will automatically detect when something is attached to the towing circuit, and disable things like reversing sensors, blind spot warning etc, and enable things like trailer/van bulb failure,

On our Citroen (new last August), plugging in a trailer disables the reversing sensors and enables trailer bulb failure warning. It also turns off the lane departure control and car rear fog lights (putting the caravan ones on instead).

What it DOESN'T do - which I would much prefer it to do - is talk to the built-in satnav and tell it that different speed limits now apply. It's a very small annoyance, but give how smart the car is in other aspects it doesn't feel like it ought to be difficult to do.