[Em135eye]

Our little 4x4 is for towing. There is no WAY I'd stick one on the Beemer!

They can be very handy though.

[markymark34]

The Witter one is great, i had it fitted for £375. Electric but is hidden as well. No way i would buy an OEM one at the dealer prices.
You made a good choice!

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by 335diesel

Our little 4x4 is for towing. There is no WAY I'd stick one on the Beemer!

They can be very handy though.

Indeed, I'll only be using mine for a small trailer plus our trailer tent if/when we get a decent summer. Probabyl down your way!

Originally Posted by markymark34

The Witter one is great, i had it fitted for £375. Electric but is hidden as well. No way i would buy an OEM one at the dealer prices.
You made a good choice!

Yes Mark I was initally very apprehensive on which bar to go for as I wanted it fully hidden when not in use - and the Witter BM24AQ didn't let me down, it's superb and easy to fit too. Hour or so at most.

[craig2859]

Great Job Dr Dave, I am getting a witter one myself soon, so I can pull a small trailer, for my fishing kit.

Have been quoted £285 fitted, with single electrics from Dorset Towing company.


Would like to see what an E90 looks like actually pulling a trailer too, not seen one yet !!!

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by craig2859

Great Job Dr Dave, I am getting a witter one myself soon, so I can pull a small trailer, for my fishing kit.

Have been quoted £285 fitted, with single electrics from Dorset Towing company.


Would like to see what an E90 looks like actually pulling a trailer too, not seen one yet !!!

£285 fitted? Bloody hell that is mega-cheap, if I'd known that I wouldn't have wasted my time fitting it myself!

[craig2859]

Its a good price yes - westfalia though not witter, which is fine by me

> Craig,
> Supply and fit 1 x Westfalia Detachable swan neck bar with 12n single electrics =
> £285:00
> Please note that to fit this bar the bumper has to be removed.
>
> Regards
> S.Griffin
> Dorset Towing

[Dr Dave]

That's a cracking price Craig.

[TRspark]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Well I fitted my Witter BM24 AQ towbar today, took about an hour.

Perfect, you can't see anything with the detachable bit off.

Hardest part was removing the rear bumper and detatching it from the clips on the side. You need big balls to pull on it to release it from hard plastic clips.

Hi Dr Dave

I'm thinking about fitting the same towbar as you. Can you tell me which wiring kit you fitted and was it an easy job?

Thanks

[blunk]

This message is to Dr Dave,

I am very nearly about to put my hands in my pocket to buy a witter detachable bar and by the looks of your pics i won't be dissapointed.

The installation guide says there is a small cut to be made but i have had a look and it only looks small (and to the underside of the bumper - not the facia). How did you get on with this?

Could i also ask, who you got your electrics through? Did you go with BMW own kit or another? I want to put in 13 pin but after speaking with BMW themselves i am a little worried as they talked about reprogramming etc etc etc!

Cheers
blake

[Dr Dave]

Sorry TR Spark - I didn't see your message; I will answer below.

Blake, the cut on the undertray is un-noticeable and I'm fussy about this.

It's a small cut, about 35mm wide and maybe 100mm long from memory.

Wiring? Bollocks to the BMW programmable kit, far too expensive and unnecessary.

I bought a CanBus bypass relay from ebay and wired it in, fairly simple, comes with instructions.

Why do you want 13 pin towing electrics?

[blunk]

Cheers dave thanks for the post,

Yeh BMW are taking the mick with some of their quotes. I was quoted over £1300 fitted for BMW detatchable bar! what a joke! 13 pin or 7 pin, apparently according to BMW you need coding. Majority of towbar fitters assure me that the bypass relay gets round this problem so going to go with that. 13 pin would be better just incase of towing a caravan.

Going to go with a westfalia as there is no need for a cut but think the bars themselves are all pretty much the same. Wiring guides seem ok but will see how it goes.

Will post back if i have any issues

Thanks for the info Dr Dave.

[Dr Dave]

You going to fit it yourself?

[blunk]

Well all fitted and didnt have any major probs - but defo with you Dr dave on big balls to get the plastic bumper off. That said - It didn't put too much of a fight though.... Note for others - i found taking out the back light clusters helped get the leverage i needed.

The bar was very easy to fit. Literally 3XM12 bolts either side and the old one was off and the new one on. Electrics were straight forward too.... literally only needed to connect onto 3 cables in the back. I went for the car specific wiring kit from Westfalia and the cables had plenty of length on them. The electric pack was actually very comprehensive - cant fault it at all!

I take some snaps and post back for others who are thinking of giving this a go......

[Dr Dave]

Wahey! Glad to hear all went well.

Mind me asking, how much was the dedicated wiring kit? Does it disable the reversing sensors aswell?

[blunk]

Yeh no probs - i paid £370 for the westfalia detatchable bar and dedicated wiring kit. I shopped around a bit and got it from a place up in Warrington (www.towbarsdirect.co.uk). Literally ordered it one day and it was delivered the next. the tow bar plus standard electric kit was £234 so the dedicated wiring kit was an extra £136.

And yes it does disable the parking sensors. I believe it also disables the rear fog light on the car if you are towing to stop you getting blinded with the reflection (more for big white caravan's i think than trailers). I haven't had chance to really give it a good go yet so forgive me if i can't explain all that it does.

If you have parking sensors, the car specific kit is really easy to wire in. It literally is only 3 wires to connect onto (for the 13 pin that is - 7 pin may be even easier?). I think for those people who don't have parking sensors it is a little more complicated as the guide shows that you have to feed a wire all the way from the rear of the car to the fuse box at the front. Fortunately i didn't have to do this bit but im sure it wouldn't have been too much trouble.

You may be able to get a better price than what i paid though Dr Dave? I presume you have the universal wiring kit installed? When i was researching the Witter detatchable tow bar and electrics it seems that Witter get all their electrics from a company called 'right connections' (http://www.rightconnections.co.uk/vi....php?page_id=1) They also do dedicated car wiring kits by all accounts so if not Westfalia then you could always try this place? In my brief conversations with these guys they were very knowledgable and very happy to help.

Here is some shots of the towbar installed:

[Cafe.Racer]

Woooa! BIG pictures.

Which kit is it you've got? Mine doesn't disable the rear sensors, which can be a bit annoying, as I'll be swapping it onto the new one when it comes I might think about swapping.

Does anyone know if the towing specific ESP can be activated via an aftermarket wiring kit?

[blunk]

Yeh sorry for the big pics.... not too familiar with the forum posting yet.

Westfalia car specific wiring kit was the one i went for.

You bring up a good question Re towing specific ESP. I think this is where the BMW recoding comes in. I think for this to be enabled you need to go to BMW.... which ultimately means £££££. Plus not sure if my wiring kit would allow as there is a CAN bypass relay? Not too sure on this and would be very interested in knowing the answer to your question if you get one?