BMW X5 E53 DIY OEM Hitch Installation Notes and factory installation PDF

[semcoinc]

Originally Posted by Riggodeaux

Recalls or NTSB for an aftermarket hitch mounted on, at most, a few thousand [probably hundreds] of vehicles? I know we live in an era of government intrusiveness, but we haven't gotten that far. . Good luck and drive carefully when towing!

Will do!

Thanks again for the watch out.

Mike

[admranger]

I'd get in on the factory hitch group buy.

These aftermarket ones have had issues tearing up the unibody of the X5. Not a good thing. They just don't mount as securely to the vehicle as the stock one does. The stock one really integrates to the body of the X5 well.

[Riggodeaux]

Having mounted an OEM, I'd be leery of the aftermarkets I've seen. I don't recall whether e30cabrio, who removed an aftermarket to install a salvaged OEM, saw damage on his. I expect its one of those things where the aftermarkets are fine until you try and haul closer to the limits, which may be pretty rare given the use most put the E53s to. The most I have hauled to date is approx. 4800 lbs of trailer and hay on the OEM. I have pulled horse trailers for 10+ years, always behind a Ford superduty diesel, and don't recall ever seeing an BMW SAV pulling a trailer at horse events ....
Our 3.0s, even with a manual tranny, are tested [performance wise] hauling that much weight. That said, the OEM hitch appears to be a very hardy design.

[JCL]

This issue has been going on for about 14 years now.

The early (circa 2001) aftermarket hitches that failed caused separation of the rear pan (bodywork) along the seams. They tore the seams, and allowed water ingress. They did that because they levered down on the pan. The fix the aftermarket hitch suppliers applied was to start including a strut running fore and aft. I don't think they had failures after that, but I am not sure. Most of us stayed a long way away because we just didn't want any part of it. But then, we had an OE option.

The failures that I did look at pictures of involved either heavy towing (a boat in one case) or a load carrier instead of a trailer. That load carrier bent the receiver down at a 30 degree angle or so. There was $15k worth of bodywork to replace the rear sheet metal. Recall that the factory hitch has a 600 lb tongue weight limit, but also a specified limit of a maximum of 8" to the load (the hitch ball) from the pin. If you put the load out 24" as many carriers do, that is the same resultant bending moment as a 200 lb net load on a carrier (and the carrier involved weighed 75 lb empty). A carrier can be fine if you are carrying a 20 lb bike, close in and right over the receiver. But lever arms work against you if you push the load back (apart from the obvious degradation of vehicle handling).

For aftermarket hitches, if I couldn't obtain the OE hitch, I would not purchase a hitch that attached across the rear pan as the photo does above. IMO, at least look for one that attaches to the reinforced plates where the bumper struts are, even if it doesn't include the OE stiffeners that tie in to the longitudinal unibody sections. And you would still want the longitudinal strut running up to near the diff, but at least you wouldn't be applying a vertical load on the sheet metal pan.

And if you are concerned, make sure you inspect both the hitch mounting points, and the area around the body seams, regularly.

Jeff

[Riggodeaux]

Jeff, cogent and helpful, as always. Good point about the hitch length, too, which BMW specifies and requires the short BMW hitch shaft. Picture of my 'hay hauler' attached.

I have seen/heard about enough horse-hauling horror stories to be very conscious of trailer towing limits and safety.

[fizzx]

So I just purchased this used OEM hitch off ebay. It looks like it includes everything, but is a little harder to tell since much of it is still bolted together. Those of you in the know, can you verify that's all I need or what else will be required. Going on an '06 4.8is
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 x5 E53 Factory Hitch Package Complete | eBay

[garrett.fell]

Originally Posted by fizzx

So I just purchased this used OEM hitch off ebay. It looks like it includes everything, but is a little harder to tell since much of it is still bolted together. Those of you in the know, can you verify that's all I need or what else will be required. Going on an '06 4.8is
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 x5 E53 Factory Hitch Package Complete | eBay

Looks like you're missing the bumper brackets. They look like this....



Also looks like they took part of the car and included in your kit too. Those are the (small triangle) things that are bolted to the things that replace the shock absorbers. Those are in the car already but not bolted down to anything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fizzx]

Originally Posted by garrett.fell

Looks like you're missing the bumper brackets. They look like this....

Well crap!! I've sent a note to the seller to inquire.

[Riggodeaux]

Hard to tell from the picture, but like Garrett sez - either the bumper brackets are inside your 'assembled' hitch, or missing. Suggest you look at the BMW installation instructions at the start of the thread and particularly its parts list and compare.

[fizzx]

So these bumper brackets (figure D item 8) should be between the bar itself and the replacement bumper carrier (figure G) correct? File “BMW E53 X5 Hitch install 20120331143051744.pdf.png”
I'm assuming the carrier somehow attaches to these brackets, but the instruction PDF isn't clear about this?