Advice on a Townbar for a 2002 volvo v70 needed
 

Hi All,
As the tittle says I got an old caravan and would like to go on a family hollidays, however my car got no townbar. No idea what type if townbar I need for this car and what are the differences between them I see a lot of different models out there which seems confusing for me to know what to look for . Obviously the townbar will have to have electrical connectors to provide energy for the caravan turning lights, break lights? What else would I need to look for ? The caravan is a very old from the 80's is an Elddis 3 Berth. Once I get the townbar I problably will ask the local garage here to install it for me? Is it an straight forward process. Anything to be aware of anything that can go wrong I should be aware of? Any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks

Have a look at the Towsure Web site for the tow bar. For the electrics I would go volvo, the kit is plug and play and works. About £60 when I baught mine and it may need a trip to the dealer to program it but not in every case.
Volvo plug is 13 pin, I baught the volvo adaptor leads with the 7 pin N and S plugs on them which worked faultlessly out the box and 7 years later still do.

My car was a 1999 v70 and all the plugs to make it work were in the car. I used a Towsure tow bar along with the volvo electrics, took half a day to fit it all on the drive following the instructions and everything worked out the box.

The volvo detachable ball tow bar is about £850 retail and is I belive a Brinks tow bar.

Paul.

Yes apparently brink now make volvo towbars but it use to be Thule. If you get a Swan neck towbar it will work with a standard hitch or alko hitches. If you want a regular fixed style towbar you will either need a standard 50mm towball for a standard hitch but a extended neck alko towball is required if your van has a alko hitch.

As for towbar electrics volvo is recommended to be the best. It's plug and play but usually requires a dealer software upgrade. This adjusts the cars ABS when towing to help prevent snaking. Volvo will give you a quote over the phone for your car.
You can buy an adaptor from 13 pin to both 7 pin sockets. There are aftermarket ones that are cheaper than volvo. I mainly only use the lights socket so have a small Thule adaptor I got offline for about £5 and that goes into the 13 pin on the car, twists into place and converts to 7 pin for brake lights.

Thank you very much for you reply. Would you know if I would need a dealer software upgrade even for a 7 Pin socket or only the 13 pin ones? As I mentioned before the caravan I am planing to use is very old from the 80s or even 70's I believe it uses a 7 Pin socket. I am trying to keep it simple and as low budget as possible but don't want compromise in safety. am I right assuming 13 pin are for more modern caravans and my old one wouldn't need more than 7 pin? The idea is to see if we like the entire experience of driving with an old caravan if one day we decide to upgrade the caravan I believe we can still replace to the loom with a 13 pin ones? I also saw some kits including a relay but I don't know exacly what is that for and if I need one in my case.

As far as I remember volvo do 7 pin kits also.
Most modern caravans have the 13 pin so if you decide to keep the car and upgrade in the future doing it now could save money. I don't think there is much in price between 7 and 13 pin kits.

The advantage of the volvo one is the ABS control but it also (on that year v70) uses the extra indicator lights on the dash so you know if your indicators are working or not on the caravan or trailers. This then means you don't need an annoying beeper in the boot as you have a visual one instead on your dash. As far as I remember the volvo kit also let's you know if any bulbs fail on the caravan or trailer.
If you have any reverse sensors they also get turned off when a trailer is connected.

It is a plug and play kit, connections are there in the boot ready so there's no splicing of wires.

If you do decide to go aftermarket (with the relay beeper) make sure they don't use the small blue wire connectors, they are the ones that can fail easier as one point of contact, there is black ones that double connect and are better for reliability. They never tell you that though because there a bit more expensive to them.

Think some companies such as witter do dedicated kits also but don't know if they have the same features as the volvo kit and from what I remember are similar in price.

As a guide my 2011 V70 had a Volvo 13 pin kit put on as a replacement, around £300 Mark. I didn't have to pay luckily.
If you phone the parts part of your local dealer they usually give discount for older volvo's, more so on service parts and it can be cheaper than aftermarket. Sometimes you have to sign up first but you can ask them for a price with the discount (if it applies) most stuff gets something. I saved about £90 recently at volvo on a new alternator, Air con abd aux belt replacement.
If you get volvo to do it, get the quote then phone the parts with job number and they apply the discount (if the service area don't do it for you). That's how it works at my dealer.

Hope that helps. Think you have all the information available I can offer.

FRF volvo Swansea are good for discount and will mail to you. Just say you have heard about them of the volvo forum and ask the best price they can do with discount. Just remember you will have postage on top but maybe cheaper than getting locally.

Regards s
Pete

The only other option you have to detachable or fixed towbar. Fixed is usually cheaper.
Some aftermarket ones have a slightly lower nose weight on the towball so check they are sufficient before you buy.

oops.... duplicate post.

Pretty sure there’s no software mod needed for pre facelift cars if you fit a Volvo loom to the Volvo plug. That was my experience when fitting a secondhand Volvo Towbar and loom to my 2004 XC70.