Towbar Electrics?

[cskip]

I have conflicting advice from towbar fitters.  I thought I would ask the collective power of BC.  Scotchlock or Plugin?

Various towbar fitters are giving different opinions about fitting of the single electrics to a 430d.  Most are pushing the use of a plug in electric connector that connect directly into the existing BMW electrics.  However I have one supplier saying that he has stopped using the connectors as a fault in the electrics of the trailer can cause the car electrics to fault, with subsequent main dealer fault fixing at main dealer charge rates!  As a result they use scotchlocks and various fuses on the towbar electrics to protect the car electrics.

What is the collective thoughts on this topic?

 

[Jonathan Kay]

No knowledge of this particular problem: have you tried the big UK BMW forum?

In general I'd prefer most other options to Scotchloks.

Jonathan

PS: The subtleties of fitting towbars is one of the reasons I still haven't bought a 3 Series Touring.

[Paul Deslandes]

Scotchlocks are the spawn of the devil as they risk cutting host cable strands.  They also corrode and fail with time.  I have the BMW fitted removable hitch (brilliant, takes 10 seconds to fit or remove) on my 5 series, with standard electrics and never had a problem. It has a 13 pin socket with an adapter for my trailer's 7 pin electrics.

Paul

[cskip]

Thanks for the comments.  You confirmed my view that Scotchlocks are not the way to go.

[seventh-heaven]

The issue here seems to be specific BMW design electrics or overlay electrics. Scotchlocks are an irrelevance in that respect as they are just one way of achieving an overlay - it could equally be achieved through high quality soldered joints.

[CharlesElliott]

I can't speak for BMW specifically, but on my Audi, if you use the official harness it activates trailer light detection, trailer stability control etc. For that reason alone, I would be looking to use the official harness.

[Drumster]

Same for me on my CR-V. When I purchased the car 2nd hand from a Honda dealership I asked for a towbar to be fitted and was advised that it would be far cheaper to go to an independent but make sure I specified a vehicle specific harness.for reasons outlined above.