Towbar And Electrics On Xt5

April 27, 2008

Hi folks,

Had the XT5 D-4D for 4 weeks now. Very impressed, other than the lack of a spare wheel ( purchased one seperately ). Fuel consumption much better than the Vitara. Still working out al the bells and whistles.

I do a fair amount of towing and also like to carry my bike(s) on a towball mounted carrier. Decided that I would fit the towbar and electrics myself. I've done the job several times before on a range of cars from an MG Midget to an early Discovery so was reasonably confident. Read all the forum posts that I could find on the subject and bought a Brinks towbar from, of all places, Halfords as they were considerably less expensive than anyone else. Kingo ( bless him ) supplied the Toyota wiring kit and I downloaded the fitting instructions from Mr T's site. The whole job went very smoothly but for the benefit of anyone else doing the job themselves, the following might save some time:

1) I fitted only the 12N socket as that was all I ever need, so caravan towers can ignore 4) if they fit the 12S socket as well.

2) If you don't do the towbar fitting and electrics in one day ( I didn't 'cause I'm getting too old for that sort of job ), fit the main wiring loom ( section A in the Toyota instructions ) in position when you are fitting the towbar. You don't have to connect anything up BUT it does save taking the rear bumper off twice.

3) When removing the side panels in the boot, the most difficult bit is getting off the trims around the rear seat quick release levers. I was convinced that the first one would break ( it didn't ) but when you look at the plastic tabs used to hold it in place it is obvious that just using the trim removal tool ( Anchorman has photo's of one on this iPod installation thread ) in a lever mode is asking for trouble. Push the business end of the tool in firmly in line with the tabs and the trim comes off easily.

4) The wiring instructions from Mr T have a minor but crucial error. Section C of the towbar loom is the feed from the Battery to a socket on the vehicle loom adjacent to the nearside headlamp. It consists of two wires with 6mm lugs that attach to the Battery "positive/+" terminal at one end, two nice in-line fuse holders and the plug that goes into the main loom at the other end. One wire is coloured RED® and the other RED/BLUE (R/L). Instruction number 33 on the Toyota instructions say put the 10A fuse in the fuse holder in the R/L wire. If you do this, the rear indicators on the car no longer operate! Put the fuse in the holder in the R wire and everything works fine. EXPLANATION(?): The 10A fuse feeds the auxillary flasher, referred to as SIK in the instructions, the fuse holder in the R/L wire is almost certainly used as a feed for a 12S socket. I would guess that the C section of the loom is common to the 12N and 12N + 12S wiring kits. Anyone who has ever written an instruction manual will tell you how hard it is to eliminate ALL the gremlins.

iPod kit is the next job - thanks for the post on that one Anchorman.

Best regards

Chris