Try: http://1stvwparts.com/ for the OEM hitch.

 

The OEM hitch is the only one rated for the Touareg's full capacity.

Also, to tow at full capacity, you also need a tow bar and ball assembly rated to over 7700 lbs. Many (most) are only rated to 6000#.

Since there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive list of what you need for towing with a Touareg in this forum, I thought I'd type one up...


OEM setup:

1. OEM Hitch
2. The correct bolts for the hitch (apparently there's chance the wrong bolts were shipped with the OEM hitch. I don't know the specifics, since the bolts that shipped with mine were the correct ones for my '08 T2.) Just be aware that you may need to order the correct bolts from your dealer.
3. OEM trailer controller (plugs into the car's wiring harness and controls the trailer's lights -- includes a wiring harness going from the controller to the trailer hitch. This harness will not plug directly into your trailer's wiring! See item #5 below.)
4. Trailer controller re-coding. As shipped, the trailer is set up for European lighting systems which are incompatible with US lighting systems. The trailer controller must be re-coded to switch it over to US specifications. Your VW dealership can do this, OR it can be done with anyone with a VAG-COM cable that is compatible with the Touareg.
5. 7-pin RV plug (available from VW or from Waytek Wire -- bolts to the hitch and plugs into the trailer controller wiring harness..)
6. Towing Bar, which is inserted into the hitch's receiver.
7. Towing Ball (make sure to get the size appropriate for your trailer!)
8. Brake controller (needed for trailers over approx 2000#.)
9. Wiring for brake controller (2007 and later models. 2006 and earlier models appear to have this wiring in place, which plugs into the trailer controller's wiring harness. You WILL need to make this yourself if your Touareg does not have the factory harness.)

Aftermarket

1. Hitch (Curt, Draw-Tite, etc...)
2. Aftermarket trailer light controller (this needs to be spliced into the Touareg's taillight and other electrical circuits.)
3. Wiring from the light controller to the trailer hitch.
4. 7-pin RV plug (available from VW or from Waytek Wire -- bolts to the hitch and plugs into the aftermarket light controller's wiring harness..)
5. Towing Bar, which is inserted into the hitch's receiver.
6. Towing Ball (make sure to get the size appropriate for your trailer!)
7. Brake controller (needed for trailers over approx 2000#.)
8. Wiring for brake controller (2007 and later models. 2006 models have this wiring in place, which plugs into the trailer controller's wiring harness. You WILL need to make this yourself is your touareg does not have the factory harness.

The two approaches are fairly similar. The biggest difference is the aftermarket hitches are rated only to 6000# and MAY require minor trimming around the bumper cover's hitch opening.

The next biggest difference is the way the trailer's lights are controlled -- either by the factory controller or an aftermarket one. The OEM controller plugs directly into the car's wiring harness, while the aftermarket controller must be spliced into the car's wiring harness. (Sorry, the aftermarket controller can NOT be used with the existing OEM controller's wiring connections -- the electrical protocols are very different.)

Using the OEM trailer controller does get you some nice features. If the Touareg's alarm is on, unplugging the trailer's wiring connector will set off the alarm. Also, if you have a burned-out light bulb, a notification will be shown on the MFD. Lastly, it saves you from cutting up the factory wiring harness to install the aftermarket controller.

There are two downsides to the OEM trailer controller. First, it can only handle 100 Watts of load from the trailer. If your trailer has a lot of lights on it, you will have problems (they'll flash on and off, every two seconds or so.) Second, the controller will not work with LED lights. LEDs use so little current that it fools the trailer controller into thinking the bulb is burned out. You can get around that by installing incandescent "cheater" bulbs or resisters to pull more current, but that sort of defeats the purpose of LED lighting, doesn't it? (Personally, my trailer uses a mix of the two in every circuit, which keeps me below the 100 Watt limit, but above the "light-bulb-is-burned-out" limit.)

 

Robert,

A bow in your directions for support.
Thank You,

Sincerely
Radek

 

Glad to be of service. Back in July, when I forst bought my Touareg, I pulled my hair out for several daysm, researching the hitch situation. There's a lot of information out there, but none of it is organized, particuilarly regarding the brake controller issue. All I did was gather a lot of it together.

Collecting and sorting through all that information was the hard part. Installing the hitch was easy.

