BOE TOWING BARS- VERY limited Supply

[fsparv]

Originally Posted by jim-clayton

No telling with that cobra alarm. That Cobra alarm is the absolute biggest piece of junk, not that anyone asked.
I couldn't wait to get rid of mine. You can buy a $99.00 alarm that functions better. That Cobra is JUNK! Who ever heard of an alarm that locks you out of your car when your key fob battery goes dead? JUNK! Not to mention 10 other bad features. Total garbage.

Anyway, good job installing the hitch. Shawn tow's 250 miles round trip at 80MPH. It works great. unlike the Cobra junk.

For hooking up the lights on the trailer I built my own wiring system, which should at least reduce the current drawn to the trailer through the car's lighting system and (maybe) avoid messing with the alarm electronics. The only thing I draw off the car power is the running lights and a little current for switching the brake/tail light. The brake/tail lights probably draw the most current, but one could easily also add one more relay to my system to not draw power for the running lights directly from the car either, but to date I've had no alarm weirdness with the stock '05 alarm.

First I went to Autozone where I bought a little thing for converting separate brake/turn sig lights (on the elise) to unified brake/tail lights (on the trailer). I spent 2+ hours installing it, and trouble shooting it and eventually tried hooking leads directly to the battery... in an attempt to get something to light... As far as I can tell they sold me a little plastic brick with wires stuffed in the end. I've got zero evidence that any of the wires actually connect inside the molded plastic brick. Total Junk... Perhaps I'm just unlucky, but being rather annoyed with the whole thing, I decided to do it myself (eliminating the question of whether or not shrodinger's cat caught the mice before they ate all the wires inside the little black plastic box or not)

What I implemented was something that one of my mechanics suggested. He's a short wave radio and electronics geek on the side, and had the key idea about grounding through the opposite light bulb... It was his idea, so if anything goes wrong I blame him Try this at your own risk of course

Basically it works like this:

1. I took a couple of relays from radio shack (I used the 30A automotive ones... total overkill but they had a depleted selection of relays),
2. Spliced the one end of each the relay coils to the brake light wire on the elise
3. Spliced the other end of each coil to one of the turn signals wires on the elise
4. I wired the normally open side of the switch portion of the relay from the batery (with an inline fuse!) to the turn signal on the trailer
5. All of the above was done putting the relays in a project box, and soldering the wires to the relays so that everything was protected from the soft top flopping around in my trunk.
6. The running lights I just wired normally tapping off of the elise's running lights.

This works because when neither tail light nor brake are lit no current flows through the coil and the relay remains open because there is no voltage. When both tail light and turn signal are lit the relay also remains open because both ends of the coil are +12 volts and no current flows. If the brake is on one side of the coil is +12 volts and the other side is attached to the light bulb of the turn signal, which is attached to ground, so a small current flows through the coil, through the bulb and out to ground (the coil has significant resistance and won't let enough current through to light the turn signal). The same thing happens if the turn signal comes on when the brake is off only in reverse.

If you are braking and preparing to turn, then when your turn signal blinks on and off and your brake lights remain on. This means that the trailer lights are on when your turn signal is not blinking on and off when it is... So the trailer blinks in opposite phase with the brake light if you are braking and turning which looks even cooler anyway

Once I built it (about 2 hrs including trip to radio shack) I installed it in about 20 min (if you don't count time fiddling with one of the splice connectors which is unrelated).

Oh and I posted a pic of my car towing the trailer here... and yes before you ask, I did have a strap over the tires... I just forgot to take the picture before I took it off

[mike325ci]

i am a little late to this post, having followed another thread about a tow bar... >< so the question is: are there any more left? i see the product is still on the BOE website, so i wanted to make sure before i clicked on the site to buy it. i don't care for the color, as long as i can get one.

let me know; thanks~!

