tow bar options pls
 

hi guys, v90 cc 2018.
what are my tow bar options..

diy
https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/202700689700

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/26411748759...iABEgLjTvD_BwE

specialist tow bar fitter , fitting the above

or dealership..

anyone retro fitted teh tow by a dealership that can advise on what this costs please..

thanks

Aj

The Volvo electically deployed towbar is very smart, and cannot be seen at all unless deployed. It is so convenient to just press a button, the hook drops down and just needs a simple lift and click into place.
This one https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/202700689700 looks to be the genuine Volvo one, but note the price doesn't include electrics or fitting, and you would need get your dealer to load the associated software.
If you only use a towbar infrequently the Westfalia one may suffice. Does it need cut outs in the bumper panel? The Volvo one doesn't.
Although expensive I do like the electric one :)

I could be wrong but I am sceptical of aftermarket tow bars, I may or may not keep car and I'm unsure how the dealership will react to an aftermarket jobby bolted on rather than the Volvo part (supplied and fitted). I've seen awful bars with pieces of plastic from the rear valance chopped out to accommodate on previous gen XC60s.

The best price I could get for the correct part fitted at my local dealership, Squire Furneaux Guildford, is £1000 supplied and fitted. That is £98 less than a well-respected local Volvo independent.

I'm sure the Volvo retractable tow bar is an excellent unit and includes the clever tow software but £1000 feel like a total prostate check.

I'd be interested to hear others experiences but from what I can tell on the forum those that have the tow bar bought it as an option at time of purchase so may have even got a discount. To be honest I'd probably go down the Volvo supplied part too even with the generous level of bunce they have added in for themselves!

I have the Volvo electric deployable towbar and although expensive, as I tow a large caravan often I think it was a good choice, and would recommend it if you use it regularly to tow, especially with a large trailer or caravan.

Which ever towbar you decide on I strongly recommend you have the Volvo electric tow module and 13 pin socket fitted by Volvo as they will install the integrated software.

When you connect up a trailer with the Volvo software installed the car is adapted for towing.
Reverse beepers are disabled along with Bliss, as well as "coasting" in eco mode, stop start, and pilot assist are disabled, (adaptive or standard cruise control still work) cars fog lights are turned off, the cars trailer stability system is turned on, they may be other adaptions I cant think of at the moment but it is a really good system. 360 or Rear view camera has a trailer line to make hooking up a doddle.

I nearly got one as would rather be all volvo parts but soon realised there wasn’t enough clearance for a Alko hitch. They do a swan neck type but this isn’t avalaible for my car

I have the Volvo electrically deployed one and agree with the other comments. It is expensive but a brilliant solution.
The position of the electrical socket on the side of the hitch is ideal.
As well as the other benefits mentioned here, the Volvo software also does a lighting check when it detects a trailer is connected, where it lights each of the trailer lights in turn and all together.
You can stand and watch it, but it alerts on the dash if there is a problem.

Part of me wishes I bought the XC60 D4 rather than T5 as we keep toying with buying a caravan not sure I could stomach c20mpg towing a family caravan with the T5.

My caravan has an Alko hitch as most if not all do these days, and it has enough clearance, no problem at all.

The one they said I could have was on a display model. Even brought a tape measure out for me to check. There was just about 40mm clearance which isn’t enough for my alko hitch. Don’t want to risk it popping out

My outfit hitched up.

Attachment 122340
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I have the Volvo fit electric Towbar and can attest it is very high quality. Regarding options are you a member of the Volvo owners club? Listed in the VOC magazine are garages that offer between 10-25% off accessories and fitting. On a £1000 tow bar if you can secure the discount it should pay for the membership and give you a good discount too.

There is a lot of work involved with fitting the Volvo towbar, which meets Volvo safety standards for rear collisions. I suspect that a great deal of the cost is the labour time involved and by the looks of it one man would be pushed to complete the fitment in one working day, even with occasional help to move the bigger bits.
I reckon that £1000 including VAT fitted is quite reasonable really for the electrically deployable genuine hitch and electrics. Compare it to the £3000 asked for a stereo upgrade in value terms.

By the way, if running a VAT registered business and towing for that business, the VAT element should be reclaimed and the rest of the hitch cost offset against income or corporation tax.

In all honesty it makes little difference you may have an extra stop to refuel on a long trip so that’s potentially £80 - £200 a trip 5 times a year it’s under £1000 that’s neiher here nor there when you look at depreciation a month on a new car and caravan!

If you go on NTTA site and enter details, the five nearest NTTA members will supply a quote, free of charge.
NTTA is the nearest thing you get to the towing equivalent of 'Gas Safe (Corgi)'.

I average around 22 mpg towing my caravan with my D5 XC90, the best I have acheived was 25 mpg. Although they are very good tow cars, 2ltr engines have to work very hard.

