Hi Guys

Just finished fitting my Witter detachable towbar and wiring single electrics.

All went pretty smoothly, took me about 2 hrs inc identifying which wires to connect to.

For anybody else doing the job, I thought I'd share my findings;

1) Witter Towbar goes on great, not requiring any visible cutting of the bumper. Only hole drilling is two 20 dia holes to give access to a couple of bolts behind the passenger side rear indicator. Simply follow instructions provided, no need to jack up car etc, although could make easier if possible.

2) Wiring 7 way smart bypass relay is again straightforward, as follows (all connections made using scotchlocks for convenience);
1) Remove spare wheel cover
2) Remove small cubby hole on LHS in boot by wheel (plastic wingnut fixed)
3) Identify big grey towing socket.
4) Identify larger of 2 red wires on socket, use this as live feed to bypass relay (is fused by existing fuse way in rear box - fuse will be missing)
5) Identify smaller of 2 red wires on socket, use this as the brake light feed on relay.
6) Provide local earth for relay - I removed rear lashing eye and put wire to this.
7) Carefully trim wiring loom tidy tape, to expose wiring loom by socket.
Connect relay Passenger side indicator input to Grey/orange wire in loom.
9) Connect relay drivers side indicator input to Green/orange wire in loom.
10) Connect relay tail light input to Purple/green wire in loom.
11) Connect fog relay light input to Brown/green wire in loom.
12) Connect reverse relay light to Green/white wire in loom (won't be used on single electrics!).

Then a quick final check all is secure, fit 15A fuse in boot fusebox where indicated.
Switch on ignition and get assistant to check various lights etc, smart relay should click each time.

Then plug in trailer and check all lights operate correctly - again with assistant (who listens!!).

Finally tidy up wiring, with tie wraps/insulation tape, and put boot area back together.

All in all a relatively straightforward job for anyone with mixture of DIY skills.

So now have a removable towbar. £230 to buy and 1 1/2 hrs to fit. Non removable £90 cheaper.

A massive saving on Land Rover supply/fitting costs, I am sure you will agree, and would indicate that this job should cost no more than about £300 using a towbar specialist.


Cheers
Mark Freelander 2
TD4 GS
Shiney fantastic Baltic Blue
Detachable Witter Towbar

Thank you for posting the wiring details. Not being one myself to pay main stealer prices I thought I would have a look (inspired by your post of course ) at wiring up myself. However when I had a look at my wiring loom I was some what confused as the wires going into "the big grey socket" were a different color to those in your post;
Yellow
Black/blue
Orange/purple
Orange/grey
Red-small
Red-large
Blue/red

I had a look at the light cluster wiring and could match your colours going into the light unit itself. When i looked at the main wiring loom (that the above wires run into) I noticed that there were also some wires of this colour but some were duplicated as large and small core.

Any help you give me would be much appreciated as my wallet can not take another LR beating!!  XS TD4 Zermatt Silver

Hi

I picked up the indicators and tail lights directly in the wiring loom, rather than the grey connector.

Managed to pick colours out first time.

From memory there are two tail lights (purple/green) in the loom.

Indicators weren't duplicated in my loom, so no confusion there. The permanent live was connected at the grey plug (large red wire), and the brake light at the same (smaller red wire).

Hope this helps, and glad to hear I'm not the only one frustrated at LR stealer prices.

Cheers and good luck
Mark

PS I suspect the other colours in the grey plug are indicators, fogs and CANbus wiring, but as I'd already traced the wiring back by removing the lights, I couldn't be bothered to double check these. They have a strange 5V ish monitoring voltage on them, so are not really easy to check out. Freelander 2
TD4 GS
Shiney fantastic Baltic Blue
Detachable Witter Towbar

Thanks for replying so quick!
Well I cracked it..yippeee!! I had to pick up the drivers side tail light (white/orange) but otherwise did exactly what you said..small red - brakes, large red - relay power and those were the only wires I picked up from the grey plug. The others I got straight from the loom. One thing I did note was that the indicator colours were duplicated in a twisted pair which I ignored.
The one thing I did forget to do was earth the white wire on the socket but soon spotted it when testing lights.
The reverse is picked up but not connected as you mentioned, so I guess it is there if I ever need it.
I fitted a brink towbar which I am led to believe is the one LR stealers fit. One thing that did scare the out of me when fitting this was cutting the bumper...
All said, job done, towbar sorted and wired for under £200.
Thanks for the help.

looking for aftermarket window tinting now......  XS TD4 Zermatt Silver

Great to hear it all went to plan.

I went for the Witter towbar as it didn't need any cutting of bumper. Went for detachable, but could have gone for fixed and saved £100, so would have been really cheap then.

All the best.

Mark
PS I must admit I forgot the white earth too, but in my case it was the earth to the relay unit. Slightly puzzled by hearing clicking in time with indicators, but no lamps flashing------then it dawned on me and 30 seconds later all sorted. Freelander 2
TD4 GS
Shiney fantastic Baltic Blue
Detachable Witter Towbar

markconnor33 wrote:

Hi Guys

Just finished fitting my Witter detachable towbar and wiring single electrics.

All went pretty smoothly, took me about 2 hrs inc identifying which wires to connect to.

