Towbar For New Rav

[NMaria]

We are about to take delivery of a new RAV4 (XT-R but luckily with spare wheel on back door) and will need to have a towbar fitted. The dealer quoted us approximately £500, which seems steep but was due, they said, to the location of the number plate on the rear bumper.

Has anyone managed to find a cheaper option? Is DIY feasible?

[chatman]

We are about to take delivery of a new RAV4 (XT-R but luckily with spare wheel on back door) and will need to have a towbar fitted. The dealer quoted us approximately £500, which seems steep but was due, they said, to the location of the number plate on the rear bumper.

Has anyone managed to find a cheaper option? Is DIY feasible?

Ha the Stealer's will always try and charge more... Is the number plate in the middle of your rear bumper now??

Have you tried going to a caravan dealer and asking them to quote you....

[2.2 D4D]

i had one fitted to mine last may, dealer quoted £720.00! iam lucky enough to have a close friend working

at local dealer who owed ma a favour. he bought al the parts for £380.00 the wiring kit was over £100.00

wiring has several connectors plugged into loom so genuine kit is essential. he came to my house and spent about 4 hours removing bumper and lots of interior trim. you need removable ball because number plate is in middle and would be obscrured by fixed ball. but it is very neat and works well so £500.00 does,nt seem so bad as for diy you would need to be very competent the fitting instruction book was very thick

[NMaria]

The numberplate is indeed in the middle of the rear bumper. It is unfortunate that the towbar has to be removed for trailerless driving, because it is so useful for preventing damage to the rear bumper when the eejit behind you doesn't stop quickly enough! Haven't tried the local Witter fitter yet but we thought the genuine Toyota item might be of better quality. My husband has fitted a Witter to his Octavia and is not hugely impressed: he had to take the hacksaw to the bumper and the towbar has gone rusty quite quickly.

What you say is food for thought, 2.2 D4D. The £500 quoted by the dealer is perhaps not so steep after all, and we don't want our attempts at DIY to result in a defunct car and a heap of plastic bits lying in the drive. The dealer did say that Toyota had brought the price down because their customers found it the £700+ price they charged last year too high!

Thanks for the advice.

[anchorman]

Just a word of warning.

The new RAVs have multiplex wiring. This is a low current system and the wiring is as fine as hair in some cases. If you look at the fitting instructions for the genuine Toyota kit you will find that all the seats have to come out and most of the interior trim. This allows them to feed a special loom up to connectors behind the dash and accounts for the high cost of fitting. It is within the capabilities of a competent DIYer but using the proper parts may save you a lot of grief.

If you try to "Scotchloc" into the wires at the back there is every chance you will overload the wiring and cause some considerable damage.

Its up to you but I just thought I would mention it.

Good Luck.

PS the fitting instructions are on the Toyota Publications website.

[rav man]

Fitted the Witter to my XT4 and its been fine. £235 fitted with single electrics. Bit cheaper that Mr T's price. No cutting of anything reqd (bodywork), and that includes all the labour of taking the trim out. Chester towbars did mine and they were involved in the early stages of the bar for the RAv as Witter is only a couple of miles away, and they work together. Check your local dealer has done a (4.3) rav before if you get a quote just to check they realise it will involve stripping out the trim in the back. No signs of rusting but if it comes to it then i'll give it a quick coat of matt black. Rich.

Just to address the point about the ball, it doesn't obstruct the plate. I also have a witter bike rack bracket fitted (Carried over from my old 4.2 shape) which is a special low line one as it used to have to go under the rear door.

[moonstone mart]

I would definately recommend having a genuine toyota tow bar fitted. The quality is v good compared to the other brands we have had to remove at work. I fit plenty of these towbars when at work. It is a bit of a chore as to fit it requires removal of.....rear bumper, all boot trim, impact bar behind bumper, sill covers down one side, glove box and footwell cover. Then you have the task of feeding the wiring through the car, fitting together the towbar and fixings etc.

I've never had to remove any seats to fit a towbar on a RAV4, only LC's and hilux require this.

Mart

[jock1]

We are about to take delivery of a new RAV4 (XT-R but luckily with spare wheel on back door) and will need to have a towbar fitted. The dealer quoted us approximately £500, which seems steep but was due, they said, to the location of the number plate on the rear bumper.

Has anyone managed to find a cheaper option? Is DIY feasible?

NMaria Good luck with your XT-R.I have had mine two weeks now ( Mine is the one without the spare) and am besotted with it.I have driven Saabs for the last twenty years and was slightly intimidated by the size of the new Rav.Everything has been fine so far.Having read on these pages about harsh ride and other minor criticisms I have been very surprised at how well the Rav handles.I obviously have not stretched the car yet but I am really surprised at how little roll there is on corners.I can understand why the Rav is the best selling SUV in Europe.I hope you will be as thrilled with your XT-R as I am.

