Ls 400 1998 Fitting Tow Bar

[JAT165]

I am looking for advice on the purchase and fitting of a tow bar to my lovely Lexus.

Anyone with any experience to share please?

[Colin M]

Watling Towbars do a towbar for the LS400 - see www.watling-towbars.co.uk

Click on Price Lists on the narrow blue horizontal band, scroll down to Towbars Pricelist - Jan 2013 and click on this. Lexus are on p22. They are not cheap to buy - £264.00!!

I have one fitted to my 1997 LS400. I did not fit it or have it fitted, as it was on the car when I bought it (and it was one of the reasons I bought the car).

Mine is a Mk 3 car, although they will fit the Mk 4. You will see from the Pricelist that the towbar goes up to Jul 98 i.e. the end of R reg cars, so if yours is a R reg car that will be fine.

EU Type Approval for Towbars came in on 1 August 1998 and, although the towbar will fit S reg cars onwards, it is not a Type Approved towbar. As I understand it, it is a legal requirement for vehicles registered after 1 August 1998 to have only a Type Approved towbar fitted and it will be an offence under the Construction & Use Regulations if a non-approved towbar is fitted. It might also affect your insurance.

Hope this helps.

Colin

[Malc]

remember someone saying before about fitting a gearbox / radiator ? cooler if you're towing !

Malc

[JAT165]

Thank you for the replies to my query.

In particular thank you to Colin M. Watling appear an excellent company, I would definitely recommend them. I phoned Wednesday afternoon and the towbar was delivered Thursday morning. It is hopefully being fitted next week.

June

[Colin M]

I found Watling very helpful too.

Before buying a car with one of their towbars fitted, I contacted them to ask for a fitting diagram showing where the mounting points were, as I was thinking of fitting a towbar to my lpg LS400. They emailed one by return and dealt quickly with a couple of follow up queries I had.

I did not go down this route in the end, as having another LS400 with a towbar already fitted seemed a better option. Why have only one LS400 if the opportunity is there to have two?!!