Driving School and Training Towing Package in a Premium Specification

A fleet order: matched bars and looms across a training fleet, plus a set of noseweight gauges and training aids.

Towing is the one thing you can buy for a car where the wrong part is not merely disappointing. Every towbar listing here states the type approval number, the D value, the maximum noseweight and whether the bumper has to be cut, because those four facts decide whether a bar is legal on your vehicle and whether it will pull what you want to pull. Every electrical listing says plainly whether it is a dedicated loom or a universal one with a bypass relay, and what each will and will not do. We would rather lose a sale to a cheaper part than sell you one that does not fit.

Specification

• Fits: vehicle specific per VIN. Send us the fleet list and we return a schedule with the exact kit, the approval number and the fitting time for each vehicle
• Approval: UNECE R55 per vehicle, with the approval number recorded against the VIN in the schedule we issue. Every car first registered in the UK after 1 August 1998 must be fitted with a type approved towbar, approved for that specific make, model and body shape. The approval number is printed on a plate riveted to the bar and it is stated on every towbar listing on this site. A bar without one is not a cheaper towbar, it is an uninsured one.
• Rating: per vehicle, and the schedule states the vehicle's own towing limit alongside the bar's, because they are rarely the same number
• D value: per vehicle, stated in the schedule. The D value is the measure of how hard a towbar can be pulled. It is worked out from the towing vehicle's maximum mass and the trailer's maximum mass together, in kilonewtons, and the bar's D value has to be equal to or greater than the figure your combination produces. We publish it on every bar and there is a calculator linked from every towbar page.
• Noseweight: per vehicle, stated in the schedule. Noseweight is the downward load the trailer puts on the ball, and the figure you may use is the lowest of four numbers: the towbar's S value, the vehicle handbook's noseweight limit, the towball's rating and the caravan coupling's rating. Most people know the first and none of the other three, and a combination that is legal on paper is often over the limit on the one that matters.
• Ball height: 350 to 420mm laden, checked per vehicle, and drop plates supplied where a vehicle sits high
• Electrics: dedicated looms throughout, with coding included per vehicle. A dedicated loom plugs into connectors the vehicle already has. It talks to the car's electronics, so the rear parking sensors switch off when a trailer is plugged in, the trailer stability programme arms itself if the vehicle has one, the bulb failure warning understands the extra lamps, and on many cars the fog lamp is muted as the regulations require. It costs more and on most cars it needs coding with a diagnostic tool, which we include on any kit we fit.
• Fitting time: two to four hours per vehicle, scheduled so you never lose more than two at a time
• Bumper: stated per vehicle in the schedule before any work is agreed
• Materials: the specification we would fit to our own vehicle, with the parts that wear chosen for life rather than for price
• Weight: approximately 147 kilograms for the package
• Guarantee: three years parts and labour on site across the fleet, extendable to five
• Documents: a schedule per VIN with the approval number, the D value, the noseweight and the date fitted, issued as a spreadsheet for your fleet system
• Spares: sockets, plugs, bulbs and a spare loom held on your site, replenished on request
• Downtime: fitting scheduled around your operation, including evenings and weekends at no premium
• Account: 30 day terms on approval, and we take purchase orders
• Compliance: our fitters carry public liability cover and issue a risk assessment and method statement before attending

What arrives

• every towbar and fixing kit
• every dedicated loom
• the diagnostic coding per vehicle
• the on site labour
• a schedule per VIN for your fleet records
• a stocked spares box

Fitting

On site, to your hours, two to four hours per vehicle. Every bolt is torqued to the stated figure, every vehicle is coded, every socket is tested under load, and every VIN gets a line in the schedule with the approval number and the date on it.

Before you order

A fleet buyer needs three things a retail buyer does not. A record per VIN, because an insurer or an auditor will eventually ask. A fitting schedule that does not take the fleet off the road. And spares on your own shelf, because a van standing idle over a broken socket costs more in a morning than the spares box costs in a year. All three are in this price rather than quoted separately.