Has anyone fitted their own towbar?

[Mattster]

Well towbar and vehicle-specific wiring kit were ordered this morning. Hopefully get it fitted this coming weekend - I will report back on how it goes!

[Mattster]

Progress, but this has taken most of the day.. whoever said taking the bumper off is the hardest bit was right. Just a lot of screws and bolts that had rusted to nothing. Still, the towbar is on and seems super solid. Electrics tomorrow (20-30 minute job, according to the instructions )

[Mattster]

Added the electrics today which went without a hitch (no pun intended!). I reckon the vehicle specific wiring harness was well worth the extra £40 or so, as every wire and plug was where the instructions said it would be in the car, and everything just slotted together. The actual wiring part was a 5 minute job just plugging a few things in - didn't even need to wire up the main connector as the hole in the chassis was big enough to put the whole thing through. Interior trim removal/replacement was as much of a pain as ever but I am getting a bit more used to it now.
Overall I'd say glad I did it myself for the experience (and cash saved) but I can see why they charge so much for fitting - definitely worth it if you are time poor. Not a hard job but tedious, and you really do need the right tools - especially a proper (big) torque wrench for the big bolts. The only downside is that I'm still waiting for some trailer parts so I won't be able to test it yet.

[paintman]

Well done.

[gtflash]

Well done. My cheapest quote was £1200. So you saved a few pennies.

[Duggy]

I fitted a Witter fixed ball and dedicated wiring harness from PF Jones to my last vehicle - an 8 seater Ford Tourneo (Transit) Custom. Was very impressed with how easy it was to do. Just had a couple of very minor config changes to do to the vehicle's 'coding' and all was fine. Managed to do it all on my drive in a couple of hours. Once all done it even used to warn me of failed bulbs in my lightboard and disabled the rear sensors when reversing.

Well done on doing yours OP - dedicated wiring is definitely the way to go.

[9D280]

Probably a bit late now, but back in the day I did 3 Fiestas and a MK1 Focus... But back then wiring was easy - 1 wire per lamp & a common return!

I did the metalwork / dedicated wiring install for a Mk4 Mondeo, but had to pay an inordiate amount of money for a garage to plug in a laptop & poke it for 2 mins & tell the computer that it now had a tow module fitted!

But totally agree with the dedicated electrics - no reverse sensors going nuts when you go backwards, but more importantly the one you hope will never need in anger - the ABS / stability control knows you have a trailer on the back!