For anybody else doing the job, I thought I'd share my findings;

1) Witter Towbar goes on great, not requiring any visible cutting of the bumper. Only hole drilling is two 20 dia holes to give access to a couple of bolts behind the passenger side rear indicator. Simply follow instructions provided, no need to jack up car etc, although could make easier if possible.

2) Wiring 7 way smart bypass relay is again straightforward, as follows (all connections made using scotchlocks for convenience);
1) Remove spare wheel cover
2) Remove small cubby hole on LHS in boot by wheel (plastic wingnut fixed)
3) Identify big grey towing socket.
4) Identify larger of 2 red wires on socket, use this as live feed to bypass relay (is fused by existing fuse way in rear box - fuse will be missing)
5) Identify smaller of 2 red wires on socket, use this as the brake light feed on relay.
6) Provide local earth for relay - I removed rear lashing eye and put wire to this.
7) Carefully trim wiring loom tidy tape, to expose wiring loom by socket.
Connect relay Passenger side indicator input to Grey/orange wire in loom.
9) Connect relay drivers side indicator input to Green/orange wire in loom.
10) Connect relay tail light input to Purple/green wire in loom.
11) Connect fog relay light input to Brown/green wire in loom.
12) Connect reverse relay light to Green/white wire in loom (won't be used on single electrics!).

Then a quick final check all is secure, fit 15A fuse in boot fusebox where indicated.
Switch on ignition and get assistant to check various lights etc, smart relay should click each time.

Then plug in trailer and check all lights operate correctly - again with assistant (who listens!!).

Finally tidy up wiring, with tie wraps/insulation tape, and put boot area back together.

All in all a relatively straightforward job for anyone with mixture of DIY skills.

So now have a removable towbar. £230 to buy and 1 1/2 hrs to fit. Non removable £90 cheaper.

A massive saving on Land Rover supply/fitting costs, I am sure you will agree, and would indicate that this job should cost no more than about £300 using a towbar specialist.


Cheers
Mark

Hello Dear "markconnor33"! Dealers in Russia, too, has not entirely reasonable price for towing beam of 1000$ with the installation . So I built the box to transport luggage to bicycles, but connecting wires is not easy, but I found the connector below the bumper. I am happy that is not alone in its endeavour to connect wires. Could you write an electrical circuit graphically? Bydu I am very grateful, because I used translators not accurately reflect the technological part of your description. I thank. Denis

The land rover electrics sit on the CAN bus and the connector in the rear provides the signals it cannot be hacked into as the official tow kit has a special ecu . The only way to connect an un official kit is to connect directly to the wires the go to the rear lights , you will have to find a way to make the tow light indicator work in the instrument pack as this is a legal requirement in europe

Thanks for posting this information, I have just had a quote of £180 from Guy Salmon to do the electrics with the LR ECU accessory. Is the Severn Way Smart Bypass Relay the one marketed by Towsure for £22.75. I have always done my own fitting and with your information I will have a go - Many Thanks

Wilbur

I didn't buy my relay from Towsure, but yes this should be the same thing.

Have you also fitted the towbar yourself?

Mark Freelander 2
TD4 GS
Shiney fantastic Baltic Blue
Detachable Witter Towbar

Thanks for your instructions, I have just completed wiring my towbar and saved a fortune. However I wired my reverse lights to the relay and the parking sensors are now not working - any ideas.

I seem to remember I briefly had the same problem.

Have you tried removing fuse for reversing lights and reinstalling it, maybe also worth disconnecting battery (reseting ECU) on a similar basis as these sometimes become confused.

Mark Freelander 2
TD4 GS
Shiney fantastic Baltic Blue
Detachable Witter Towbar

Thanks for the reply, however removing fuses for Reverse lights and parking sensor - one at a time and battery did not work. Any other ideas, I gues I will have to go to a stealer.

Hi,

Thanks to this awesome post I have successfully wired in a second hand R40 witter two bar single electric socket (using a bypass relay as described above). The towbar came with the second (auxiliary) socket and wiring - I can't find any links on here on how to wire in the second socket, its not the end of the world as I will mostly be towing a horse trailer but seeing as the socket is there it'd be nice to make it functional!!

Hopefully someone has some experience in this area - Thanks

James

Just to add a minor detail:-
Once you have read the Witter instructions it becomes clear why they want you to drill two holes in the bumper, because there are nuts and washers to remove and replace. So if you have nimble fingers you can now reach up inside the bumper with a spanner and undo the nuts without any hole drilling!
.
Second point is the choice of electrics kit. If you have a manual gearbox them by all means use a bypass relay ; however if your car us the auto then you are better to buy the genuine LR electrics kit as once installed and coded to the vehicle then when you tow the auto box is intelligent and switches to a specific logic mode with gear changes at a range to suit the towing application. All very clever and of definite benefit.

And don't forget the two stroke additive as it gives much improved fuel consumption!
Find and read the 66 page saga on this forum!!! 2010GS Auto ex Celeb, Santorini Black, 2011 facelift , spoiler, spats, mudflaps, LED footwell lamps, Witter detach,
Other cars:-
1958 & 1959 Austin J40 Pedal Cars under restoration (I make many J40 parts)
If you have an Austin J40 or Pathfinder Pedal Car looking for a new home pls PM me.
2009 Meriva

Hi Wilbur did you solve the problem with the parking sensors, I'm having the same problem since have the towbar electrics changed from 7 pin to 13 pin at the local auto electricians.