Towing Electrics

Jun 13, 2019 35 Replies

Yes it can be difficult if you need to reprogram the cars electrics but CAN Bus actually simplifies things enormously as just two twisted cores carry all the lamp signalling (amongst many other things) from the vehicle body/chassis ECU. Reprogramming is not always necessary either, the functionality 'on the bus' for some makes is there as standard.

So all that is needed, and what the manufacturers and aftermarket do in a near identical manner, is fit an intelligent black box with a two wire interface to the CAN Bus, and that could even be a plug and socket tapping , a 12v feed that can either go to the battery or be tapped into an existing fusebox position, a local earth and the black box then directly feeds the 13/7 pin socket.

No scotchlocks or solder taps to the existing lamp wiring are needed. It's one hell of a lot simpler than in the past and there is a need for just one voltage controlled relay for the (optional) split charging/cutoff, Absolutely everything else is on a circuit board a couple of inches square with a microprocessor and a handful of mosfets that drive the trailer lighting.

Even things like reverse light cutoff and fog lamp cutoff for the towing vehicle are signalled back from the black box across the CAN Bus to the vehicle body/chassis ecu, same with lamp failure detection, so no need to listen for a buzzer from the boot area or mount a lamp on the dash. Any trailer lamp failure is indicated on the existing dash panel just like any other lamp failure.

Michael Chare expressed precisely :

I thought most of them needed a separate single larger main supply cable, just for the trailer lights. All fed via the unit, supplied from that one large supply?

Mine uses that method, with a tiny can bus wire feeding trailer lamp test data back to the dash, so two new wires, plus the extra can-bus unit.

As recently posted the vehicle to towbar module interface for lighhting functionality across a wide range of makes is now normally just four wires, 12v supply, earth and the twisted pair CAN Bus, the latter feeding the lamp actuation signals one way and the lamp falures and foglamp / reverse lamp cutoff the other.

If the vehicle body/chassis ECU is knobbled then it will need reprogramming but often the signallling is inherent by default even if the rear lamps are directly driven from the body/chassis ECU rather than having a CAN Bus node in the lamp unit.

Depends whether you use OEM or vehicle specific equipment or universal modules

on 18/06/2019, steve robinson supposed :

Mine is the proper BMW OEM towing kit. The heavy duty wire, on its separate fuse, terminated behind the glove box, ready to add a thick front to rear main feed.

My daughter works for a Tow Trust and she says always go for the vehicle specific or OEM electrics , costs a bit more but you never have any issues as they fully integrate into the vehicle systems .

I don't trust myself not to rip the whole lot off at the first hotel car park I park in!

One advantage is that as the bike(s) is/are so much lower (horizontal), you're only at about SUV height with the Lexus. They're much easier to load/unload as the top swings down to one side.

I can only find a proof of concept - do you have a link to anyone selling them? - definitely worth a look.

Agreed. My dash tells me when a lamp fails to respond on the trailer and which light has a problem. No hoping they are all working, no need really to even check - you know they are working.

The only ones I know of are German. After some searching I found one on eBay.de. It works on eBay in the UK, item number 32122752. German eBay has a much more extensive entry for it, but all in German, of course.

I've only seen one for real, in the queue for the ferry at Harwich, where it attracted a lot of attention as it was so unusual.

Good luck!

Thanks - but it may not be needed.

Looks like the BMW 330e is about to hit our car lists (we'll find out next week) - they're an absolute no-brainer for Company Car drivers, especially if we can get the MSport, which includes the split fold seats.

Friend's just gone from a 3 series hybrid to the 2 series (a 225xe I think). He seems quite pleased with it, and needs space to carry a load of wind surfing clobber.

I have been looking at them, but they're a bit... 'mumsy'.

We're all eagerly anticipating the 330e as they now have a button which temporarily gives you 298bhp!

My VW system is like that, but as there is only one brake light circuit, both brake lights have to have failed before a fault is detected.

on 25/06/2019, Michael Chare supposed :

I tried to catch my system out when I fitted it, it notices a single failed brake light. It must monitor the actual current demand. Its not quite as good at checking the side lights, I have front, rear and side markers. It has to suffer two of the three failing, before it reports a fault.

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