Just before Easter I bought a dinghy with a road trailer on ebay. My car did not have a tow bar, so I decided to fit one myself. Found a supplier on ebay at just a couple of pounds over £100 including relays and delivery. Checked the fitting manual online, seems simple enough and an estimated fitting time of 2 hours 10 minutes. Went ahead and purchased it, and was duly delivered. Checked the parts and everything seemed straight forward.
It is only when you start fitting it do you find 2 badly corroded bolts that have to be drilled out, the exhaust (even when dropped) always seems to be in the way, I kept dropping the nuts, I picked up the wrong tool, etc. Then you realise after 3 ½ hours you must be somewhere and have to dismantle everything to make the car driveable.
The following afternoon you think you can complete the job as the basic bits should fit quickly. So after another 4 hours I get the tow bar fitted and again I realise I should be out for my Mum's birthday meal. No time to start the electrics, but decide to skip the starter and order the main course by phone and arrive 25 minutes later as the rest are finishing their starters.
The following morning (Good Friday) I then had a 180 mile drive each way to collect the dinghy, so I planned to leave at 7am. But I still did not have the electrics fitted, so I left at 6.15 missing all the hold ups except where the A303 goes from dual carriageway to single lane by Stonehenge. Arriving a few miles from my destination I then start on the electrics, only to find that part of the fixing plates obstructs the removal of the interior plastic panels to pick up the electrics. Finally I wire in all the lights except right hand indicator as I did not have any spare cable for an extension (but the car indicator can still be seen over the dinghy). The only thing that went smoothly was testing the light board - everything worked first time (except the right indicator!).
The moral of this tale is that no manufacturer's claimed fitting time is to be believed - use a multiple of 3 or 4! Remember your hands will take a lot of knocks and become grime encrusted, plus a few face fulls of road dirt.
Would I do it again? Probably as I did learn a lot, as I had not fitted a tow bar before. Also I expect I could fit one in 6 hours now, not 9!
By the way the dinghy towed exceptionally well and I laughed at all those stuck in traffic jams using the route I had zoomed along a few hours earlier.
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Roger
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
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Roger - A good summary of the reason why I was happy to pay my local fitter £40 (*) to fit my towbar and electrics for me! (£40 = the difference between the cost of the cheapest towbar and electrics I could find and his fitted charge, including double electrics). Well done on getting to the end!
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Ah, the difference between a pro having the right tools an experience, and the intelligent but inexperienced amateur! Struggled like this myself on many jobs. Congratulations!
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I desperately need a tow bar again but £350 is to much for me and bumper has to come off -rear light's out - rear silencer dropped then you have to drill 23 holes - Oh well put it on Yaris - £280 and nearly as many holes - Towbar fitter said of two cars to pick you have about two worst ones for towbars.- looks like I join plastic bag brigade at tip.
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Yaris is listed at £155 fitted in the price list I was left by my fitter (£195 with double electrics). That's for a fixed towbar.
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9 Hours, what car did you fit the towbar too? I'm a slow worker and a caffeine addict and its never taken me longer than 3 hours to fit a towbar.
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If you read the OP fully, I think the 9 hours involves nearly completing the job and having to revert back twice.
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I have to admit, rather than fit a tow-bar to the existing fleet (Defender apart) I would rather buy a £200.oo hack with a tow-bar already fitted, saves a lot of fiddling !
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If you read the OP fully, I think the 9 hours involves nearly completing the job and having to revert back twice.
I've read it, he says he could do it again after this experience in 6 hours, the car make / model is relevant don't you think?
For instance you can get an OE wiring loom thats plug and play for a mk4 Golf for around £35, the only alteration being the rear fog because its a LHD loom.
This thread is off putting for anyone contemplating fitting their own towbar and usually its a quite straight forward afternoon job for a diyer
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Certainly put me off anyway !
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Marlot
I will check again - at that price it's a goer - is that EU approved or what ever it is now.
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Slightly O/T - does drilling into the chassis mean creating a load of new areas for rust have a looksee at?
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Yep, definately EU approved. Listed as a model TY4062, made by PCT to fit Yaris (not Verso) from 1999 to 2005.
Fitting instructions at www.pct.eu.com/automotive/Fitting%20Instructions/p...f
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>>what car did you fit the towbar too?
A Fiat Marea Weekend. This has a drop down rear bumper that has parking sensors fitted, the plastic bumper and metal supports had to be removed, otherwise it became a two person job to tighten the bolts. The two tie down fixings in the boot had to be removed, but the one over the exhaust, the nut that should be welded to the bodyshell broke free and fitting a socket on the nut was truly impossible, finally a molegrip did the trick (on the 2nd day). Correctly positioning the 11mm holes to support the main frame was made more complicated by not being able to drill one of these from underneath because of the exhaust. Instead I did it by measurement, but was a couple of millimetres out. Inside the box sections the holes had to be opened up to 14mm, but I did not have a drill that size so I had to use a rasp in a drill.
I agree the fitting time is excessive but I am not a mechanic. Maybe I try to be too precise and normally at work I manufacture mounts and picture frames to a tolerance of =/- 0.5mm. As I was doing the fitting at work on two quiet afternoons, I still had to answer the telephone and see customers so I had to remain fairly clean and tidy - not easy working under a car! Perhaps I would have been better to do it at home, but unfortunately I did not have a spare day before Easter as I had to collect the dinghy on Good Friday otherwise it would be another 10 days before the seller was available again.
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Roger
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
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Hey, you got there in the end ;o) We've all done jobs that take longer than the should in theory, having to make do with tools that are'nt really fit for the purpose.
;o)
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