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The Westfalia towbar slides into the frame rails while you hold a bolt and try to find the corresponding hole in the towbar blind. It took us a few minutes to get it all lined up right.
There it is.. the socket wrench is hanging off one of the two bolts used per side to hold our towbar in place.
All bolted in! 
Here's the high-density foam bumper cover we want to try to reuse with our towbar to help the rear bumper fascia retain its shape and maybe provide a little extra cushion if we get rear-ended.
We only needed to cut out a small section of the bottom of the bumper foam for the receiver to fit.
It was easier to glue the bumper foam to the back side of the rear fascia than to try and get it to stick on the towbar in the right place.
Our test fitment looks good with the main part of the rear bumper fascia reinstalled! We will still have to cut a hole in the lower part of the 2-piece fascia for the swan-neck hitch to pass through.
7 comments
Don’t forget about tongue weight ! That Refrigerator is way forward of the trailer axle and may have overloaded your Golf’s safe tongue weight rating. Usually you want about 10% of the trailer’s weight on the hitch up to the maximum rating.
Hi, you mention about getting a replacement European lower bumper panel with the tow bar hatch.
I’m in England, and at least around here I’m pretty sure VW will only sell you that panel as part of the whole tow bar retrofit kit they sell. Factory fitted tow bars on mk6 Golfs are also quite rare here, so it’s not even a easy job finding one second hand. I’ve been looking for a couple of months now and still haven’t found one. 🙁
Could you go into some detail about what you did for your trailer hitch wiring?
i got something like this: https://www.curtmfg.com/part/59236
splices into the taillight wiring–easy peasy.
Hello there
I’m thankfully that I found this information. I really enjoyed your article. I have been seriously considering to switch to a TDI with best mpg from a pickup with terrible mileage for my daily/work commute. I wonder what tranny do you have?? I really wanted to buy a tdi with manual but very HARD to find one here in AZ. Will Auto tranny be safe for towing 1500lbs? (I don’t towing that much like what it said in your article)
I have a 2015 tdi golf I am wanting to make a trip to Alaska with a small tent trailer. I find this article very helpful. Any information on fuel mileage?
what is the tongue weight of a 2004 Golf 2.0 manual tran? I would like to put a hitch and mount a 150lb trials motorcycle.