Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghost-Flame
I love it, Guy comes on here and makes a pretty good write up. In the process he trashes the Drawtite 3 pt hitch as garbage. Basically questions the sense of anyone who would choose one as not knowing as much as his life as a failed design expert. tells us he is doing it the right way.... Then tells us he is going to tow a bicycle and a ski rack.  sounds like the tallest horse in the mini horse Rodeo. 
I have a drawtite 3 pt hitch. I saw the Curt when I bought mine and I wouldn't touch the curt, looked flimsy to me. Mine is rated to tow 6000 lbs out of the box. Yours is 5000 pounds. Granted you modified with bigger bolts. I've been towing heavy loads for the last 3 years with this hitch and truck, probably about 9000 miles of towing MC, ATVs, Gear. My drawtite 3 pt hitch/reciever looks like the day I bought it. I'm not saying the Curt is a bad receiver for what it is even with the bigger harder bolts. |
I'm sure the DrawTite itself is equally well-built. The issue is not the receiver itself, but the attachment points it utilizes. That chassis cross brace is not designed to carry a load. It's in fact so weak that the factory installed the removeable cross member there to beef it up. Which is also why DrawTite has the drop down bar to reach under and grab ahold of something stronger. The weak attachment location, combined with the required modifications you need to make to the vehicle in order to install it are negative points the other two receivers don't have. There really isn't any debating that it's the least desireable design of the three.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghost-Flame
Who died and left you the king of hitch knowledge. Oh I just noticed you have 2 posts. You may think you know everything about steel fabricated add ons but, you don't know a thing about easing into the community.
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It's a receiver.
But seriously, this isn't my first barbeque. I have made thousands of posts on dozens of boards over the past 10 years. Cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, and so on. The fact that I have less than a handful of posts on THIS board is quite irrelivant. I see no correlation between post count and knowledge, ability, or credibility. I understand that my username is new here though, and I understand that to many a 'new user' is viewed as a newb to anything automotive.
I'm sorry I didn't use enough lube when I "eased" into this community, and as a result your butthurt. But the reality is this post was soley put here to shine light on a product needing improvement, which other people may own or are interested in owning. BMW folks can be far more particular than owners of other brands, so I hope this information can be found useful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL
The difference isn't the center brace, as the factory hitch doesn't use one. The difference is the reinforcement of the pentagon-shaped mounting surfaces located behind the collapsible bumper support struts. You have identified the attachment weakness, and rectified that. However, you are still relying on the stability of the rear mounting surface not to flex. The OE hitch removes the collapsible struts and replaces them with solid struts that are very beefy at the pentagon-shaped mounting surface, and which are cross bolted to the reinforced rails in the unibody some distance forward, in multiple planes. No comparison in terms of strength. Is it required? Well, it is keeping with the design approach of the vehicle, so in that sense it is very appropriate. I like it because it is classic German engineering.
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Ah, noted. I don't know why I was thinking the factory receiver uses the center brace. Although the bottom bolts on those brackets are mounted in shear, the bars themselves do help distribute the rotational forces further into the chassis rails. I dig it!
And again, if it were MY car I would have bought the factory receiver just because I like to have all factory componets and wiring. The extra cost is nothing for that piece of mind, even if we never tow with it. But the reality is that even though I do most of the drivng, it's not mine. It was more than enough to suit our needs with the included hardware, and the price is a steal. I've installed three other hitches in my life, and this was by far the easiest. The other three all required laying on my back, drilling 9/16" holes in truck frame rails with a hand drill. Nothing like hot chips falling on your face!
I have full confidence in the strength of the Curt as I have it installed and still would not hesitate to pull the full 6000lb chassis rating. Although I wouldn't overdo any towing with an X5 regardless as it's much more costly to replace worn drivetrain componets than on my F350.