It may seem trivial but the tow bar wiring that’s fitted to your car can have a massive effect on the vehicle’s handling and reliability.
Having universal electrics fitted can also invalidate any vehicle warranty and in some cases your car insurance.
With universal towing electrics, any towing safety features that are installed on the vehicle will be bypassed. This can lead to handling and reliability problems.
So, how to tell which type of towing electrics you have installed…
The simplest method is to activate one of the vehicle’s indicators and listen for the tell tail beeping. Dedicated towing electrics do not beep when the turn signal is active.
The second way to check is to open one of the panels in the vehicle’s boot, often some panels give access to the back of the lights to enable bulb change or removal of the light fittings. If there are scotch lock connectors clamped onto the wiring then you can be assured you have universal electrics fitted.
On older vehicles, it may be that universal wiring is all that’s required. No towing features such as sway control, or the requirement for ABS or engine management changes, plus no dealer warranty and universal wiring will be fine.
On newer vehicles, things are slightly different.
Due to universal wiring scotch lock connectors cutting into the vehicle’s wiring any warranty supplied by the vehicle manufacturer will be void. This nugget of information is often not revealed until there is an issue with the vehicle electrics or there is a need to claim through the dealer’s warranty.
Dedicated electrics actively monitor for faults. In most cases, you have on dash notification to inform the driver there’s a fault on the trailer.
Please see the images below for an illustration of universal wiring and a dedicated kit.
Happy Towing
Team Ultimate
