Gen 4 tow bar

l want to fit a detachable tow bar to our 2020 Jimny.

Am l best off fitting the Suzuki one? (at nearly £400) And l know l will need the electrical socket but is the wiring harness fitted in the vehicle or does it need a complete fitting kit.

ls this something l could fit myself? l've done it on the Defender, there was an electrical plug behind the chassis at the rear for the tow bar harness to plug into. 

I think this chap who did a video on gen 4 towbar fitting might have mentioned he was a member on here.

Hi
Fitting a tow bar on any vehicle is not a challenging Job, they simply bolt into place, a bit like a large meccano kit. The worse bit is the electrics which require you to splice into the correct cables, or if you are lucky, simply plug into a ready made socket.
You need to get the rear wheels on ramps just for clearance, but after this it's basic tools.
Could you do it yourself?
Yes I am sure you could, not much difference to the Defender. I did remove the rear bumper on my G3 when I fitted ours, simply to let me adjust the exhaust silencer which sat a little too close for my liking to the new steelwork.
It's down to if you feel like spending a few hours under or around the rear of the vehicle and have the basic tools (and inclination) to do it.
I would expect the OEM Suzuki unit to fit perfectly and the electrics to be plug in at that sort of money.
Nothing wrong with reputable third party tow bars, and you can usually get a fully fitted price for these if you don't fancy it yourself.

I personally have never fitted the manufacturers towbar offering, simply too much for my shallow pockets. I don't know what you can get for the G4, Suzuki's may be your only options. But even if it was I would still fit it myself as I trust very few to work on my vehicles. 
 

As part of the deal, I had a genuine Suzuki tow bracket kit fitted to my Gen.4 prior to purchase, so I have listed below a few points of interest.

1) The electrics are 13 cable so a power point from the fuse box located in the passenger footwell is required. If you are towing a trailer or caravan or just want to mount a bike rack you will need to fit 13 cable plugs.
2) All legal tow bracket kits will have detachable tow balls because the standard 2 bolt design would partially block the number plate and that is illegal.
3) The swan neck appears to be excessively long but it is so to extend the ball past the spare wheel.

I would assume that Scimike comment re: plug in electrics is correct but I failed to ask for the fitting leaflet, although I noticed that the power supply plug. when fitted did not allow the fuse box cover to be fitted!

Roger

From my experience I  would advise you use the Suzuki towbar and the Suzuki harness. I took my GEN4 to a towbar specialist, however they hadn't fitted one before so they used their usual supplier which was Brink, he advised me to use the correct harness because the car was new and a generic one could invalidate  warranty.
Anyhows as it turned out the after market towbar was too short and I could not fit my ALKO  hitch without taking my spare wheel off as the ball was under the tyre, the Suzuki one is specifically made to clear the spare tyre. They had to order me a Suzuki one and change it out as  the Brink "wasn't fit for purpose".
you can see the difference with the two pictures, below is the Brink and below that is the Suzuki.

 

 



 

Thank you for the replies and advice.

OE Suzuki tow bar and electrics it is then! Better start saving up.

We had the genuine towbar fitted when we collected our Jimny when it was new. I am at an advantage here because my Mrs works at the dealership. At the same time we were collecting our car a chap who lives in the next village to us was collecting his. He had gone for the non gen towbar which they had fitted for him. She told me that the day after he was back because the airbag warning light had come on. It turned out that the non gen towbar garage had caught a wire on the seat belt as they were fitting it. Not strictly warranty as it was the tow bar man who caused it and the dealership ended up repairing it.

Bizarrely my Suzuki dealer workshop doesn't install detachable towbars, they send you to the local towbar center who put the wrong one on for me..

Funny you should say that, but when I asked about having my Jimny supplied with a Suzuki towbar the sales rep said he would only be able to send the car to the local towbar fitters.

In the end I used a national supplier who send a local mobile fitter.

Why would the dealership turn down work like that? I can only think their 'fitters' aren't up to much.