How to mount a towbar...

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t_w
Started learning about 480
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: The Netherlands

How to mount a towbar...

Post by t_w » Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:49 pm

How I mounted my towbar…

1
Get the rear of your car in the air…

2
Remove the rear bumper, as described in Section 8 (LINK).
The first surprise I encountered, was the steel part of my rear bumper…
It looked like this :badmood: :cryhard: :
Image
Two bolts broke when I removed the bumper, so beware when you ‘re planning to do this…
The towing eye was also in a bad condition:
Image
So I called my Volvo dealer to order some new parts and carried on…

3
This is what you need:
Image
The towbar, 6 bolts, nuts and washers, 6 tubes (only 4 on the picture, the bolts are mounted inside them), the electrics and two mounting plates

4
You have to drill 6 holes in the trunk of the car (inside). When you look at the picture, you can see that I ‘ve made some markings.
Image
Between the arrows, there are ‘little dots’ marked in the trunk, which are created by Volvo. At these marks (three on the left side and three on the right side), you’ll need to drill a hole of 16 mm. I did it in two steps, first drilled the holes at 8 mm, then made them at 16 mm. In the picture, you can see that I already drilled the first hole, where my finger is (only 8 mm when I took the picture)…
The two white round circles in the picture, show two points which will help you hold the mounting plate in position. They fit in the two little holes of the mounting plate, as can be seen in the next picture, where the mounting plate is in place...
Image

5
Take a look under the car. You can see a hole, marked white in the picture…
Image
Now look at the towbar, in the following picture, I point at a little circular shaft , which fits exactly in the hole as seen on the previous picture.
Image
Mount the towbar under the car by putting the little circular shaft into the hole. From the inside of the trunk, put a tube through the mounting plate, into the hole you’ve just drilled. This tube will prevent the car’s body work to deform (important, so don’t forget this!) Now put a bolt with a washer through the mounting plate, though the inserted tube, through the body work of the car and eventually through the towbar. In the end, add a washer and a nut. The result can be seen in the following picture, seen from the bottom of the car:
Image
This has to be done at the left and the right side. The towbar is now hanging under your car with 2 of the 6 bolts…

6
Now you need to drill another 4 holes, in the bottom of the car.
When you look at the picture, you can see that I point with two fingers at the two holes which are left (per side).
Image
Put a 10 mm drill inside the hole and drill through the body work of the car.
When you’re done, you have to put the tubes in from above, then again insert the bolt with a washer through the mounting plate, though the inserted tube, through the body work of the car and eventually through the towbar. In the end, add a washer and a nut.
Now, the towbar is mounted to the car!

7
At this point, I took the towbar off again and protected some parts of the car against rust, especially the points where I drilled through the body work, but also some parts which are normally covered by the bumper, as can be seen in the following picture…
Image

8
Here you can see the difference between the old steel bumper and a new one!
Image
The following step, is the cut a piece out of the bumper. Volvo already marked the piece you have to cut with little dots on the inside of the bumper, I’ve drawn a white line to show where the dots are. (don’t mind the white line in the middle)
Image

In my opinion, the marking Volvo made is rather small, so afterwards, I had to cut a bit more material away, to make the bumper fit again… I cut about one centimeter wider then the Volvo marking (only in the width, not in the height) .

9
Now you can mount the bumper again. The best way to do this is with two persons. Watch the cables when you mount the bumper!
This is the result:
Image

10
Now wire it up!
I used a connector with 7 pins. The indicator lights can directly be taken of the rear lights of the car, just as the fog lights. But the ‘normal lights’ and the brake lights not! Or else the ‘bulb failure’ indicator will keep on shining…
So these wires you have to adapt, before they go into the bulb failure system box, which is mounted in the trunk at the left side of your car. On this box, you can adapt wire number 57L for the left rear light, wire number 57R for the right rear light and wire number 54 for the brake light... This way, the bulb failure system won't notice the trailer lights...

Well, this is my ‘how to’…
:)
I hope it’ll help someone! If there are any questions, just ask or PM me…

Disclaimer: When you try this, it’s all at your own risk, so don’t blame me if something doesn’t work… ;)

yorkievolvo
Knows where Volvo is from
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Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2014 4:34 pm

Re: How to mount a towbar...

Post by yorkievolvo » Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:33 pm

Greetings James,
thanks for the info.
However,. got things to do before I reach the installation of a tow-bar.
And it won't be until it gets a lot warmer! My garage is colder than my fridge.
Regards
Mike H

Alan 480
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 1489
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:03 am
Location: Aberdeen

Re: How to mount a towbar...

Post by Alan 480 » Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:46 pm

This looked super clean inside the boot, assumed cos in NL, but with a rusty bumper then saw that this was ORIGINALLY posted in 2007 :(
Alan

480 ES 2litre 'Celebration' ? , C30 1.8ES, SS1

User avatar
t_w
Started learning about 480
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: How to mount a towbar...

Post by t_w » Mon Feb 04, 2019 7:12 pm

And then, after 12 years, I receive an email notification on an old 480 topic...

Nice to see that it is still alive and kicking ;)

That is not applicable to the 480 in the opening post...
The car did not survive the rust devil...

But good luck with the tow bar ;)

Greetings from the Netherlands,

Thijs

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jamescarruthers
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 2501
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 3:19 pm
Location: Cambridge

Re: How to mount a towbar...

Post by jamescarruthers » Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:59 pm

Excellent! It was very nice of you to come back and say hello :D
1987 Volvo 480 ES, 507274, 217 - Red (Ness)
2006 Citroen C6 Exclusive 3.0 petrol/LPG
2008 Mini Cooper convertible (Mau)

Previous 480's:
J123 CFU -- ES
J449 MNL -- ES auto
D864 CPV -- ES
L691 JFC -- Turbo
F70 MNR -- ES
H858 FGV -- Turbo auto
E981 KHM -- ES (509849)

Alan 480
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 1489
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:03 am
Location: Aberdeen

Re: How to mount a towbar...

Post by Alan 480 » Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:38 pm

got the top six holes drilled. now usually I can see the reason for having the steel tubes to prevent crushing the box section (i did it with my own tow-bar for the SS1) but there is about 2mm clearance between the middle section of the top hat that goes INSIDE the car and the chassis box/section. It is sitting tight against the floor on either side of the chassis legs.

so can't really see a big advantage of fitting spacers, unless they are meant to come up through the floor and meet the top-hat? ie they sit on the BOTTOM of chassis legs and poke through to sit 'slightly proud' of the top of chassis-leg. I don't have the spacer tubes, so I'll have to make some out of steel tube, don't suppose anybody knows the correct length? in image '4' the description says about 'opening out the holes to 16mm .. . .

PS ruddy tight fit to get the bushes to fit into under side of the rear legs :o bit of 'persuasion' required :wink:
Alan

480 ES 2litre 'Celebration' ? , C30 1.8ES, SS1

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