Technical Bike Rack Fog Light Issue

[JohnnyJJ]

Hoping someone can help. I have a 2023 Ducato 130 bhp based Hymer camper van with a factory fitted Brink towbar. When I fit the bike rack to the towbar and plug in either the 7 or 13 pin connection. I get a dashboard warning when I turn on the fog lights to say I have a fog light problem. Neither the fog lights on the rack or the van come on. Once I disconnect the towing socket and turn the van off and restart all is well again

I have had the problem with two bike racks. One with fog light fitted and one without. I have used a tester on all connections and everything is fine.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[NeilDD]

Hi JohnnyJJ
This should be standard, that when you plug in a tow cable it inhibits the vehicle fog lights (Internal tow interface box senses the trailer cable) and uses the trailer foglights
The problem might be with the bike rack itself not having compatible foglights.
What model of bike rack are you using?
Does it have LED or traditional incandescent bulbs?

 

[JohnnyJJ]

Hi JohnnyJJ
This should be standard, that when you plug in a tow cable it inhibits the vehicle fog lights (Internal tow interface box senses the trailer cable) and uses the trailer foglights
The problem might be with the bike rack itself not having compatible foglights.
What model of bike rack are you using?
Does it have LED or traditional incandescent bulbs?

Thanks Neil

The Bike Rack is a Dutch model...Enduro SD260. The fog light in the rack is an incandescent 21w bulb.

 

[the green vanper]

The problem might be with the bike rack itself not having compatible foglights.

Yes, I'd check if the foglights in the rack work as they should. If not, I'd compare the wiring (standard trailer plus the 7/13 converter with the rack installation).

 

[JohnnyJJ]

Thank you

Yes, I'd check if the foglights in the rack work as they should. If not, I'd compare the wiring (standard trailer plus the 7/13 converter with the rack installation.

Thank you. I’ll do that to make sure. I can try the rack on my car which also 13 pin and see if it works on there v

 

[PL 8]

I have a 2021 Fiat Ducato (Carado CV540 camper) wich had similar problems.
I did all the work with towbar myself. The mechanical part was very easy. The electrical loom was alright to fit even if instead of running the loom from back to front under the van I ran it inside behind the interior. It took some time. But everything worked.
After that I fitted some extra LED reverse lights. I found a wire in the loom that had +12V when reverse gear was applied. And the extra reverse lights worked, together with the originials.
After a while I found out that I got the warning light for fog lights when using the fog lights and after that choosed reverse gear. The fog lights wouldn´t work until I turned the engine off.
I moved the piggy back I had used closer to the original reverse light. And everything worked. The first piggy back wire I used was probably not the correct one but perhaps some "signal" wire to a relay or...
My point is that maybe something similar in the tow bar loom is not connected correctly. But hard to know what.

 

[JohnnyJJ]

I have a 2021 Fiat Ducato (Carado CV540 camper) wich had similar problems.
I did all the work with towbar myself. The mechanical part was very easy. The electrical loom was alright to fit even if instead of running the loom from back to front under the van I ran it inside behind the interior. It took some time. But everything worked.
After that I fitted some extra LED reverse lights. I found a wire in the loom that had +12V when reverse gear was applied. And the extra reverse lights worked, together with the originials.
After a while I found out that I got the warning light for fog lights when using the fog lights and after that choosed reverse gear. The fog lights wouldn´t work until I turned the engine off.
I moved the piggy back I had used closer to the original reverse light. And everything worked. The first piggy back wire I used was probably not the correct one but perhaps some "signal" wire to a relay or...
My point is that maybe something similar in the tow bar loom is not connected correctly. But hard to know what.

Many thanks PL8. I’ll be taking another look this weekend and see where I get to. Never had this problem with my VW California with the same bike rack which has me pointing a finger at Hymer. Given it’s a factory fit towbar (Bink) I think there might be something adrift there.

 

[The Panda Nut]

The mechanism to cut the vehicle fog lights is in the socket and is crude. It may be a faulty socket or badly curved contacts in the socket. Its is also easy to get a connection wrong. Foglight is one where you have to cut the supply wire and allow the contact in the socket to control switching so it is off when plugged in. Do you have a good clear wiring diagram? It sounds like you have wired the rfl without the required interuption at for the socket cot off. Or if the cut wires are connected the wrong terminals in the socket for the 2 rfl pins you get this reversed behaviour. I may have uploaded Panda tow bar wiring diagrams in the downloads Panda 2012 section which will clarify how rfl should be wired. I have a Uk made socket wiring tester I carry when towing so in the event somthing stops working I can check without dismantling. I will try and find details. Its worth its weight in gold.

 

[JohnnyJJ]

The mechanism to cut the vehicle fog lights is in the socket and is crude. It may be a faulty socket or badly curved contacts in the socket. Its is also easy to get a connection wrong. Foglight is one where you have to cut the supply wire and allow the contact in the socket to control switching so it is off when plugged in. Do you have a good clear wiring diagram? It sounds like you have wired the rfl without the required interuption at for the socket cot off. Or if the cut wires are connected the wrong terminals in the socket for the 2 rfl pins you get this reversed behaviour. I may have uploaded Panda tow bar wiring diagrams in the downloads Panda 2012 section which will clarify how rfl should be wired. I have a Uk made socket wiring tester I carry when towing so in the event somthing stops working I can check without dismantling. I will try and find details. Its worth its weight in gold.

Thank you. I didn’t wire the socket myself. It was carried out by Hymer I believe. It’s now immaterial as I had another go today and changed the bulb for the rack fog light and it looks like it’s sorted it. The reason I changed the bulb as the original one was working intermittently when I tested it on a 12 volt battery. I’ll take it out on a test l drive tomorrow and see if it still behaves.

Thank you to everyone who had helped me.