Best UK Aftermarket Towbar Option for Jl Rubicon Diesel?

[Leonidas75]

Evening,

I am after some advice from the UK members of the Forum please.

What is the best aftermarket towbar and wiring harness for a JL Diesel?

I have seen a Brink (Thule) one I fancy on ebay and it allows for the AdBlue tank. Am tempted to have a go at fitting it myself but wondering if there is a plug and play wiring harness (UK 13 pin) to help me?

Any advice gratefully received.

Rick

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[Rudolph Hart]

Hi Rick, I seem to remember Tony @lohr500 doing this but it’s a while ago. Hopefully he can chip in with some advice.

 

[lohr500]

Hi Rick,

I fitted a towbar to my JLU Rubicon early last year.

Firstly the towbar itself :

At the time, most of the branded towbar suppliers couldn't supply one suitable for fitting around the adblue tank.
And the Jeep price was silly money from what I recall.

After much searching around, I found a company called umbrarimorchi in Italy who manufacture towbars. I am pretty sure they also supply bars to some of the other branded suppliers.

I wanted a detachable style towball with a conventional flange so I could bolt our bike carrier bracket behind the ball.

Their part number for this style is 19017/SF. They also do other versions.(fixed and detachable swan neck, fixed flange)
TowEquipe and others in the UK stocked the 19017/SF.

But from studying the online fitting instructions for 19017/SF (and the other derivatives) it became clear that it was the same part number as used for the earlier Wrangler JK bracket. The two brackets are very similar as they both slide over the same size rear box section chassis.
They had modified the design of 19017 to fit with the adblue tank, BUT HAD NOT changed the part number

So "old" stock 19017 would be no good for the JLU diesel.

In the end I spoke directly to Umbrarimorchi to find out which distributors could supply the latest version.
They put me in touch with their UK division and a lady called Jayne Burden (trade @umbrarimorchi.co.uk 02081440509 ).
She checked with the factory in Italy and was able to supply a factory fresh "new" version direct from Italy for £156.84 including the shipping cost.

The towbar did fit correctly although I found that I needed to slacken off the front adblue tank mounting bolts as well as removing the rear bolts in order to gain enough clearance to slide the towbar U section into place. The fitting instructions didn't mention slackening off the front bolts. I supported the tank with a piece of timber on a jack to take the strain off the slackened bolts.
The other slight problem was that the main U section of the towbar bracket was manufactured incorrectly and the sides were not parallel. So it was a very tight fit over the rear chassis cross member. I was able to open up the U section slightly by using a car scissor jack between the internal faces of the U section. It only needed springing out by around 1mm, but that made all the difference.
I fed both points back to Umbrarimorchi and suggested they should change the fitting instructions to include slackening off the front adblue tank bolts.

The wiring :

Because of the complexity of the JLU wiring and the amount of electronics on board, I decided to splash the cash and fit a genuine wiring kit.
I am so pleased I did this because I have had warranty issues with the front parking sensors, ESS system and the alarm.
Had I not used an OE kit, I wonder if it may have been used as an excuse to not honour the warranty.
OE Part number at the time was K82215540AC

The instructions that came with the kit were very comprehensive and logical. But it was a big job to do and quite tricky. Firstly a power cable in the kit had to be threaded from the battery, down the inner passenger side wing, through the bulkhead, across to the drivers side and then back to the rear offside corner to connect up to the control box. The main control box sits behind the offside tail light cluster.
There were also a couple of looms running to the fog lights and across to the nearside rear lamp cluster.
Some of the steps involved removing or installing certain electrical pins within the electrical block connectors attached to the light units. All logical, but time consuming and needing careful thought to follow the instructions correctly. I've attached a copy of the instructions for info.

It certainly wasn't as "plug and play" as the kits I fitted to my Defender and Freelander in the past.
I'm not sure about the aftermarket kits either. It might be worth checking the instructions on some of the aftermarket kits to see how complex the fitting is.

The OE kit does disable things like the rear park sense modules and vehicle fog lamps when a trailer is connected though.

I personally wouldn't fit a universal type kit to the Wrangler as I would be worried about confusing the electronics / canbus system.

Hope this helps.

Tony

 

[Leonidas75]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for that fantastic description! I am now inspired to do the same.

Cheers

Rick

 

[lohr500]

It was a bit of a pain!! But at least I knew it was all correct.
The towbar was relatively easy. It was the wiring that was a PITA!

You could consider getting separate quotes for the wiring and the tow bar. Then do the hardware bit yourself and leave the sparky bits to someone else.

 

[Leonidas75]

Many thanks for the advice Tony. I managed to get the Mopar parts from Latvia and fitted it myself last week. Am really pleased with the fit.

 

[lohr500]

Pleased to hear it all went well. I see you took the rear bumper off. With hindsight perhaps I should have done the same. It would have made it easier to route the wiring across the back.

 

[taram]

Rick, Tony, hello! Could you please advise if the hook itself is actually removable, so you can permanently have the base mount installed , and the hook only when needed?
Also the AllMoparParts says part number for wiring kit as discontinued ...

 

[lohr500]

Can't help on the latest part number to replace the one I used, but the towbar I fitted does have a removable fitting. It slots in and rotates by 90 Deg and is then locked with a locating pin. I needed the removable version with a flat plate to bolt a towball to, so I could attach the bracket which works with my bike carrier. They also did a version with a removable swan neck type ball.

 

[Leonidas75]

Hi Taram,

Mine is a removable swan next type shown in my photos above.

I got the genuine wiring kit off ebay from Latvia.

The part number is; 82215540AD

Here is a link to the current ebay listing (same guy I used)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Genu...022166?hash=item23d5fd9916:g:C1gAAOSwAlJeqqhc

Cheers

Rick

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