Fitting Ford Tow Bar

[80 RPM]

Did a search but it only came up with every post in the ute section(might need to do it again though)

BTW vehicle is an 03 BA XR6 NA

I bought a 1600kg tow bar yesterday expecting it to be a fairly easy attachment

until the guy at for said the early BA utes had the rear skirts urethaned on...

I thought cant be that bad so went home and had a look.

as far as I can tell I cant get the rear numberplate backing/bottom skirt of untill I take the side pods off

and I cant take the pods off as they are urethaned on.

Obviously resorting to fitting the tow bar while the rear bar is still fitted I thought I would read the instructions, which only state a template for the Hayman reece style one or (HD one)

I looked from the back and it looks like you could cut out along the missing section behind and be done with it for a HD tow bar but as I have the smaller one I don't want to cut the large hole.

there are two lines running horizontal within the HD towbar cut out are these for the tounge of the light duty tow bar?

I love the clean look of the xrs from behind and don't really want to kill it with a tow bar, but neccesity wins unfortunatly

at the least I want it to look as clean as possible with no dirty big cut out around it.

any guidance much appreciated

TIA

Ryan.

Edited 21/11/07 03:42 AM by 80 RPM

[80 RPM]

Just thought I would update my post

We fitted the tow bar on thursday night

Its not a straight forward as what we thought but non the less it wasnt to hard

we established that the tow bar itself fits behind the XR bar without any mods

so we fitted it up and then measured and cut the hole for the tounge to go through

couple of pics attached

the dificult parts

- the new nuts in the chassis for the tow bar were either full of gunk or needed a finishing tap run through them (we just got another bolt same thread and just nicked it on the edge and it was enough

- be carfull how you re assemble spring shackles as once the tow bar is on there is only a certain way they will go on

- the bumper needs a 35mm hole to gain access to the rear most bolt (seen in pic) I plan to get a tube bung and just give it a coat of touch up paint and pop it in the hole

- Dont go by the ford instructions on how to cut out the template as its to suit the removeable hitch type towbar

- took us about 2-3 hours with hand tools would be heaps quicker with a rattle gun.

- most of the time was spent cutting the hole in the bumper

early BA XR utes have the back section sika'ed on so the hole has to be cut on the car

I opted for the plug in trailer wiring as well deffinatly worth it for a factory looking install

Regards,

Ryno

[Adam]

Dealers cut them to fit the towbar. They never remove the bar.

A little trick for young players is to order the towbar as factory fit with the ute if you're buying new. Then you get a bumper with a nicely finished hole rather than one some clown has hacked up.

[80 RPM]

I didn't buy it new from factory so didn't have that advantage

The guy at ford showed me the detail drawings that show removing the bar (also covered in the instructions to fit it)

you have to remove the rear pods

then the rear rocker panel (then its just like an XL/XLS styleside ute)

fit towbar and tounge then mark out hole cut etc

and fit bar back on

the only difference to mine is I cant take the rocker panel off therefor cant fit the whole tow bar in one go meaning I have to cut the hole under for the second bolt hole for the tounge

A dealer would not have spent the time that we did making the smallest hole required!

"a trick for young players"

Maybe ford should do some forward thinking and put a removeable piece in the rear section as they do for sedans ; )

[gibbon666]

looks ok to me