Another towing ?

[tetice]

A couple of questions on towing with a 4.4 vs 3.0 manual.

I really like straight drive vehicles and wish my X5 were a straight drive. I currently have an '02 4.4 and tow a race car on an open trailer approaching 5000 lbs. It does great but I'd like to move to a newer 3.0l with a 6 speed manual. I have tried a friends '01 3.0l 5 sp manual pulling my rig and on normal (non mountain) roads it was fine and I think I could live with this.

My '02 is pretty much loaded with everything including sport pkg and the auto leveling rear suspension. I have serious doubts that I can find a 3.0 with the auto leveling rear suspension on anything other than a '01 where it was included with the sport package. So the question is how big of a deal is the autoleveling suspension for towing. I may be spoiled and taking this feature for granted since I only have towing experience with it. Secondly, I find the sport package to be a bit bouncy around town and have driven some non sport pkg X5s that seem more well behaved in non towing situations. Again, I have never towed with anything other than the sport package so I'm in a poor position to judge how much the sport pkg is contributing to the fine towing qualities that I'm currently experiencing.

Any thoughts and/or experiences would be appreciated.

TIA,
Tom

'98 M3/4
'02 X5 4.4
'02 325iT
'93 325iS SPEC E36 Race Car

[jobaker4]

No need for Self Leveling Suspension for Towing (IMO) ... when I had my 3.0 I towed quite a bit and never felt like I needed Self Leveling.

[JCL]

No need for either self-levelling suspension, or sport package. I towed with a 3.0 and it handled fine.

Also, if you are considering a 3.0 manual I would look for a later model 6 speed, '04 onwards.

[RamVA]

+1 on looking for a 6-speed (mine is a 5-speed, '02). That said you will find it difficult to find one built to your spec unless you are very patient and willing to travel, so be prepared for that, as well as some compromise.

I can't comment on the towing questions, but you might want to stick with your 4.4i.

[tetice]

Okay guys. Thanks for the feeback thus far. This is getting a bit more serious as I have located an '05 3.0L manual for a reasonable price. Anyone else have a comment on this?

JCL and Jobaker4 - how much of a load did you guys tow with no self leveling? My car trailer (dual axle) is fairly sensitive to the height of the tongue or it will overload one or the other axles which typically results in a blow out. I think that will be true of all dual axle trailers.

Anyway, getting close to pulling the trigger on the manual X5 (well as close as I can get since the car is about 300 miles away) and still nervous.

Thanks,
Tom

[JCL]

Approx 4500 lbs. If you are worried about it, consider an equalizing (levelling) hitch. If you do a search on posts by withidl, you can see his posts on the setup he uses. I am pretty sure hayaku uses a similar setup.

[kresener]

I had an '01 3.0 non sport non self leveling that I towed my e36 M3 race car on an open steel dual axle trailer many, many times and although the rear end of the X5 would drop considerably it always towed just fine.
I will say that my 4.6 tows a heck of a lot better than the 3.0 did, due in part I figure to the sport suspension and much larger tires and wheels. Not that the 3.0 was bad, but the 4.6 feels much more stable. Hardly even know there's a trailer back there sometimes!

[bjo]

Glad to see X5 owners towing their race cars with no issues. One day, I will eventually get a trailer and stop driving my 95 M3 to auto-x and DE's....Anyone have any pics of their tow setup for me to drool over?

[kishg]

Originally Posted by bjo

Glad to see X5 owners towing their race cars with no issues. One day, I will eventually get a trailer and stop driving my 95 M3 to auto-x and DE's....Anyone have any pics of their tow setup for me to drool over?

bumping this for more information.. im interested in this too.