Towbar Options

[KeepLeft]

I've called around a few places and none of them have been helpful. There are two different wiring looms, one regular one and one for cars with factory reversing sensors. None of the towbar places I called knew about it and had any idea if my reversing sensors would be affected. Can anyone on here shed light on this? Can I use any towbar with the ford wiring loom or is it limited to only certain towbars?

I'm interested in a towbar with a square hitch, but some places said I'll need a load levelling kit and some said I wouldn't. So what's the deal with that?

[PCW]

I pulled the towbar off my BF series II when it was being grounded and had it put onto the G6E Turbo a few months later. (I had bought this off ebay for $100.00 a couple of years before)

You need the Ford wiring loom as it disconnects the reverse sensors when you open the plug cover to plug in your trailer. (hope this makes sense)

Pete

[KeepLeft]

Thanks Pete, just found a competent place where I dropped my car off this morning with the same info. The genuine loom was $90 from Ford.

As for the square hitch, I got a Hayman Reese light duty one.

[Dillz]

Bugger, I wanna unload mine HD with reverse sensors.

[KeepLeft]

Damn, one day too late. Ah well.

[Wenier]

Just incase anyone searches about towbars and reads this thread here is some info. The factory wiring loom on the falcons has a plug ready for the ford trailer plug to be attached to so that there is no need to wire it in, just plug and play. I would suggest to anyone getting any type of towbar fitted to make sure they get the ford plug so they dont have some useless fitter bugger up the trailer plug wiring.

I say this as I just spent a couple of hours sorting mine out after the idiot who installed the towbar cut the wires from the factory loom to connect a cheap plug and wired it wrong resulting in a blown fuse everytime I selected reverse with a trailer hooked up. Not only was the way he had spliced wires really crap (twisted together no solder or anything), he had only wrapped it with insulation tape.

I found he had wired the reverse lamp wire into the earth position on the trailer connector. I have now re-wired it by soldering all the wires in a straight line so they could then be individually heatshrinked and then a final big heatshrink over the lot between the two looms outer insulation so that it is completely water tight and done like it should have been in the first place if not using the ford plug.

Sorry bout the rant but I hope this saves anyone in the furture.

[KeepLeft]

Agreed regarding the genuine wiring looms. Escpecially when for cars without reversing sensors they're only like $20 or $30 and make the job a lot easier.

I just picked my car up after having the towbar fitted. The way it works with the reversing sensors is that they are disabled when the cap on the plug is open.

[PCW]

As a side note to the Ford wiring loom, you may need to clean the plug cover as when it gets dust and dirt in it, the reverse sensors some times don't cut back in when you disconnect your trailer plug.

Has only happened a couple of times but apparently the way it works is via a magnetic switch. (I was a bit confused why my reverse sensors didn't come on after I unplugged the trailer)

Cheers,

Pete