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Wiring a towbar

Hi all,

Just a quick question if someone wouldn't mind giving me a few words of advice. I've fitted a towbar to my car (pretty easy although it did feel a bit weird hacking up the bumper on a brand new motor!). The wiring I am not so sure about. I don't know if the car is multiplexed (don't THINK it is) or has bulb failure issues etc, so I've decided to play safe and wire it using a bypass relay. All the instructions for the bypass relay say to run a wire from the battery so it has +12volts. Would there be anything wrong with using a spare slot on the fuseboard and running it from there (assuming I put a suitable fuse in)? I don't really want to have to start drilling through bulkheads etc. It also says the earth of the relay has to go to a 'good chassis earth', but I'm quite tempted to wire it to the existing earth on the loom from the car light clusters. Again, anything wrong with that approach?

Many thanks if anyone is able to help.

Robert

Reply to
Rob
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The message from Rob contains these words:

Both the live feed and the earth should be OK as you suggest. It might have helped if you told us what the car is - many come with a bunch of loopouts ready to fit a trailer socket to.

Reply to
Guy King

It's a Skoda Fabia (Estate TDi if it matters) - meant to say this but forgot. Interestingly, one of the spare fuseholders is listed in the manual as "Towing equipment". It's this I'm intending to tap the live feed from. There is no fuse in it at present, and I haven't seen anything in the boot area that looks like a feed. Other thing I meant to ask was I am also intending to wire the trailer earth into one of the existing earths on the rear lighting loom. Again, does this sound OK, or am I risking overloading the earth wire? I've completed the wiring to/from the bypass relay except for the main trailer earth and the relay live feed. Think I will check the lights still work as expected before I go any further.

Cheers,

Robert

Reply to
Rob

The message from Rob contains these words:

Somewhere near the light clusters at the back you'll almost certainly find a bolt into the bodywork with loads of wires going to it. This is the local earth. Use it.

Reply to
Guy King

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