We chose our XF with care, it needed to meet prestige car/tow car as our main criteria. We were happy, our dealer had the model we wanted as a stock purchase for the march 16 release, the only thing missing, the tow bar which they proceeded to fit for us. We love the car. All hunky-dory you might think, - no!
Hitched it up to our beloved caravan, nothing! Caravan electrics out-no, all working fine there, still had our old car at the time to check. Checked car on different types of caravans at our storage facility, varying age, NOTHING!
Back to the dealer, all working fine on their VOSA machine, go back and check again, NOTHING! Jaguar assist came out, car not calibrated properly go back to dealer. Again nothing from that visit other than the fact we have the wrong type of caravan we need a new one, great advice. Fortunately we have chosen a new caravan to go with our new car so off we tootle to the dealership, 2 hour journey, each way, didn't plan for that, guess what, NOTHING! Back again, dealership, definitely working our end, we'll contact Jaguar technical, did the caravan have all LED'S? Back to the dealership as ours doesn't, they checked with the manufacturers who have advised we can change ours, but check one that does have ALL LED's first. nope NOTHING!
We have now discovered the only thing our towbar electrics will support is a basic LED trailer board, so we CAN put a couple of bikes on the tow car and sling the trailer board on them, meanwhile our brand new £20K caravan will have to sit in the dealership!
Anyone one in the same position OR not checked theirs yet, we'd advise you to do so! Let us know results.
Slightly desperate, very frustrated jaguar driver!

 

I guess you're trying to say that the exterior lighting on your trailer/caravan is not working properly, or not at all. I kinda lost the plot line after that. No idea what a VOSA machine is.

Your electrical plugs are identical to our 7 pin type. It's simple enough to verify the presence of power at each of the pins with a VOM or 12v test lamp. Has someone done this?

 

I can't really follow him either, but it sounds like the fault is in the towbar rather than in the car. Perhaps the dealer mounted an incompatible one. The thought of using one of these sophisticated automobiles to tow a trailer is admittedly very foreign to me.

 

Isn't the new XF aluminum I didn't think aluminum was suitable for towing to begin with? I'm curious to know what kind of bar and how it was attached. From what I'm understanding is your issue is with the electronics not supporting the extra power of the lights? Is that right or are you talking electric brakes. Either way you need a system that is independent from the wiring aside from using the cars turns, running and brake likes as "triggers" to send power (pretty much similar to how a relay works).

 

Outside of our murican bubble lots of people tow caravans with their car. If you ever go to Australia you will probably be disgusted.

 

OMG...in Ireland they tow caravans with a Yaris! We thought that was really strange until we saw a stock trailer behind a Renault. No end to inventiveness and need. of course our host with his Mercedes did have a spare truck....

 

Hi,
I have just had the same concern, I had my dealer fit the dedicated jaguar towbar only to find it did not work with my caravan however my dealer seems to be well clued up as the service manager also tows a caravan. The problem is the dealers use a typical lighting board to check all lights work however these lighting boards only have two brake lights so all looks fine when they plug your cars electrical connection socket to it. BUT most caravans have an additional high level 3rd brake light so the towing module they fit to the car sees this and shuts down as it looks like an unexpected higher voltage. That said all my dealer had to do was run an additional earth and hey all works fine now. ps my caravan is a 2013 model and does not have led rear lights. Hope this helps

 

I towed a caravan with my Vauxhall while living in Ireland for 4 years. BMW were horrified here in Canada when I asked if I could install a towbar and hitch to my 5 series. NO way!!! Since the Jaguar is a British car the wiring from the Caravan SHOULD BE compatible with the Jaguar wiring ie 7 pin. I shudder to contemplate doing it with my new Jag. I wouldn't recommend it anyway.
Al