[NMaria]

Here is a belated thank you to you all for your helpful advice. We are used to DIY car mechanicking but were frightened at the prospect of interfering with the multiplex wiring and trim removal so had scraped together the money to get Mr T to do it for £500. But when he heard that we needed twin electrics, the price went up to over £700! So now we are back to DIY... Gulp!

We have managed to get the fitting instructions from the Toyota Publications website, but if anyone has any handy hints and tips, we'd be really grateful if you could pass them on...

[moonstone mart]

Just make sure you read the instructions a few times before as they can get a bit confusing in places. If you are worried about scratching the trim run a bit of masking tape along the joins before you pull it apart just to stop any clips catching. Also dont pull the trim too hard incase you havent removed all of the screws/clips etc.

Oh, before you refit all of the trim make sure the wiring is correct by connecting up a trailer board or use a test light/power probe.

And take your time.

If you need any help you can email me

martinharley@tesco.net

[NMaria]

Martin, that is so kind of you. I hope and trust we won't have to trouble you but it is reassuring to know that if things really go wrong there is someone who can point us in the right direction again.

I shall report progress in due time. Will order the kit and wait for a nice day - we are wading around in deep slush at the moment; not nice for DIYing in the drive!

[moonstone mart]

No worries,

Also forgot, if you are having the twin electrics make sure they also order the extra bracket if needed. If you are having the detatchable towbar this bracket holds the secondary electrics connector.

our parts dept ALWAYS forget to order it as i dont think its listed as needed on the EAPM. Its only when you look at the instructions that its mentioned lol.

Mart

[NMaria]

We did it! What's more, the car still works. Thanks for your helpful advice, everyone. It was a bit alarming to pull a brand new car apart, but we followed the instructions we had downloaded from the Toyota Publications website very carefully and it all fitted like a dream. And I only broke three plastic clips when I tore the interior out...

If anyone else is planning to fit their own towbar, I would humbly offer the following tips.

1. Before you get stuck in, label each connector on the wiring looms with the identifier code shown in the instructions. I used masking tape to make little tags and two big felt tip pens: red for the single electrics and red for the caravan electrics. May sound childish but I would have been in a shocking mess otherwise!

2. This is probably totally obvious, but do the two sets of electrics in parallel, otherwise you will end up undoing half your handiwork.

Cheers

Maria

[SteveR.]

We did it! What's more, the car still works.

Excellent - congratulations! I've got a RAV4 on order at the moment and will want a tow bar. I was horrified at the cost of what seemed like such a simple bit of kit, so I might have a go at DIY too.

How did you manage to get an XTR with a spare though? I didn't realise such an option existed. Then again, one of my local dealers told me that XTRs came with a spare until I asked him to show it to me, at which point he began an embarrassingly comic search for it before checking the literature and conceding that it didn't :)

[jock1]

We did it! What's more, the car still works.

Excellent - congratulations! I've got a RAV4 on order at the moment and will want a tow bar. I was horrified at the cost of what seemed like such a simple bit of kit, so I might have a go at DIY too.

How did you manage to get an XTR with a spare though? I didn't realise such an option existed. Then again, one of my local dealers told me that XTRs came with a spare until I asked him to show it to me, at which point he began an embarrassingly comic search for it before checking the literature and conceding that it didn't :)

Steve.I looked at various showrooms in January and all the initial batches of XT-R's had spares but there must have been a serious change of heart at Toyota. When I ordered one all the next batch came with the T180 fully opening door but no spare.No price ajustment though! Must admit this had me worried at first,but I bought a spare to keep at home or leave in the boot for a long journey.I got the XT-R diesel and up too now it has been brilliant. The fully opening tailgate is a boon and the car performs brilliantly.

[Steve@Aberdeen]

I was considering changing the rear door-strap on my XT4 to allow it to open fully but decided I prefer it as it is:

- I've had it just over 6 months and had a Freelander and Grand Vitara for the previous 5 years and I've never had a load that wouldn't have fitted in OK. I didn't buy my Rav4 to shift furniture and, on the odd time I've done that for a daughter, I've used a trailer or hired a van that won't make me cry when I scrape something!

- The limited opening makes it far easier opening the tailgate when reverse parked - less chance of the door opening into a bollard, wall or another car.

[SteveR.]

Maria: It does seem a bit worrying that they can make a significant change like that. Presumably it would be possible to get a spare carrier fitted if you wanted, but probably quite expensive. Glad you're happy with the car though, I'm really looking forward to collecting mine (also a diesel).

I had read that the strap for the XTR/T180 can be fitted to the rest of the range to give a fully-opening door even with a spare carrier in place - the restriction is due to Euro regulations about not being able to obscure the rear lights when open rather than a physical limitation. I'm bearing in mind the possibility of making that change, but I'll wait and see how much of a nuisance the restricted opening proves for me.

