Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has a tow bar fitted to their Weekend? I'm looking to get one fitted to mine and wanted some advice. Obviously, removable hitch ones would be best to be able to use the bottom part of the boot opening (which I need with having a 7 seat conversion in the boot), but what is the price difference etc.

All advice/help very much appreciated

Paul

I've got a removable gooseneck towbar on mine. The electrics are under the car and the actual towbar part is removable and sits within the spare wheel. My car came with this when I bought it but I still have the reciept and it was £288.00 18 months ago. It is worth searching for "Tow Bar" in the threads 'cause I am sure this question has been asked before and there may be some better answers than this one!

Rob

Hi,
There is a swan kneck towbar for a marea estate advertised on e.bay opening bid asked for by owner of £45. Have a look under Fiat marea spares best of luck

Hi, last August I fitted a towbar made by PCT Automotive, it has a removable bar which is connected to the main towbar fittings by two high tensile bolts. A standard flange type tow ball is fitted . Its not the quickest to fit/remove but usually about 5 minutes does it and the bolts are the same size as the wheel bolts so the wheel brace comes in handy. The only thing I did wrong was that I had the electrics socket weld-tacked to the front of the crossbar (towbar) under the car, and it catches the bumper as its lowered, should have got it put slightly further back. It was a bit of a pig to fit, as the whole back bumper has to come off, but the supplied instructions were ok.I have been trying to think who I bought it from (can't remember)and for how much,(around £110). I had a quick scan on the internet and its still available including a PCT swan-neck with a quick-release for around £130. Hope this is of use to you. regards
Martin (Rice) Marea Weekend 130JTD (2000)

As an update, I've found a company called Solent Towbars who have an online shop selling a removable neck towbar for the Weekend for around £90 including single electrics and towball.
http://www.solent-towbars.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ST&Product_Code=FT+1029
How much of a pain are they to fit? Or am i better getting it fitted professionaly?

cheers
Paul

Paul,

Can't help with the towbar, mine is removable but I think it is locally made (New Zealand).

But I'm interested in your mention of a 7 seater conversion - is this a factory or aftermarket setup?

Thanks,

Mark.

Hiya,

Just fitted a removable towbar two weekends ago to our 2.4 JTD. Took a few hours and requires some drilling but other than that not a bad job. The wiring takes a bit of working out and a multimeter is useful to check which wires are which but only took 1/2hr to complete.

I got my tow bar from ebay, it's an Ellebi quick release model (italian name for brink tow bars) basically you have to have a removable neck, but also need to make sure it sits far enough back, some of the removable ones still require the bumper to be cut slightly (not pretty) so check carefully, particularly if it is under £90.

Hope this helps and good luck. Not the nicest of weather to be fitting a tow bar hope you have access to a warm garage.

Thinking about a towbar for my Marea, and wondering whether I should buy another car instead! Yes you can buy online for a little over £100 but I'm very wary about fitting one myself as the 'professional' fitters seem to shy away from it. When ringing around they tell me they either don't do it, or it's a workshop job, contact Fiat. Fiat use a guy who already quoted me £340! As for Solent towbars they sell you the thing in their online shop but when you have rung 50 times and they are finally not engaged or diverting to answer phone they tell you they don't do it (fitting that is). So how can I feel confident about fitting one myself on my driveway?
How easy is it? Have any amateur mechanics done it out there?

I tow a caravan with my marea weekend 2.0 20v and fitted the removable towbar myself, as previously stated , bit of a pig , but well worth being able to drop down the bumper when needed. The dog prefers the smaller jump !
So can you explain your 7 seater conversion as I'm curious. ? ?

I fitted the towbar to Prelude1970's 2.4 JTD.

It was fairly straight forward to be quite honest. There was a fair bit of drilling to do and you'll need a rotary stone attachment to open up some holes to drop in the spacers. The only minor hitch was realising we didn't have a wiring diagram so had to use a circuit tester for the wiring.

It was an Ellibi towbar and it uses the set up shown in the owners handbook so you can refer to that to get an idea of the job.

I used to have a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution import - now that was a little awkward as the captive nuts were not already on the chassis! I had to fabricate a few inserts and slide them into the chassis box sections to get that to fit

Thanks for your replies. All I can say is well done for fitting your own. I will look into it a bit more as it seems a realistic job to do. The diagrams in the Weekend Handbook are a bit small and complicated, and I consider myself a reasonably intelligent bloke. I will have some fitting instructions emailed to me before I consider buying a bar and riddling my car with holes...

saw a weekend on e bay with a 7 seat conversion..... its a two seater seat that fastens into the boot area wiht its own seat belts and is removable....the one in the ad was quoted as being very rare....ebay item 4548328660 to see a picture having shown my wife the picture, she says its a very expensive dog harness ! ! only suitable for the most vertically challenged people..............................

Successfully fitted a towbar to my Marea Weekend! Chuffed with my work. It isn't too bad. The drilling did seem a bit drastic and you have to be careful to make sure holes line up top and bottom. Got one from towequipe.com. It's not removable but I attached the socket to the drop plate and remove the extension bar and ball together when not in use. That way the tailgate can be dropped down. Very friendly advice on the phone if you need it from this company.