Tiguan tow bar

[Mark stone]

A newbie here have got a 2015 Tiguan 2.0tdi match 4motion whats best tow bar for small camping trailer please

[Volkswagen Owners Club]

All towbars should be approved and suitable for use in the UK for towing.

Best to pop into a local towbar fitting centre in your area and get them to fit it as it would need wiring correctly to the vehicle electronics

[tonyholbury]

Fitting the towbar piece of cake seriously! I purchased an ANKAR flange tow bar for Touran the instructions to remove the bumper were with the kit, the Towbar replaced the rear behind bumper crash bar, bolting up was simple and only required loose assembly with final tightening by torgue wrench, the wiring was fed behind the replaced bumper and push into the car via a drain bung on the rear left corner. (cut made to bumper)

Wiring used to be very simple but now these vehicles need bypass relays to avoid canbus errors and a split charge relay for charging and running a caravan battery, single N socket (BLACK) will require the bypass relay, I have done this at least 6 times now but even then needed to probe for my connections with a needle and a meter as Haynes totally useless and its wiring diagrams fit something but rarely what you drive.

Take your vehicle to an auto sparks for this Job or as advised let them charge you for doing the whole thing I spent and afternoon bolting on the Bar and 4 hours the next day passing a fused 12v line to the rear to power the bypass and split charge relays as I fitted double electrics

[tonyholbury]

On 6/1/2021 at 2:54 PM, Volkswagen Owners Club said:

All towbars should be approved and suitable for use in the UK for towing.

Best to pop into a local towbar fitting centre in your area and get them to fit it as it would need wiring correctly to the vehicle electronics

True I have done enough from pre can days to post can and always fit Towbars to larger car as me and the late wife caravanned a couple of time a year, trickiest part is fitting duel electrics you need a canbus bypass relay which does the bleeping and a split charge relay for the Fridge/caravan battery, if fitting both, the car battery connection must be heavy enough to power both and will need to be run from the car battery to the back of your vehicle and I found a power probe that nicks the wire and a test lamp to pick up trigger connections for the rear light/fogs/indicators/brake lights, Haynes Book woeful when it come to wire tracing half the wires are wrong colour codes or dont show individual circuits clearly so probing better. If you dont fancy Caravanning get a roof tent I have one from Ventura, which is under £800 for the basic model and under a grand for the extended model with an added awning that zips under the unfolded floor the Touran is the right Hight and if I get my Carens running that is slightly taller, I even tried it on my Fiat Panda but at 5' 7" i NEED TO STOOP slightly to walk under that and the zip awning is low and sags.

All in all if you dont know what you are doing leave it to an experienced fitter But Towbars are generally easy to fit just assembly loose then torque up when assembled, wiring much trickier!

[tonyholbury]

PS I only fit approved Towbars, Anker are the cheapest for flange type and for removable swan fitting there is a good Italian make which also sells spares, forgotten the name I will dig out some paper work.

Anker also very nicely provided information (all bars are specific to the car they fit) on how to remove the Rear Bumper on the Touran, information sadly missing on the scandal that is modern Hayne manuals, I know I had to remove the bumper what I needed to know was HOW!

In the Tourans case you remove the steel crash bar from under the bumper and the Main Towbar frame fits in its place, with a couple of heavy steel strips bolted inside the crumple zone tubes, again the best advice is loosely assemble then tighten up and torque to the given settings, I wire brush any rust I find and give a coat of alu-zinc paint to stabalise the surfaces, as most bars are given a primer coat I give them some alu-zinc for good measure, bolt heads the same.