[SteveR.]

Steve@Aberdeen: Thanks for the comments about the rear door. As you'll see from my comment to Maria, I'm going to wait and see before deciding whether to change the strap. When I first read about the possibility it involved getting a strap from the US where they don't have to comply with the Euro rule about obscuring the rear lights. Now that there are a UK models with fully opening doors I assume their straps can be used instead - they'd be a lot easier to source!

The limited opening makes it far easier opening the tailgate when reverse parked - less chance of the door opening into a bollard, wall or another car.

Good point. I guess the ideal would be to have a stop at the limited position that could easily be overridden (press a release catch on the strap or something) to allow opening to the strap's full extent. Some bottom-opening household windows work that way.

[anchorman]

Steve@Aberdeen: Thanks for the comments about the rear door. As you'll see from my comment to Maria, I'm going to wait and see before deciding whether to change the strap. When I first read about the possibility it involved getting a strap from the US where they don't have to comply with the Euro rule about obscuring the rear lights. Now that there are a UK models with fully opening doors I assume their straps can be used instead - they'd be a lot easier to source!

The limited opening makes it far easier opening the tailgate when reverse parked - less chance of the door opening into a bollard, wall or another car.

Good point. I guess the ideal would be to have a stop at the limited position that could easily be overridden (press a release catch on the strap or something) to allow opening to the strap's full extent. Some bottom-opening household windows work that way.

I converted mine and it does click into the same "restricted" position as before. It has to be pushed quite hard to open to the full extent.

Regards

[SteveR.]

I converted mine and it does click into the same "restricted" position as before. It has to be pushed quite hard to open to the full extent.

Good to hear - thanks. Easy enough job?

[NMaria]

To reply to the various comments:

To anyone who decides to fit their own towbar: you'll be fine as long as you take it carefully. It is a good feeling to save £400 and we had a day's good fun out of it.

Spare wheel: we were lucky enough to be offered the showroom model which still had a spare wheel. We didn't like the colour but didn't want to fork out the extra £x000 for an XT4 just to get a prettier colour and still have a spare wheel. BTW, the salesman told us that dealers from England had been trying to buy it off him.

I doubt if it would be possible to have a spare wheel carrier fitted to a non-spare-wheel-carrying rear door; I think the design of the door and the bumper are quite different.

Doorstrap: we are definitely going to fit the longer unit. Wanted to carry a big box recently which would have fitted in the boot (seats down) but we just couldn't get it in there. Just saving up the £50 after buying the car and the towbar...

To anyone who is buying a RAV4: we absolutely love ours and I am sure you will too. When you read forums it is easy to get the impression that there are a lot of problems with them, and some people do have terrible disappointments, but the vast majority are tootling about trouble-free. I think people are more inclined to report problems than to write just to say that they have no problems, if you see what I mean.

Happy motoring!

[anchorman]

I converted mine and it does click into the same "restricted" position as before. It has to be pushed quite hard to open to the full extent.

Good to hear - thanks. Easy enough job?

It's easy enough. I've fitted 2 now, one on mine and one on a friends who had to have one when he saw it.

To fit it you have to remove all the plastic trim off the back door. Start at the top with the little piece over the glass. The trims are all fitted with "pop-in" plastic clips and are quite stiff to get out (to stop them falling off) and you will at first be wary of breaking something but don't worry.

Put something behind the trim - if you haven't got a trim tool use either a screwdriver with the shaft taped up to stop it damaging the paint or preferably something a bit wider like a putty knife, again tape it up or prize against a bit of cardboard or similar.

Next pull off the 2 side pieces by the glass and finally the whole of the large inner door panel, again don't worry, start at one corner and gradually get you hand behind it.

Any pop studs that stay in the door can be teased out after with a screwdriver and then slid back in the locations on the panel - you'll know what I mean when you see them.

Carefully peel back the polythene liner from the door taking car not to tear it.

All that is left is to undo the 2 10mm nuts from the door and the 2 10mm bolts (which will be quite tight) from the frame and you can feed the strap out from inside the door.

Refitting is just the reverse procedure. Be sure to replace the polythene as it stops condensation on the inside of the door panel. If it does tear just stick it back with tape. Bump the panels back with your fist.

The part costs getting on for £60 from Toyota but be sure to ask for 10% discount. You can get spurious ones but the Toyota one is really good quality. It has the self lubricating plastic sleeve found on all the existing check straps and also the really good detent notch that will hold the door partly closed.

Incidentally, the old one will fit a 4.2 RAV and make the door open to about 75 degrees instead of the standard 50ish degrees. You just have to drill out the stud from the anchor bracket of the 4.2 strap and knock out the roll pin in the 4.3 bracket. My mate is thrilled to bits with his.

Good luck