Bypass electrics or not?

oilburner
oilburner Forum Participant Posts: 3
edited January 2013 in Towcars & Towing #1

I've always been quite picky when fitting towbar electrics in recent years by going for a full canbus installation, rather than the
much cheaper route of a by-pass relay system.

I've always done this because a) it means the car can tell if a bulb is blown on the van and it tells me and b) the car will use its ESP system to help steady the caravan with what's known as Trailer Stability System programming (similar to Alko's idea,
but works from the car, not the van).

I believe I'm in a minority on this, as most people I talk to just want a towbar, the cheapest one at the cheapest fitting cost, which will never be the integrated system.  i.e. they're happy to accept  splicing off the bulb wiring with a relay to the battery
for power.  When done like this, the car has no idea a towbar is fitted.

Am I alone in thinking that the canbus plug-in systems are best, and if so, is it because I'm wasting my money and not actually getting any benefits from paying the extra?

Any thoughts please?

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