How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Detailed descriptions of how to do things to your Liberty.

How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Mr Cali » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:23 pm

Hi,

I realise that this is something that most people would not do as a mod, but since I have a need to tow a boat, I thought I would write up a "how to" to help out anyone else who would like to install one themselves. Sorry about the quality of the images they were taken from my Iphone.

First of all a MASSIVE thank you to John (Phatz), who kindly gave away his tow bar and also trusted a stranger to take his car apart to remove it. People like John are very rare to find these days.

When I removed the tow bar on John's car I noticed that there was a fair bit of rust on the bottom bracket holding the tow bar in the chassis rail. This is hidden by the rear muffler baffle so is impossible to even have a spot check.
I would however recommend anyone with a tow bar especially if they use it to tow a boat to salt water to have a check, as the rust was quite severe.

Here are a couple of pics of what I mean.
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I was going to get it sand blasted and powder coated but since I had some time off work I thought I would do it myself.
1. Hit all the rusted areas with a wire wheel
2. Treated all remaining rust with rust converter
3. Primered it in a rust proof paint
4. Finished it off with a charcoal hammered spray paint.

This is the result
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Ok so now lets start with how to install it.

The first step is to remove the rear lights. Sorry I didn't get pics of how to remove it but it's fairly straight forward and I will try and describe it the best I can.

Remove the rear plastic garnish by taking out the 3 plastic clips and then lift it straight up. It's also held in by a further 3 clips that are hidden, so when you lift it off you will hear the clips release.

Remove the clip top corner clip on the inner side of each light, this will then give you enough access to get your hands / tools behind the boot lining to undo the 4 x 8mm nut on each light. Unplug the wiring loom and simply pull the light straight out.

Note: Remove the clips carefully, as to not damage your trim or snap the clips. I have a tool that is designed for this purpose and is worthwhile if you work on cars as often as I do.
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At this stage I have also raised the car slightly to give me a bit more room to access the underside of the car. I have used 2 jacks for this, purely cause I have only raised it slightly, and the wheels are still firmly on the ground. You can use axle stands or ramps if you like for this.
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Now we need to remove the rear bar. There's quite a few pop out clips that holds the bar in place including 2 10mm bolts.

2 clips under where the lights were.
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4 clips under the rear edge of the bar.
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1 clip just behind the rear wheel on the underside.
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Inside the boot, in bottom corners, there is a plastic plug which hides one of the bolts for the bar. Remove this plug and undo the 10mm bolt on each side.
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The last 10mm bolt is hidden behind the top corner of the wheel arch. It is horizontally positioned.
Once you have this bolt undone, you simply have to give the rear bar a bit of a yank rearwards to free it from the clips at the bottom edge of the boot opening. Take care here, as the sides of the bar has a metal bracket and can easily scratch your rear quarter panel if not careful.
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It should look like this without the rear bar.
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You then need to remove the re-enforcement bar by the 3 12mm nuts on each side.
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And then 3 more 12mm nuts to remove the re-enforcement bar bracket
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Undo these 2 x 14mm bolts to release the rear mufflers
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and slide the mufflers of their 2 rubber mounts. (this is a good opportunity to give the tips a good polish :wink: )
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You now need to undo the 4 x 10mm bolts that hold the heat shield / baffle
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Repeat the removal of the muffler and the heat shield on both sides.
Once you have all of this off, you can now start on installing the tow bar.
If yours is brand new, it will be in 3 main pieces + 2 brackets. You would need to slide each side pieces into the chassis rail, and then bolt the rear horizontal piece with the hitch in.

Since mine is already assembled I simply slid the whole tow bar into the chassis rail, then bolted the it in. Do the ones on the rear first, this should allow the holes for the bolts to align with the chassis rail.
Don't forget that the bracket for your rear bar needs to be behind the tow bar, I almost did !!
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Now we need to install the bracket under the chassis rail. From memory these are 3 x 16mm bolts, the longest bolt is the rearmost one which screws in on a diagnal.
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Unfortunately the heat shield does not go back in without needing some modification. As you can see from the pics below there are 2 dimples marking where you should drill the holes to accomodate for tow bar bolts. You will need to drill 2 holes on each baffle big enough to clear the 16mm bolts, before reinstalling the shield.
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We now come to the wiring harness. First you will need to slice the rear most rubber floor plug which is under your spar wheel. I used a stanley knife to cut a + into it as the plug is quite large. Run the loom through it and replace the plug.
Note: the loom should have no slack under your car.
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Fortunately this is a very straight forward process. The loom simply plugs into the spare plug on the driver's side rear light loom.
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You then need to fasten the hitch plug. I used some 8mm bolts that I had spare. I also cable tied the loom underneath the car just in case.
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Now comes the nerve racking part. Cutting the rear bar. I'm not sure if there is a template that you get with the kit, but luckily I took a template of Phatz rear bar when I removed it. The most important thing here to to make sure it is dead center. I used the the semi circle cut out at the bottom of the bar to help me center it. I used a Dremel with a cutting disc to do this.
My advice is "measure twice, cut once"
Once you have cut it, put the rubber trim edges on. You also need to cut out a hole so that the bar can clear the plug. I didn't take any pics of this, but you can line up the bar and see where it needs cutting.
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Before we can put the bar back on, we need to bolt up the re-enforcement
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Now it's just a matter to reversing the process of removing the bar and installing the rear lights.
2 people would be handy to help put the bar on as it can be tricky to try and clear the hitch and line everything up.

