Tourer towbar electrics

[jerang]

i have noticed a lot of people fitting their own twin/13 pin electrics have had similar issues. Mainly how to get through the bulkhead to the battery and the location of the wiring loom for the lights.
I have found a large wiring loom under the drivers side dash that allows you to get through to the engine bay to eventually get to the battery for feeds to the bypass and split charge relays. If you lie on the floor under the steering wheel and follow the throttle cable from the pedal, you will see a large wiring loom with a huge grommet which accesses through to the engine bay beside the brake cylinder (top left corner when looking from the engine bay). It is awkward access but is possible and you can then route your cables along the bulkhead and forward to the battery. It is advisable to use two wires of at least 45 strands for the split charge relay due to the distance the cable travels to the rear of the car (approx. 5mtrs), at the same time use 35 strand for the supply to the bypass relay.
You can then feed the wires down the drivers side of the car quite easily to the boot, following the existing wiring loom.
The wiring loom to splice into is on the right hand (drivers side) panel within the boot. Easy to see as it is near the front of this panel just behind the rear passenger door and consists of three multi wire connectors.
If you need photos/diagrams of any of the above or wiring colours in above connectors let me know.
Hope this helps you as after now fitting towbars and electrics to a few cars this was the most akward, time consuming and with the least available info.....but it is a Honda!!!

 

[Sit]

Aside from the electrics how difficult was the mounting of the bar itself and what type did you fit?

Cheers

Si

 

[jerang]

I fitted a witter fixed flange type. The instructions were very vague with no diagrams and it missed out details of what to fit where. It was down to common sense and experience. the most akward part was getting access behind the exhaust box to drill the cross member...an extra pair of hands to pull it out the way once dropped from its hanger would make this job a lot easier. Other than this it was simple enough to fit but one thing to note is do not tighten any of the nuts until ALL brackets are in place as you need to be able to wiggle it around a bit, especially to get the clamp around the tow eye on the car.
The best thing to do is lay all the parts out in there correct place as a dry run.

 

[SimonG]

I fitted my tow bar, it is the cheapest one you can buy from Towsure.

As for the wiring, I dont tow a caravan so dont have a twin plug system but cant you just power the extra socket from the wire that feeds the boot cigarette lighter socket?

 

[jerang]

no, sadly not. This feed is not rated high enough and the fuse would keep blowing or even melt the wires. It has to be a 30amp duel feed for caravans. Not sure if is even rated high enough for the bypass relay for trailers (i.e single 7 pin plug)