Rear bumper flex after towbar fitting

[ansgurr]

Hi all
I recently had a towbar fitted, as part of the procedure they removed the rear impact bar which I understand is necessary. Following this there is quite a lot of flex (5-10mm) in the upper surface of the rear bumper if you apply weight to it, before it stops on the towbar support underneath. From other posts I see you can buy an insert to stop this.

How much of a problem is this? Presumably I would be within my rights to ask my towbar fitter to come back and install the insert - is it worth the bother? Would you have expected this to be done as part of the job, or am I being unnecessarily picky?

Thanks!

 

[BognorMotors]

It would be standard to fit the insert

 

[The Bear78]

@ansgurr Hi.
I assume that in your trawl of the forum you came across this post? If not, have a good look through it.

Some tow bar kits include a spacer as standard and some don't (westfalia). There is a VW part used for this purpose which some people have had to buy. Others, myself included, managed to cut the old crash structure to fit around the tow bar frame. The installer should have mentioned this really, even if it wasn't included as it is a known consequence.

 

[ansgurr]

Thanks that's helpful. It's a towtrust towbar- not clear if spacers included or not but given the movement in the bar I'm assuming not

 

[Dellmassive]

our TOW TRUST tow bar kit doesn't require the spacer . . .

the bumper skin sits on top of the bar its self. . .

so what tow bar have you got exactly?

Tow-Trust detachable Towbar - "TVW9VK" kit & Wire kit -- How I Done It --

Tow-Trust detachable Towbar - "TVW9VK" kit & Wire kit -- How I Done It -- Here we go, following on from this thread . . . - Towbar recommendations please i though it was time i finaly got around to doing it myself. . . it started with a quote from the main dealers . . . and the...

www.t6forum.com

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[ansgurr]

@Dellmassive
That's interesting - thanks for the insight. Maybe it's just a normal amount of flex and nothing to worry about. It's a towtrust TVW9SN if that sheds any light.

 

[manfrotto]

I am fitting a towbar that will require packers to replace the removed bumper support piece.
Rather than fit packers I am thinking of cutting the plastic support bracket to fit around the towbar instead. This will theoretically provide better bumper support as well as the clips for wiring etc.
Has anyone done this, and can comment? Planning on using a multitool to do the cutting.

 

[manfrotto]

Update - I re-used the bumper support bracket, and just cut it down to fit around the towbar. I found it did the job very well.
I also use the dedicated wiring from Erich Jaeger, which worked really well. Theoretically just plug and play, as it came with all the required plugs connected to connect directly to the towbar prep connectors at the back. However in order to feed the wire through the grommets I had to "deconstruct" one plug. I also had to "transfer" some of the wires from one connector to the trailer prep connector, but all in all pretty straight forward with the correct connector deconstruction tools.

 

[JumpShip]

Is that the steel bumper bar you chopped?
I did a similar job with ours but just cut the ends off to reattach once the towbar was fitted .

 

[manfrotto]

No, it was plastic, so easy to cut and trim with a multitool. It is a t6.1 and I think they changed to plastic.

 

[JumpShip]

Ah ok , ours is a 5.1 so explains the difference.