This is the finished product, hope you found this guide useful.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Kevlar GT » Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Nice DIY. Fortunately for me I got a great price on supply and install and the guy that did it had done about half a dozen gen4's in the month leading up to mine so was well practised.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Mr Cali » Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:29 pm

This is quite a simple job, so if anyone wants to save a bit of money it should take about 2-3hrs to do.
Subaru wanted $1k for supply and fit, other places wanted $750 for supply and fit of the same bar (Hayman Reese) with the Subaru branding, got to love their mark up prices.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby phatz » Fri Jul 16, 2010 9:04 am

Thanks for the shout out Tai..

and thanks for polishing my tips :lol:

that doesnt sound right does it?
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby GTB-R » Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:32 pm

Very interesting post. I'm not getting one part of this. You say you sliced into the wiring under the spare wheel? You also go on to say that you only needed to plug your wiring loom into the empty power socket at the rear light assembly. I think I've misunderstood.

also if I'm to attempt this, what is the cost of the bar & wiring loom needed & where would I get it from?
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Mr Cali » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:25 pm

The wiring is just plug and play, no splicing etc needed. I sliced the rubber grommet in the floor under the spare wheel to run the wires through.

You can get the tow bar from Subaru but expect to pay $800 just for the bar $1k with instalation. Or you can go to any good towbar place and order one from Hayman Reese which will be about $600 - $700 installed, not sure how much just for the kit though.

Someone also had one for sale not long ago, have a look in the forsale section.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby GTB-R » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:46 pm

I'll do that thanks.

I mostly want one to connect my T piece to, it allows me to carry my bikes around. I'd also help a friend move on occasion with a non braking trailer. Thought perhaps I'd buy their cheapest model as I'm concerned with the 40mm & 50mm box design, that someone could walk up to the car & just unclip it.

Any thoughts?7
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Mr Cali » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:21 pm

No probs with security, you can get one of these locks.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby GTB-R » Mon Sep 13, 2010 4:50 pm

So I could use this & leave the ball on with my bike T piece all the time?
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Mr Cali » Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:31 pm

you sure can, the rubber cap on the end covers a lock. It's a Hayman Reese item that you can get from Repco or Autobarn, retails for about $20
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby GTB-R » Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:34 pm

Great, still haven't found any pricing on purchasing the hardware without the installation cost.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby GTB-R » Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:33 am

well I feel buoyed y your article here, I've printed out your entire article & will take the lights & rear bumper off as a dry run this weekend. once I've sourced the parts I don't see any real issues. I'd imagine the tricky part is cutting out the hole in the bumper, I'd imagine if that's screwed up it can look like a bad job.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby tan18d » Sun May 15, 2011 10:10 pm

I installed my towbar today with help from this post. Thanks for it.

My only issues were that due to buying the towbar second hand, the buy I bought it from had to make the 2 supporting brackets that go under the heat shelds. This cause me an issue because there were only 2 holes and not 4 so I had to use the bolts for the bracket to also support the heat shield.

2nd is that the bracket that holds the wiring harness is directly under the towbar and not offset. So a little extra cutting had to be done to the bar to get it all to fit.

Overall it took me about 5 easy hours to do. A little more than expected.
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby Rome_BRZ » Fri May 20, 2011 4:22 pm

Great post!

I've been considering putting a towbar on my car to tow my dj gear but don't want to cut my bumper :(
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Re: How to install a tow bar - Gen 4 (lots of pics)

Postby GTB-R » Fri May 20, 2011 4:38 pm

I need a towbar also, don't have an issue with cutting into the bumper but are too busy. IF anyone has one they're willing to put on my car I'd be happy to pay them.
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