Kuga towbar
Dear fellow members, We thought you should all be informed about the recent issues we have had with our factory fitted tow bar.The vehicle is a 2011 Ford Kuga and the tow bar was fitted by ford during the build as we were told that this is the most
efficient and cost effective way for it to be done.This year we have been fortunate enough to upgrade our 2009 caravan for a newer model but that's when it went pear shaped.We connected the Kuga to the van and carried out or light check only to find that the
LED lights on the caravan played up.Coupland caravans have come across this problem several times and said don't worry you'll be on your way shortly.Over an hour later and trying everything they could I was questioned about the tow bar.It came to light on
checking that Ford had only wired the 13 pin plug up as a 9 pin plug so the devices supplied to rectify the problem wouldn't work.This supposedly is the way things were done in 2011 even though a 13 pin plug was ordered and paid for.We have just had to pay
more out to Ford for an upgrade even though the Kuga has a year left on its warranty so we can take delivery of our new caravan.Anyone out there with a Factory fitted tow bar and are thinking of upgrading your caravan to one with LED lights especially if it's
a Ford I would get the electrics checked out so you don't experience the disappointment we did at not being allowed to take delivery of our caravan and also having to fork out yet more money on something that should of been done in the first place.
Comments
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Seems a good reason to hang on to my 2009 car with its N & S plugs then.
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I've got one of them thar old fashioned pre 2009 caravans.
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Same applied to my ford ranger bought second hand with 13 pin plug so assume would be all wired up, on investigation it turns out that brink supply a dedicated loom to ford that doesn't have charging or fridge circuit, and a separate loom to the aftermarket
that includes everything, the ford loom though was wired from plug to underneath glove box so only needed a couple of short cables and a relay to make work.0 -
Mark
Thanks for reposting here. I will delete from the Story Section.
David
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My tow bar wiring did horrible things to the active park on my Mondeo until the fitter and the Ford mechanics got together...... but more worryingly...
I have recently changed my towcar and in the process had the garage fit a new towbar as per usual. However this time the salesman asked me if I wished to keep the part they remove to fit
the towbar as in most cases the garage/fitter just disposes of it as a matter of course. He said I would need to replace this part if I ever wished to remove the towbar perhaps to sell it, or the car, separately. I agreed that this was a good idea to keep
it, although up till now I have always parted with my vehicles with the towbars attached.After the fitting, upon opening my boot I was confronted by a very substantial girder, obviously a significant part of the vehicle’s structural anti-crash setup. This was news to me, in
the days of yore, and perhaps in some present day models, a towbar was bolted onto the car and if anything strengthened it. Certainly its eventual removal left the vehicle in its original condition!How many people, perhaps giving up caravanning, or when changing cars seek to recoup something of the purchase price by selling on their old towbar, little realising that there is a chance
they have seriously weakened the car for everyday use, and heaven forbid, a rear end shunt! Obviously there is also the possibility they will then sell on this car, innocently unaware that it is structurally weakened and perhaps dangerous.Is it possible that the club could research which vehicles [mine is a Mondeo, 2016] are stripped of parts when a towbar is fitted and publicise the facts via magazine or website? Some members
would then be recommended to keep their towbars on even though they may not ever be used [unless they have the relevant parts stored for refit.] Fitters could likewise be required to leave any parts they have removed in the vehicle so that the owners could
decide for themselves what they would like to happen to them.This may be a small problem restricted to a few models, certainly in my decades of caravanning I have never considered an ex-towcar as a liability, but even a few is too many when safety
is an issue.A little wiser now,
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Have you actually checked the towbar is correctly fitted, fitting instructions can be found on line for many. Most people worry about having a section of bumper cut out let alone substantial pieces of the structure, however I do not have any knowledge to
base the comment on.0 -
different vehicle have different methods of fitting its towbar, but as you've already said, some towbars are fitted by swapping bits. You suggest that a vehicle could be compromised by the removal of a towbar, I doubt that it could be removed without it
being obvious that there was something missing. I would think most cars will have the metalwork of a towbar added to their car rather than bits swapped over.0 -
I have a late 2007 Mondeo, when the towbar was fitted I kept the crash beam too, just so if I got another Mondeo as a replacement I could just swap the beams over. The beam is removed as it sits in the same position as the towbar mounting beam, so although
you may think theres a girder missing from the back of your car, it has actually been replaced with another girder complete with tow hitch and ancilliaries.0