 

GT40,

First, most boat trailers have surge brakes so that eliminates the brake controller problem with the boating world. But stating that I haven't towed my ski boat yet but that trailer has LED's, you are saying I am going to have a problem due to lack of current pulled by the LED's? Man, I am going to hook that thing up to the ski boat trailer first thing in the morning!

 

...that trailer has LED's, you are saying I am going to have a problem due to lack of current pulled by the LED's?

Probably.

 

Gt40,

I will let you know what happens tomorrow after I hook the trailer up. The boat is in the lift at the dock in the back yard so I haven't had a need to use the trailer for a while. Luckily the wife is a EE!

 

No problems, then! The problem, I suspect, is thar LEDs have very high impedance (resistance) which makes them energy efficient. The Touareg's trailer controller interprets this as a burned-out bulb (infinite resistance). Others have solved this by installing either a resistor, or a regular bulb, in parallel with the LEDs to increase the current draw to the point where the controller is happy.

I was surprised to see that the VW tow bar was solid, not tubing like the Reese hitches and other brands that are out there. It did have the 7700lb rating on it. However, my other tow bar fit just fine.

Yep - my Reese bar is hollow & rated to 6000#. My race car is 3000# and the trailer is about 1000#m so I'm ony at 66% of the bar's rating.

 

Also, about the hitches, we purchased our V-10 and it had the VW hitch with a 2" ball already on it. When I got home I needed to move my 25ft long fishing boat so I needed to put in the 2 3/8" ball and remove the 2" one. I was surprised to see that the VW tow bar was solid, not tubing like the Reese hitches and other brands that are out there. It did have the 7700lb rating on it. However, my other tow bar fit just fine.

PS This boat trailer has normal lights and I had no issues with them.

 

I think what really makes a difference to me is the price.

Volkswagen dealership quoted $1,081.00 for everything, Uhaul is
$401.00.

That's a huge difference.

 

I think what really makes a difference to me is the price.

Volkswagen dealership quoted $1,081.00 for everything, Uhaul is
$401.00.

That's a huge difference.

Uhaul hitch will not allow you to tow anywhere near the 7700 lb limit the factory hitch will allow. If you don't ever need to tow that much, then you are fine. I think you are limited to 6000 now though.

 

Robert
Great info. Do most VW dealers have the VAG-COM equipment. I have found a 2010 TDI touareg with OEM hitch so I am anticipating electrical issues in hooking up my horse trailer as I had back in 2005. My horse trailer now has a resister added for the running lights which exceeded the 100 watts max allowed on the 05 Treg. No led lights on the trailer.

 

All VW dealers have a VAG "mainframe" tool which has much more functionality (including guided fault diagnostics) than the VAG COM we can buy.

 

Nick,you can rent the VW 5051/5052 tool for $200. for an exact week from Snap-Off tools ,but you have to leave a $7000. Deposit, Marty

 

After lurking around for a while, I am finally posting my first post in this forum! Great info so far, but I need a couple of things clarified.

About the electric brakes in a trailer. It seems that if I get the OEM kit and install it myself, when I press the brake pedal in the car, it applies the brakes to the trailer. Is that true? If not, is there a difference as far as the electrical brakes with the OEM vs. after market hitches?

If the OEM hitch is just a plug and play (W/ no messing around w/ reprogramming anything) I am willing to fork out the extra cash/labor to get it...even if I still need to add the trailer brake module separately.

I just purchased an 05 V8 last Saturday. I regret I did not get a treg sooner!

 

just one more little question i hope,I saw a calculation for weight or capacity or something that i cant seem to find on figuring out my totals of cargo /people/ trailer? are you aware of this?

 

With a factory hitch you can tow up to 7700 lbs (it actually is structurally integrated into
the Touareg, where as after market hitches are just bolted on). Of course adding people and other loads to your tractor wont effect your tow ratio but it does place more demand on your drive train. It's a stout little hauler but as good as it is it does have it's limits...

 

Can't speak for the other factory like hitch just that the factory one replaced the bumper unit, is structurally a more substantial piece and it makes the whole rear more stout. The aftermarket one that I compared just bolted on to what was there.

If I uses the wrong terms my apologies...

 

the factory one replaced the bumper unit, is structurally a more substantial piece and it makes the whole rear more stout.

Definitely. The factory hitch made by Westfalia has gotta be good if you're going to put 7700# on it. The original bumper bar is just a U shaped piece.

