Rover 200 towbar electrics

Jun 01, 2006 4 Replies
R

I'm in the process of fitting a towbar (bought off eBay) to my Rover



218SLD. Mechanically all OK but I can't see where to route the wiring.

Do I just drill a hole in the boot floor and scotchlok the socket wires into the rear light cluster wiring? Or is there a 'proper' method? There's a relay hanging off the wiring near the o/s light cluster, so I'm hoping there might be a proper 'attachment point'. Anybody know which bits of trim I have to remove to get at it? It's a 95 M plate.



This is for a little box trailer only BTW, I don't need aux power, fog lights and stuff.



Thanks



Rhydian



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G

If you use scotchlok your asking for trouble in the future.

Dave

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R

Never used them before. Are they really that bad?

Oh well, looks like solder + heatshrink then. I'm going to try just wiring the lights in parallel with the ones in the car initially, if that doesn't work (i.e. indicators don't flash properly) I'll have to figure out the wiring for the relay I mentioned or fit another one.

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T

You don't have a connector in the boot ready to take towbar electrics? Worth checking - sometimes this was provided...

ScotchLok was the way a "pro" fitted towbar my Dad had fitted was done. But I agree, they are not the best...

Cheers

Tim

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C

If used properly they are OK. I would use them for non-critical applications. You need to decide if that includes trailer wiring!

You need to match the size of the Scotchlock to the size of the wire, then get everything aligned before you squeeze them up. When the connection is tested and working wrap it in tape, preferably self-amalgamating.

*Proper* crimped connections applied using the *proper* tooling are better, but generally disliked by mechanics for some strange reason.

Note for the future that cars possibly more modern than yours can't just have the trailer wiring added to the existing lights, but need a more professional (ie expensive) solution!

Chris

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