Towbar Advice Needed - Volvo Vs AL-KO?

just a word of advice, one chap on site who I was talking to about his Kia before buying mine said that he had his dealer fit the towbar and electrics but they had not fitted the full electrics (old N&S sockets) only the lighting, so his caravan battery and fridge had no power so make this clear to a dealer. Towbar fitters will know this but dealers might not. 

Yes you do need to check that and make it clear what you want.

We had a really good Volvo dealer, they did the towbars themselves and were really clued up on decent fitting and full electrics, obviously it must vary depending on the dealer.

Inside Left, we have a 2016 XC60  and have a factory fitted detachable towbar and electrics which are compatible to our Alko hitch on our 2011 Bailey Unicorn. We took advantage of the discount offered by the CC on Volvos and their accessories. We've not had any problems, so far.....touch wood.

I'm taken aback by the promptness and number of responses, thanks.

Consequently, I'm edging closer to the view that a detachable Volvo  tow bar will be compatible with the Crusader Storm.

I spoke to Elldis and all they 'need' is for the tow ball to be 50mm in diameter.

The doubt is really my inexperience and not being able to match up the different descriptions from the Elldis and Volvo dealers.  

Thanks

As above, you need to impress on Volvo that you want the 13 pin socket fully wired to charge your caravan's battery & power the caravan fridge ... you could very well just get it wired for lighting if you don't. 

We had no problems with their wiring it up for our 13 pin socket. We just stated what we required when ordering the car.

A few years back there were some problems with Volvo fitting the 13 pin plugs.

It was well documented and probably available on the Volvo Owners Website

The wiring provided by Volvo was for continental caravans and this differed from UK vans.  Generally continental vans didn't have fridges and therefore the connection to the fridge was missing.  I would expect this to be resolved on factory fitted electrics but I would seek reassurance that this is the case on bars being retrofitted by Volvo dealers.

With all (12 in total) the towbars I've had fitted by an independent fitters I've always questioned if they are confident that the installation will not affect the cars electrical or computer system and always made it clear from the start that I will test everything and they will not get paid until I'm fully satisfied.  I've never, once has one of them questioned me and I've never had any problems.

Apologies for being off topic everyone  but I was wondering what does NTH  think of his XC60. 

 Grateful if you could answer a few questions -  Is it manual/ auto, D4 or D5 - what mpg do you achieve towing/solo?

Many thanks

Our experience has been totally the opposite on all our Volvos.

We ordered our 2007 XC90 with a 13 pin socket and detachable towbar, at that time the Volvo towbar was dealer fitted rather than supplied from the factory.  I think more people have had problems with factory fit than dealer fit on many makes of car.

Continental vans DID/ DO have fridges, but it is not very common for caravanners to run them while on the move.  They also do not bother much with battery charging.  For these reasons, factory fit is often not fully wired.  This is why when you order a towbar you need to check that your dealer totally understands what you are asking for.

Grant, it's an automatic D5,  & we are getting somewhere around 26 mpg towing and up to 40 mpg touring round. We tend not to do long runs, up 100mls is about maximum towing and much shorter journeys without the van on the back. Most of our journeys are not on motorways but rather A & B roads. We've done only about 8000mls so far and it's averaging out at 30+mpg. Hope to get better over the next year.