Fitting a Tow Bar to Your Car

It’s a great idea to fit a towbar to your car. You know whether you need one or not with a simple question. Are you looking to tow a trailer or a caravan? The tow bar gives the back of your vehicle the strength and support to handle towing an object behind it, and the electrics to support essential systems including the brake lights and indicators.

So how do you go about fitting a tow bar to your car? Is this an easy job? Well in our experience you will need to set aside roughly 4 hours of your time to complete this task and it’s a little too difficult for the amateur mechanic. So we would only recommend going ahead with this job if you have a considerable level of mechanical skill and you know your way around your toolbox.

Get the Car Ready

In the first instance you’ll need to disconnect the electrical systems supplying power to the rear bumper. Firstly remove the cable from your battery’s negative terminal, before unplugging the cabling to the fog light on the bumper. If there are a number of wires it is a good idea to use sticky labels to mark out the purposes of the wires in the array.

Remove the Car Bumper

Next you’ll need to take the rear bumper off the car. There should be a number of bolts that are holding this in place. When these are removed carefully feel along the bottom of the bumper, releasing any small clips that are still holding the bumper in place.

Locate the Bolt Holes

You should now notice that there are two holes in the chassis, which are there to support the installation of a tow bar. However, it may be the case that such holes are not present on your car, in which case you should be able to use the brackets that will be supplied with the kit to hang the tow bar off the rear of your vehicle.

Install the Tow Bar

Remove any plastic or metal edge protectors that may be blocking the installation holes. You should now be free to fit the tow bar onto the vehicle, using the bolts and bracket sets provided in the kit that comes with the bar. Check that the bolts are properly tightened and that the tow bar is held in place at the right height if the holes are non-uniform.

Wire in the Tow Bar

Wiring in the lights on the tow bar is the final step, which can be a tricky job as it will require you to spline in the wiring via the existing cables running to your tail light. With many different configurations of lights available it is best to check your user manual to verify the colour coding on the wires. This is a very difficult job and it is sometimes possible to purchase a dedicated wiring kit specifically for your car, which can make the task a little easier.

Finally, when you are satisfied that the bar and wiring are in place, the obvious next step is to test out the tow bar with a trailer or caravan on a quiet road with little traffic. Make sure you’re safe before you take out your trailer onto a dual carriageway or motorway.