Purchased yourself a brand new car or 4wd ready to hook up the trailer for a run to the rubbish tip or hook the camper trailer on for the first expedition and, oh no a towbar is not a factory feature of your vehicle.  Burnside Motors here in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, receive phone calls similar to this daily.  You would expect that for a couple of hundred dollars you could pop any old towbar and be ready to tow in the space of minutes. 

Unfortunately these days things are not that simple and there are some big differences in brands and types of tow bars.

What type of towbar is right for me?

When choosing the right tow bar for you there are a few important things to consider.  Firstly the size of your vehicle and what you are looking to tow.  You will need to be aware of your vehicles GCM.  The GCM stands for the Gross Combined Mass.  This means the weight of your vehicle loaded at the time of travel and the weight of the apparatus you are towing loaded.  There are a few ways to figure this out.  Ask the dealer what your GVM and GCM is.  Some owners manuals will have it listed as to the specification of your vehicle and others are plated.  It can sometimes be a little bit challenging to locate so we can assist you with some advice.  

Keep in mind when you choose to tow anything you need to be mindful of the size of your engine and capacity of what you are looking to tow.  You do need to be aware that a Toyota corolla is not suitable to tow a horse float or caravan.  The engine capacity is not made to tow anything of this weight.  Think about asking a 5 year old to move a cart of bricks, they are too small to achieve the goal.  If they do manage to move it, at what damage to their body?  A small engine of vehicle uses the same idea.  

Types of towbars

Trailboss keep things fairly simple with two basic types of towbars standard and heavy-duty.  Standard tow bars are great when you just want to make sure you have a basic tow bar.  You may decide you want to be able to take a small box trailer to the rubbish tip or be able to take a washing machine home from the store.  

A heavy-duty trailer is more suited for a larger engine or capacity vehicle such as a 4wd.  This is going to be a better option for a tradesman, traveller towing a caravan or such a towing a horse float etc.  

Electronics

Unfortunately, if you have upgraded your vehicle to a newer model you may not be able to take your old tow bar with you.  Newer vehicle run more and more specific ECU or Engine control modules.  These modules do as they say and run the engine.  These are very temperamental and high tech they have many features and benefits however also have a lot of limitations as far as plugging in aftermarket accessories.  Many new vehicles will require an additional ECU that talks with the vehicles ECU to make sure the vehicle continues to function.  The trailboss towbar comes with the correct ecu and wiring that suits your vehicle.

Towbar fitting times

This is where and why towbars are becoming more complex and costly to fit.  The law is a lot more aware of why accidents are caused on our roads and towing overloaded or overweight is highly policed.  Vehicles are also fitted with a lot more accessories and this takes a lot more time to fit items.  

For more information and assistance please contact our team on 0754411871

When setting up you tow bar some other things you may want to consider is your suspension, airbags and tyres are suited to your towing needs.  

Read about our Suspension Installation, Repair and Service >