Two quick questions - towing/dealerships

[PicklePot]

As a complete caravanning novice, I have a couple of quick questions I'd appreciate your answers to please...
Firstly, does £300 seem about right to have a towbar fitted to an Audi A4 (and, apologies for really showing my ignorance, do I really want twin electrics or is single what I need?).
Secondly, can anyone recommend (or otherwise!) dealerships within about 20 miles of Leeds - we only have between £2-3000 to spend and would really appreciate any pointers towards good dealers with old stock. Horbury Caravans keep coming up on my searches - does anyone have experience of them, please?

 

[MikeA]

Hi PP,

£300 is certainly a plausible quote for a towbar with electrics. But the best way of checking that out is to get several quotes - Leeds must have some competition in this market. Do get a quote from the Audi main dealer - it will make the others seem so much more reasonable.

Reputable towbar fitters will all stock "type approved" towbars for your car that will do a very good job. There are however a few points of consideration. First, do you want a fixed or a detachable towbar. Fixed will be cheaper, detachable will look better when the car is solo. Second, do you have a modern single 13 pin socket or do you have the traditional British style twin 7 pin sockets? Very many people would vote for the 13 pin as it is a more reliable and robust connector and all new caravans now come with the 13 pin plug. But on the other hand if your caravan has twin 7 pin connections (which from your budget, it sounds as if it will) you will either have to rewire it (not a big or expensive job) or use an adapter cable. How long you expect to keep the car and the caravan might influence your decision here.

Finally, it is worth having a dialogue with the suppliers about the extent to which their offering will work with the car electrics. You need a guarantee that they will be providing an up to spec supply for the caravan fridge and for charging the caravan battery. Some wiring kits apparently either miss these connections out altogether or use wire that is too thin for modern demands. There can also be issues about whether the car electrics will properly sense the caravan and do desirable things such as disable the car rear fog lamps (they reflect back off the caravan and dazzle you), or undesirably show messages saying there is a faulty bulb, It is commonplace on upmarket cars for a small programming change to have to be made to the car's management system to enable the towing software changes to tweak the handling charactaristics to make towing easier and safer.

I don't know the Leeds area at all so can't help with your second point.

Cheers

Mike A

 

[PicklePot]

Thank you, Mike! That's really helpful - esp the info about 7 pin/13 pin, that's the sort of knowledge that falls firmly into my (very big) unknown unknowns category - we really are going into this as complete novices! I suspect we'll prob keep our car/caravan combination for a couple of years until we are sure that caravanning works for us as a family, so the short term fix of an adaptor should be fine.

Thanks again!

 

[windsurfingsteve]

hello pickle pot...we live in wakefield, and currently have an a4 avant s-line, we got a quote of around 350 ish but dont intend towing with it as the towing limit isnt any good for our current van (we use the a4 as we got rid of a discovery and hopefully will be buying a kia sedona by the end of the week) when we have had tow bars fitted before it was just a case of yellow pages local tow bar fitters...i will be doing the saame at some point this week as the kia needs one...so it will be yell.com, and endless searching...if i find 1 i will let you know.....next, caravan dealers...we have had approx 10 vans in the last 22 years, we have bought from kenmore,which is in mirfield not too far from the m62..... wandahome at knottingley at ferry bridge services off the m62, (where our current van is from) , one in pudsey, cant remember its name that was 22 years ago, lowdham leisure atr huddersfield....the last 3 have been new ones, but before that we have spent anything from 1200 to 6000 on used vans...just google the names and put caravans after it ...hope this helps...regards steve...(dont forget to check your towing limit before you choose a van)

 

[PicklePot]

Thanks Steve - I'd never heard of Kenmore before, now they've been mentioned by a couple of people so will give them a try. I wasn't too keen on Wandahome when I was looking for motorhomes, but that was the South Cave branch - not sure if there's a difference in attitude between the two? Wonder if the Pudsey one was Four Seasons Leisure in Farsley - I was sad to see that place close down a few years ago.
Hope buying the Sedona goes smoothly this week- I'm on the look out for a C'eed to replace my car (obv not for caravanning purposes!) but haven't qutie found the right one yet ...