I had a bit of a nightmare with the CAN bus system on my Skoda. Knowing I might tow a trailer or use a tow bar mounted bike carrier I stipulated a factory fitted tow bar when I bought the car new in March 2018.
In the end I made no use of the tow bar until last year when I wanted to take an old rear hub bike of mine on holiday to be able to fetch shopping to and from a beech hut in Devon with no close by car parking.
I bought an excellent and very reasonable tow bar mounted bike rack from Amazon for £85. It did not come with a light board, but I already had one and just simple added a made up plate with the new cars registration.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006WNC5NE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I was only transporting one electric bike, but an old and heavy one, even with the battery removed. This cheap tow bar mounted carrier was excellent, very solid with no discernible movement with the bike on board at whatever speed you decided to go. In my case at least 70 mph where permitted.
That carrier is really very good for the money, and its 45kg weight limit should make carrying two ebikes possible if you remove both batteries (advisable anyway) and both seat posts.
Job done I thought.
However I was unaware that electric hook ups had changed and my new Skoda had a 13 pin electric hook up with Can bus and my old light board was 7 pin.
The car would not recognize the 7 pin connector and much more worrying would not even allow you to reverse without slamming the brakes on and setting of a loud warning siren inside the car. We found a way of disabling this in the cars settings, but it reset every time you turned the car of, and more importantly no lights illuminated on the light board.
On holiday I managed to buy an adapter, but still had no joy.
When back home I bought a new 13 pin light board and it then communicated with the car and all worked as it should.
In the end I made no use of the tow bar until last year when I wanted to take an old rear hub bike of mine on holiday to be able to fetch shopping to and from a beech hut in Devon with no close by car parking.
I bought an excellent and very reasonable tow bar mounted bike rack from Amazon for £85. It did not come with a light board, but I already had one and just simple added a made up plate with the new cars registration.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006WNC5NE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I was only transporting one electric bike, but an old and heavy one, even with the battery removed. This cheap tow bar mounted carrier was excellent, very solid with no discernible movement with the bike on board at whatever speed you decided to go. In my case at least 70 mph where permitted.
That carrier is really very good for the money, and its 45kg weight limit should make carrying two ebikes possible if you remove both batteries (advisable anyway) and both seat posts.
Job done I thought.
However I was unaware that electric hook ups had changed and my new Skoda had a 13 pin electric hook up with Can bus and my old light board was 7 pin.
The car would not recognize the 7 pin connector and much more worrying would not even allow you to reverse without slamming the brakes on and setting of a loud warning siren inside the car. We found a way of disabling this in the cars settings, but it reset every time you turned the car of, and more importantly no lights illuminated on the light board.
On holiday I managed to buy an adapter, but still had no joy.
When back home I bought a new 13 pin light board and it then communicated with the car and all worked as it should.
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