Oooowwww .. my poor soul hurts!!!

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Oooowwww .. my poor soul hurts!!!

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davidcole

6029 posts

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#3273539 19-Aug-2024 16:50

mudguard:

To be fair I don't have an issue with a tow bar on anything really. If I had an M5 I'd rather have a towbar on it than have to have another SUV/Ute just to tow stuff.

Besides, some M5s have a stonking great V10 in them. Surely they'd be great for towing!

or at least the diesels. My A4 is a 3l TDI, it has a tow bar. As mentioned above its a manually removable one.

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Rust

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#3273597 19-Aug-2024 20:25

Only a 90kg vertical limit. Barely enough for a bike rack.

I wouldn't want to be the guy loading 2 ton on a trailer and only aiming for 90kg on the coupling. Potential for an exciting journey there, and not in a good way.

Scott3

3963 posts

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#3273900 20-Aug-2024 15:28

Rust:

Only a 90kg vertical limit. Barely enough for a bike rack.

I wouldn't want to be the guy loading 2 ton on a trailer and only aiming for 90kg on the coupling. Potential for an exciting journey there, and not in a good way.

I scraped the European specifications, I should have mentioned this, tow ratings may be different in different parts of the world.

In Europe max towball vertical load of ~4% is not uncommon.

I have a RX400h, sold in NZ with a tow rating / ball vertical load of: 1500kg / 150kg. Same car in the UK was rated at 2000kg / 80kg.

https://www.thetowcarawards.com/tow-car/lexus-rx400h/

Some brands sell their cars in NZ with euro style tow ratings. I.e. the mazda CX5: 2000kg / 80kg on the turbo engine version

https://www.mazda.co.nz/globalassets/_mazdanz/brochure_master/mazda-cx-5-brochure.pdf

10 - 15% ball weights often come from the USA and Aust, which have a lot higher speed limits than us. Some roads in texas have speed limits (No special speed limit for light trailers) as high as 85 MPH (137km/h), and in NSW, the max towing speed limit (under 4500kg) is 110km/h. As these sort of speeds, moving the trailer center of gravity forward for stability is important.

But in NZ / Europe, towing speed limits are typically 90km/h, where 4 - 5 % gets the job done.

A family member brought a cx-5 to tow a 1800kg boat. We thought they were going to need to move the boat back on the trailer to set up the 80kg ball force, but it turns out the trailer manufacturer (a fairly high volume one) targets ~4.5 - 5 % ball weight, so the setup was acceptable as is.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#3273928 20-Aug-2024 15:47

davidcole:

How many millions for a factory towbar though? Factory ones can be a joke for how expensive they are.

When my parents purchased a new car, they had the option to get a towbar fitted. But they found out that the dealer just used a towbar company in the area, so they went to that towbar company directly and saved a significant amount compared to what the dealer was going to charge for exactly the same thing..

jonathan18

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#3273973 20-Aug-2024 19:44

mattwnz:
davidcole:

How many millions for a factory towbar though? Factory ones can be a joke for how expensive they are.

When my parents purchased a new car, they had the option to get a towbar fitted. But they found out that the dealer just used a towbar company in the area, so they went to that towbar company directly and saved a significant amount compared to what the dealer was going to charge for exactly the same thing..

What I found with my previous car (a Mazda) is the dealer tried to claim that a non-dealer fitted bar would void the car warranty, which then piles on the pressure to go with their over-priced product. Of course, that’s bollox in that they’d have to show a causal connection between the issue being claimed for and the tow bar or its fitting. It would be funny if they tried to claim the same in the situation above, given it was the same installer!

With my current car, there wasn’t even an option to have the ‘dealer’ install a tow bar, and it took them a year (if not more) to offer it. They like to claim their cars need a software update to tow safely, but I’ve found no problem using my aftermarket bar (which cost about half the $2250 Tesla charges… when they have it in stock, that is).

Bung

6477 posts

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#3273983 20-Aug-2024 20:49

jonathan18: They like to claim their cars need a software update to tow safely, but I’ve found no problem using my aftermarket bar (which cost about half the $2250 Tesla charges… when they have it in stock, that is).

With our car if towing you have to manually turn off collision avoidance and parking sensors. Considering the cost of the factory wiring I'd have thought this would happen when a trailer was connected.

Handsomedan

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#3274062 21-Aug-2024 09:30

mattwnz:

davidcole:

How many millions for a factory towbar though? Factory ones can be a joke for how expensive they are.

When my parents purchased a new car, they had the option to get a towbar fitted. But they found out that the dealer just used a towbar company in the area, so they went to that towbar company directly and saved a significant amount compared to what the dealer was going to charge for exactly the same thing..

Yeah I have just got a quote from the dealer for my new company car (I have to pay for the towbar if I want one fitted) - they quoted $1700.00+
Asked at the local towbar instraller - they informed me that they supply and fit for that dealer - they quoted $880.00 incl GST.

Not sure where the additional 100% markup comes from.

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Bung

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#3274071 21-Aug-2024 09:57

Handsomedan: Asked at the local towbar instraller - they informed me that they supply and fit for that dealer - they quoted $880.00 incl GST.

Not sure where the additional 100% markup comes from.

The dealer knows that most customers just roll the extras into the loan so they grab what they can to offset something else they pretend is free.

Batman

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#3274075 21-Aug-2024 10:07

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