When I bought my V90 as a new but pre-reg with 100 mile up, my dealer fitted a witter detachable. Works fine for me. Was half the price of the official volvo option, and had the added bonus of keeping the list price just under the £40K

I thought Alko Hitches were red (or had red on the handle)? Maybe it's just the angle of the picture.

I thought you'd achieve a little more than that, I'd read you lose about 20% consumption pulling a caravan? Never towed so I could well be wrong.

If the accessory is fitted by the dealer, post registration, the cost doesn't affect the £40k threshold.

I have just done about 1,000 miles to Scotland and back towing my 1,500 caravan and got an average of 25 mpg from my V90 D4 R Design.

Crikey! Could by 15 - 18 in the T5 then. Something to ponder!

I achieved my 25 mpg when towing up the A1 to Berwick Upon Tweed, around the Dales and North Yorkshire where its more up and down its usually around 22 - 23 mpg.

It is black and red. It is an Alko Chassis and hitch, I don't know of a UK caravan that does not use Alko chassis and hitch.

If only that were true. Larger engines mpg % would/may not drop as much as they would not have to work as hard.
It obviously also depends on the weight you are towing, my caravan is 1500kg, plus everything including the kitchen sink.

If you use the power it will drink the fuel. Specific fuel consumption doesn't vary much with the engine's swept volume. It doesn't matter much whether the engine is big or small to produce a certain level of power utilised, it will use the same fuel if of the same family of engines. If the bigger engine is substantially more powerful but driven behind a four cylinder, therefore driven no harder, both should use about the same fuel with a theoretical advantage to the smaller volume engine due to lesser friction and pumping losses and a lower mass.

It should be remembered that due to a combination of engine and transmission efficiency improvements, todays vehicles are far more efficient than older ones. For instance I had a factory diesel 2.4 litre four cylinder manual Range Rover, many years ago, that output a heady [for the day] 112hp at 4400rpm but absolutely nothing under 2200. There's one steep hill locally that required me to rev to the governor in first in order to keep the engine above 2200 so that second gear could be sustained without having to immediately change back to first. It was a terribly noisy engine and when towing my caravan up moderate but long hills, a close watch was needed on the temperature gauge. It served me reliably for nearly 100,000 miles.
Fuel consumption never bettered 26mpg though. Even though it was a good bit smaller and lighter than the Volvo and had a manual gearbox and considering that the Volvo has nearly twice the horses and three times the torque and can run rings around it in performance terms. I get 38mpg on average from the Volvo.

Towing is a great leveller. I suspect that if a 2000kg caravan was towed at normal A-road speeds in traffic, there would be little difference in consumption between D4, D5, V60, V90 or XC90. They would all actually use the same amount of power and therefore near enough the same fuel for that job. Some would have more power in reserve but power not used is power not produced and not fuelled for.

The type of work an engine does has a big impact on miles per gallon. Nothing better illustrates this than my 2.2 litre Ford Ranger 6 speed automatic. This is a fairly thirsty engine by today's standards.

On long solo unladen journeys, which it seldom does, it is easily capable of 30mpg. However, my combination of short hard journeys and towing means that it averages between 17gallon tankfuls, how much do you think? 25? 20? No, it varies between 17 and 19mpg.

In isolation that sounds terrible, but it does have 150hp and 350Nm torque and an automatic. It also slightly betters the consumption I got for 22 years from a manual Land Rover 110 pickup with a 2.5 non-turbo engine developing all of 67hp doing the same work but m..u..c..h s..l..o..w..e..r. which would only do 25 at best solo unladen long distance.

Similar consumption to my Merc CL500 that weighed 2 tonnes (same as an XC90) but had a 5 litre V8 petrol engine.

On a long motorway cruise I'd typically get 30-32 mpg but around town it was 16-18 mpg. Is this much worse than a T6 in real-world use?

Just for interest, this is my current average mpg if the voc app is reading correctly. I reset it with every fill up,
Attachment 122393

Towing my 1550 Kg caravan consumption varies between 26 mpg (shortish journeys with lots of stopping and starting) and 32 mpg (long motorway journeys at 55-60 mph).

Last year I towed caravan from Northumberland to Bavaria and back. 32 mpg on each tankfull which involved 100% towing. Checked brimful to brimful.

The last petrol car I towed with was a 1.8 Fiat Tipo, I used to get 18 mpg towing a 900 Kg caravan.

On the Swedish car accessories website, which I believe is a website run by a dealer (don't know which one) there are two tow bar options available. Firstly the neatest solution the foldable which I'm sure is a superb unit. Although I've seen it deployed on YouTube and it's not as impressive as I thought it sort of drops down then man handled into position. I'd assumed it did the lot itself for the price.

Secondly there is a fixed tow bar for £650 fitted not as neat of course (if you care about that). Presume it's tested to work with rear sensors too.

https://www.swedishcaraccessories.co...bar-3667-p.asp

The electric towbar is great. Push a button, the towhook drops down, one sharp lift into place and its locked. To put away, push the button, towhook drops, push up into place. So easy, and there is nothing to show it is fitted unless it has been deployed.

