When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
There you go! Thanks for that, @Jayhawk94 , I'd have spent long hours finding it! I do have the Redarc, and it works quite well. I ended up installing mine just above the instrument cluster on the right side for easy access (and it really saved my butt having it there!) . It was quite difficult to get it mounted in there, but worth the effort. The trickiest part was locating the hole, and I ended up getting it a little too close to the plastic buttressing around the speedometer/fuel gauge housing. However, once I drilled the hole, I wasn't going to locate another one and leave an ugly scar there, so my son removed the Redarc remote from its plastic housing so it would fit in the space available. I then took a rubber band, wrapped it around the dial stem so it held tight and had a big loop to grab, ran a "fishing" wire down through the hole into the foot well, then just hooked the rubber band and carefully fished it up through the hole.
I know there are others who located it down low on the left side in the kick panel, but I don't think that's a practical spot if you actually need to do any manual operation of the trailer brakes.
Photo from fall 2022; sorry for the nasty dirtiness! We were on the tail end of a long trip.
I'll prolly go this locations for 2 reasons:
1. I do not have dual power ports in my shift console; only one on the right.
2. Mine is an aluminum clad trim, and it looks like crap right where the port would be, as it's almost dented looking or something right there.
Side note, I towed a Mini Cooper with my tow dolly a couple weeks ago.. The lights were borked on the tow-dollies, so the Q was mad, screamed about lights out, and disabled my cruise. lol
Is this common? Or something I need to look into? I've not pulled another trailer since, but I don't want to find out when it's time to tow again.
As to the LED trailer lights adapter use; be sure to plug the trailer's harness into the adapter first, then plug the adapter into the car.
It's worth reiterating, since not often mentioned, that when you plug in trailer lighting to the Q7 the car either disables and/or modifies functionality of multiple accessory & safety features. This includes the blind-spot monitoring and park-assist sensors, cruise control, braking, air suspension, etc.
NOTE: Be informed before you attempt to tow a trailer, so you know what features are automatically changed by plugging in trailer lighting, or having a rear cargo tray attached or an unlit trailer hooked up, which impedes distance sensors, etc. The Q7, especially the TDI version, is extremely capable as a tow vehicle....effortless comes to mind, but there is a wee bit of a learning curve related to car's systems impacted by towing. If you just hook up and go, then you will discover these changes the hard way and think something is wrong with the car.
As to the LED trailer lights adapter use; be sure to plug the trailer's harness into the adapter first, then plug the adapter into the car.
It's worth reiterating, since not often mentioned, that when you plug in trailer lighting to the Q7 the car either disables and/or modifies functionality of multiple accessory & safety features. This includes the blind-spot monitoring and park-assist sensors, cruise control, braking, air suspension, etc.
NOTE: Be informed before you attempt to tow a trailer, so you know what features are automatically changed by plugging in trailer lighting, or having a rear cargo tray attached or an unlit trailer hooked up, which impedes distance sensors, etc. The Q7, especially the TDI version, is extremely capable as a tow vehicle....effortless comes to mind, but there is a wee bit of a learning curve related to car's systems impacted by towing. If you just hook up and go, then you will discover these changes the hard way and think something is wrong with the car.
where’s this info available? I’m curious as to what is disabled when connected to a trailer. 1500mi trips with a trailer and no cruise would suck 😂
Click on the appropriate link for the owner's manual
Once the manual is done uploading, then use the search box in the upper right corner of your screen and type in "towing" without the parenthesis.
That will take you to the section of the owner's manual, where you can find the tow specs I have listed and lots of other helpful related information.
Honestly, I found the owner's manual to be pretty interesting on this car, and even discovered some hidden 'extra' features & settings/capability I didn't know it had.
Last edited by '10Q7TDI_Prestige'; 02-12-2023 at 12:55 PM.
Click on the appropriate link for the owner's manual
Once the manual is done uploading, then use the search box in the upper right corner of your screen and type in "towing" without the parenthesis.
That will take you to the section of the owner's manual, where you can find the tow specs I have listed and lots of other helpful related information.
Honestly, I found the owner's manual to be pretty interesting on this car, and even discovered some hidden 'extra' features & settings/capability I didn't know it had.
This includes the blind-spot monitoring and park-assist sensors, cruise control, braking, air suspension, etc.
I saw about blind spot monitoring and rear park sensors in the owners manual, but nothing about cruise.
If you have the radar cruise option, or AAC, then attaching a trailer harness adjusts your following distance interval to allow you more time to react/avoid/stop, etc. There's all kinds of resources out there providing practical feedback on towing with the Q7.
In my own experience, I was mainly miffed by the loss of blind-spot monitoring, as I find that an extremely useful feature, but I get it; it's all sensor based stuff primarily, but depending on equipment there are other things, like the radar cruise mods, and the air suspension will lock into the level/mode you are in when trailer harness is connected, etc. The more you know, the safer you go.
02-08-2023, 03:32 PM