I've got a Westfalia on my Passat; they make solid hitches.

 

i just had a hayman reece hitch fitted to my girl and its rated to the full towing weight and ball weight. 7700 and 770 pounds
Also had electric brake setup fitted (of course) where other have claimed to have problems
my auto elec just wired mine in and worked fine

 

i just had a hayman reece hitch fitted to my girl and its rated to the full towing weight and ball weight. 7700 and 770 pounds

Hmmm, wonder if it's the same as the Reese hitch offered in N.A.

Did they replace the factory bumper bar with the hitch, or was it mounted behind/under and bolted to the original bumper bar (like the N.A. Reese hitch)?

 

The tow hitch kit I recently purchased from my VW dealer has the 7700# and 700# sticker on it.

 

the original bumper was removed and the new hayman reece fitted all legal and rated here for 3500kg and 350kg ball weight
i tow a 24ft van with no problems ( van 2500kg)

 

do i need to make any vag com changes now that i have my trailer hooked up and am towing. it is a 2006 with a factory tow package/v8 with air susp.
. I have added a prodigy p3 brake controller and have a 26 foot trailer at about 4000 lbs dry

 

If you don't have brake lights it most likely is the trailer setting Mine was set for "rest of the world". The tech hooked it up to the factory computer and switched it to US.

 

no all my lights are fine , I was curious because I thought i had read something about the shift points changing once you plugged in the tow cable and it sensed it . I thought I had read something but cant quite find it now. on my drive back it was a easy ride but the best performance seemed to come from running the gear shifting myself rather than in drive, but common sense i guess with the load.

 

so I love my "new to me" Touareg and the trailer I have found is a nice lightweight(3900lbs dry) . The dealer set me up with a tow setup that has a 10 and 1/4 reach from pin to c/l of the ball . the tag shows it should not exceed 6.15,should i just run it thru my band saw and redrill the pin hole to bring it closer to that dimension?.It would seem a better tow setup with the weight closer to the treg and more over the rear rather than leveraging out there at 10+ inches.

 

The dealer set me up with a tow setup that has a 10 and 1/4 reach from pin to c/l of the ball . the tag shows it should not exceed 6.15,should i just run it thru my band saw and redrill the pin hole to bring it closer to that dimension?.It would seem a better tow setup with the weight closer to the treg and more over the rear rather than leveraging out there at 10+ inches.

Personally I think I would go back to the dealer and ask for the VW hitch (shank or whatever you guys call it over there, the part that holds the ball and goes into the square hole) rather than use what is obviously not a VW one. All VW ones have the correct reach, and the ball is rated for the correct towing amount.

Can you be sure that the one they have given you is rated for the full 7700lbs (3500kgs for us down here)?

As for cutting, well it is your choice, but if it fails, or is out by a bit and causes something else to go wrong, then it won't be just you who suffers, the vehicle traveling behind you can also be involved.

I do agree that the closer the hitch point is to the back axle then the more stable the tow would be (but that is only my opinion) and is one of the advantages of the Treg over many other vehicles.

 

and I even got my new sticker from VW to replace the old one with lower rating.

 

I need help with vas 5054a
Someone

 

Personally I find VWs spec for length of shank dangerously close for comfort. Trailer can be too close to rear of vehicle and could make for dangerous angles when manouvering.

I always ignored this spec as there is no standard shank out there that meets this spec...for me I believe it far more important to match tow height to shank height, and the one size fits all VW shank certainly does not allow you to do this.

 

VW now has available the correct draw ball/ball carrier.

I pushed the folks at executive care for a couple of months that since they do not provide the specified part and no one currently manufactured it that they had two choices... Either provide one or rebate the money plus tax for the cost of the hitch and oem wiring.

The day after we settled and I was refunded the money for the hitch and wiring, they started to manufacture the ball carrier again... It can be purchased at your dealer or through the drive gear website.

http://www.drivergear.vw.com/vw10/SKUDetailsVW10F7P0092730.asp

 

Wow...thats hilarious....the price I mean....

 

the tag shows it should not exceed 6.15,should i just run it thru my band saw and redrill the pin hole to bring it closer to that dimension?.It would seem a better tow setup with the weight closer to the treg and more over the rear rather than leveraging out there at 10+ inches.

I found 10k rated forged solid aluminum drawbar and as its not hollow, I cutted it shorter, re-drilled the hole and now mine is 6.5 inches...