[turbophil]

We did burn through the initial batch quickly. Now we're just making them as they're ordered, which delays shipping by about a week... So yes, still available, you just have to wait 7-10 days to ship. We made three of them over the weekend to fullfill 2 orders, and they'll be back from p-coat on Friday most likely... First come first serve for that third unit we made for speedy delivery

Happy towing,

Phil

[mike325ci]

oh, there is hope!!!! i will place that order now, thanks phil~~!!!

(edit: order placed from account). i specified black, but if that 3rd one you have is silver, then send me that; it's fine.

[turbophil]

Got it! Should be able to ship Friday, Monday at the latest...

[mike325ci]

yes, i received it over this past weekend. but i didn't have a chance to work on it. i will post up results and thoughts once i do that. thanks, phil!!!!

[Solo2Elise]

Hi Phil,

I'd like to get a bar but my car has a ReVerie 5 element diffuser, longer and lower than stock diffuser. Do you think it will fit?

Hung

[Dragon]

I finally got my trailer together and used the tow bar this weekend.... Absolutely friggen awesome... Thanks for putting these together for us.







Trailer isn't done yet btw...

[jim-clayton]

Nice looking set up. What's the tongue weight with the tires up front?

You must have some heavy stuff in the box. How far is the tow?

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by jim-clayton

Nice looking set up. What's the tongue weight with the tires up front?

You must have some heavy stuff in the box. How far is the tow?

I would guess maybe 40-50 lbs on the tongue weight... Box has a lot of tools, aluminum race jack and small air compressor in it. I would guess the total weight on the trailer to be around 250-300 lbs or so. I'm going to make a mount for a scuba tank to fit some where on the trailer and then use a reg to drop the pressure down to 120 so I can run some air tools. Also have a few more things I want to do to it as well.. The tow is about 70 miles or so and the last 2 miles are up a mountain with lots of curves and rough roads, but I still took it pretty quick with out any issues.

[Solo2Elise]

I got my bar installed and found 2 used trailers but both are 12" wheels. As our cars are pretty low, will it be any height mis-match issue to tow a 12" wheel trailer?

[turbophil]

Shouldn't be a problem with 12" wheels. Only a little taller and the bar and attachment points are plenty strong to handle just about anything you'll load on these little trailers...

Best,

Phil

[Solo2Elise]

Thanks for the answer, Phil.
BTW, the bar looks amazing. It does not look odd on this car. With ReVerie 3 element + Sector111 eliminator kit, my friend commented it looks like a Transformer.

[turbophil]

Ha, thanks. Ya I think the bars look pretty good as well... For such a simple item, they are sure handy!

Glad you like it.

Best,

Phil

[jim-clayton]

Originally Posted by Solo2Elise

Thanks for the answer, Phil.
BTW, the bar looks amazing. It does not look odd on this car. With ReVerie 3 element + Sector111 eliminator kit, my friend commented it looks like a Transformer.

Picture, please .

[Solo2Elise]

[1986esprit]

Originally Posted by Dragon

I finally got my trailer together and used the tow bar this weekend.... Absolutely friggen awesome... Thanks for putting these together for us.







Trailer isn't done yet btw...

thast pretty funny and cool at the same time. its fuel efficient too

[jim-clayton]

Thanks for the pictures!

Originally Posted by Solo2Elise

[jacks1071]

Originally Posted by turbophil

Ha, thanks. Ya I think the bars look pretty good as well... For such a simple item, they are sure handy!

Glad you like it.

Best,

Phil

Phil could we run one of those tow ball mounted bike racks to sit a couple of push bikes on it? The weight of 2x bikes plus the rack would be less than 30kg.

[turbophil]

I haven't seen a ball mounted rack before, just the receiver mounted ones. There are receivers that will bolt to the hitch ball hole, and I presume that's what you're referring too???

Nevertheless, that won't be a problem. Have a couple guys that use the hitch to cart bikes around that way...

I *think* we've got one tow bar left in stock. Otherwise, it will probably be feb or march before we make anymore...

Cheers,

Phil