Thinking of putting a tow bar on the old Magna. Does anyone know what's involved in putting a tow bar on a TJ ?
Is this something that just bolts on or does it require a Pro to fit.

It just bolts on.

You need to unbolt a few things underneath such as the muffler and heatshield and then 'squeeze' it in behind the bumper. The bolts that hold it in can be a bit of a pain in the **** to do up too.

I did mine myself, but it was a bit of a pain in the **** to get it up past the bumper. Resulted in a few scratches being inflicted, but hopefully they are not noticable.

Hi,

Before you go out and buy a tow bar. I just replaced mine on my TH. I had a Boronia tow bar and replaced it with a genuine Mitsubishi towbar. Reason: the Boronia had a ball weight capacity of 90kg, and I needed 150kg capacity, so easiest option for me was the Mitsubishi genuine.

The genuine Mitsu bars need to have the bar cover removed for a proper fit as they use bolts on wires into the chassis rails to locate the bar, and also use the bar reinforcement bolts as well. It's also just a whole lot neater and easier to run the wiring when the bar cover is off too.
Cosmopolitan towbars make a 1000kg bar that will bolt up to the existing bar reinforcement bolts. However, they are a firm 1000kg rating, do not exceed or things will bend. Even the lightest 1200kg Mitsu bars have the bolts in the chassis rails and one bolt into the spare wheel well, that says something I think. The cheap bars that bolt up under the car place four small bolts in tension under load, not ideal, but satisfactory for a box trailer.
Taking the bar cover off is time consuming, but easy. A few fasteners in each rear wheel well, a couple of bolts behind the boot trim along the sides of the bars, a few more bolts along the top of the rear bar, in the box section at the boot opening, couple of plastic clips under the rear of the bar, and the four bar reinforcement bolts in the rear of the chassis rail.
Pull bar cover and bar reinforcement off as a whole.

Regards, Andrew.

The genuine Mitsu bars need to have the bar cover removed for a proper fit as they use bolts on wires into the chassis rails to locate the bar, and also use the bar reinforcement bolts as well. It's also just a whole lot neater and easier to run the wiring when the bar cover is off too.

Mine was a genuine one. Albiet the stealth kit, andI didn't need to remove the cover for the install (and the instructions didn't say to either).. However, as you said, I'm sure I'd have found the bolts on wires easier to put in had I removed the bar than trying to do it from underneath the car lying flat on my back on the ground..

Mine was a genuine one. Albiet the stealth kit, andI didn't need to remove the cover for the install (and the instructions didn't say to either).. However, as you said, I'm sure I'd have found the bolts on wires easier to put in had I removed the bar than trying to do it from underneath the car lying flat on my back on the ground..

Yes, I've done enough Magna bars to know that squeezing them in damages the lower bumper support brackets, they tear when you bend them to fit a bar behind the bar cover and will eventually fail. The brackets don't do much, but I try not to damage people's cars when fitting towbars.
I do have the luxury of working on a hoist when doing towbars, but I would take the cover off if I was doing the job on ramps at home too.
The instructions are for dealers, they hate spending more time than is absolutely necessary doing a job, as often the accessory is thrown in for free as a deal sweetener, so saving some time jamming a towbar in works for them!

Regards, Andrew.

Thanks for the advice guys, the bar is now on the car. Didn't prove too much of a drama. Once I uncoupled the rubber mounts on the exhaust it dropped down the inch lower that I needed to get the socket onto the mounting bolts above it for the towbar. Didn't even need to take the heat shield off. I must admit I did take the simple way out and bent the 2 thin brackets down to get the bar up.
Biggest problem is the wiring. Went through the Magna wiring diagrams to make sure which wire is which, but turns out whoever wired the trailer didn't do it right and I managed to blow the brake light bulbs on the car. Took the trailer bulbs out, got the multimeter onto it and found there is a short in the brake circuit, so decided best to completely rewire the trailer and do it right.