I'm sure it it great. I had just assumed for the price all you'd need to to deploy/retract is press the button and watch it do it's thing.

Just saw the fixed bar so putting it out there as a cheaper option.

I see what you are saying, but agree with others, its really very good and the process of pushing it into position is ultra simple and takes less than a second, it literally requires no force at all. In contrast, my brother has an X5 with a tow bar which deploys completely electronically, but it is so tediously slow I actually prefer the Volvo unit (have seen this same unit on a Touareg too).

Also on price, 1k might be pricey, but my father bought a brand new X5 back in December, literally the first one of the new generation out of the showroom (it was actually used at the launch event). He was promised that a retrofit would come available for the tow bar within a few months. It has now, and the price.... 3.5k!!!!

:wq

Totally agree with this.
My last car was a 5-series with the fully electric towbar - same principal as the Volvo unit in that you press a button in the boot for it to be extended or retracted, however, it would take about 30secs to run through the cycle as opposed to a couple for the Volvo unit. If you get impatient and try to move the car whilst the unit is deploying it will stop and log an error code, meaning that you have to press the button again when you've moved the car to finish it off. After a number of error codes being logged (think it's 5 but I could be wrong), it will disable the towbar and you have to take the car to the dealer for the codes to be cleared before it will work again.

When you then add in the fact that BMW UK only support trailer electrics from factory, meaning a further £450 bill to upgrade the factory 13-pin electrics to that they support a caravan (ATC, fridge & battery charging), suddenly the BMW offering becomes much less attractive.

Ultimately, the fully electric BMW solution is fancy, but the Volvo semi-electric is sooo much more practical and, as a result, a much finer offering in my view.

Atc
 

I have a Volvo fitted towbar/electrics on plugging in the ATC does not self test until a door is opened and the car "wakes up" that I find a unusual compared to previous cars, the main problem is the ATC goes through the self test on starting the engine and every subsequent restart at say a petrol station or following a driving break. The permanent supply is not permanent and I suspect fed from the ignition rather than the battery. Can anyone confirm how their car operates before I take the car back to Volvo again.

Mine is the same, unlike on my previous Volvo cars which self tested on connection. The spa car needs waking up. And go back to sleep after so many minutes after ignition turned off.

Exactly the same in my experience - S80 & Gen 1 XC60 both permanent, SPA V90 goes to sleep. Not a particular concern from my perspective - I can just open or close the boot to reactivate it if required.

Thanks for replies but can you confirm if the car is awake i.e. ATC is green following its initial self test, then engine is started does your ATC self test again i.e. is your permanent feed interrupted by starting the engine each and every time?

Do you mean a momentary blip in the power supply as engine starts, similar to the USB power supply when charging phone and you hear the phone chime as power goes off then back on. I have never checked the ATC if that does it. It may do.
My ATC self tests after stopping and parking up for some time and restarting engine, I always check the green light is on before setting off but I can't check it at the moment as caravan is not at my house.
A few times when removing van from the storage compound I have noticed it stays flashing after connecting up but after driving a few yards and stopping to open the gate it has changed to steady green. This could be because starting the engine causes the power blip and it re-tests.

i just got my V90 T4 in August. was put off with £1100 Volvo folding costs. i wanted a fixed towbar as my last brand new car was hit in the rear whilst parked at 2 weeks old requiring a complete back end - my towbar at that time was removed. As a result after that accident i always keep it fitted.

i managed to track down a new V90 fixed towbar from a dealer which had it in stock. Volvo stopped selling in the UK in 2017/18 due to lack of demand so now do not acknowledge their existence. it is EU approved with all stickers/certificates etc. https://accessories.volvocars.com/In...20(17-)%202020

its easy to fit - c.2 hours - remove bumper with c.4 screws/bolts either side; remove crash bar; fit towbar; cut underside of bumper; feed electrics through. remove rear offside boot lining. connect up - fit fuses. all back together. job done.
i also bought the Trailer/Towbar module - but volvo said it wasn't possible to download the software as my car is MY20 and the fixed towbar software is only available to MY18... so it wouldn't activate it so the supplied electrics wouldn't work. :(

i originally tried the Volvo electrics as i didn't want to be cutting any wires.
interestingly though, i tracked this down - https://www.towbarandtrailercentre.c...l-048-13u.html
just plug and plays into existing volvo module for everything exluding the fog light. the fog light would require a splice into fog light wire, but i've not yet got around to doing that. rest of lights work okay and no error codes.

fitted this and connected up to Volvo towbar - works perfectly. it doesn't require a software download. but it doesn't change ABS/Stability settings when towing - i wasn't bothered about this as i only tow a small trailer to the allotment or a towbar bike carrier.



end result - £50 for genuine towbar; £50 courier for towbar; £110 for electrics.