Trailer hitch, OEM vs aftermarket

[conedoctor]

I found the article I was looking for a few days ago on canams website.

I will post it when I get finished working, explains a bunch, I am going to tow the crap out of stuff and not worry lol

[JCL]

Are you going to go by axle limits and scale tickets, or BMW's max towing limit? They say no wd equipment, and towing capacity reduced by any payload over and above the driver.

[conedoctor]

I am going to tow based on an 11000# combined and a 5200# curb weight of the X5 and add up from there. Trailer will weigh 5000# once it is full, this leaves me about 1800#'s of fuel, people and stuff. This is the oversimplified version because I'm leaving work and don't want to stay and do the math.

I know I can tow a pile more and still be fine but I have to tow in BC and getting parked on the side of the road does not sound fun, home in Alberta I think I could pull my house behind me an no one would say a thing lol

[finnbmw]

Originally Posted by JCL

You have to separate the issues of hitch rating vs vehicle rating.

BMW rate their hitch at 6000 lbs, and the vehicle at 6000 lbs only if you use the OE hitch.

Aftermarket companies can rate their hitch whatever they like, but it doesn't change the vehicle rating. The important thing isn't the hitch construction, but rather the interface to the vehicle. And BMW is the only one qualified to do that calculation.

On my E53, the 6000 lb rating depended on the hitch ball height and rear offset from the pin. It doesn't matter if the receiver is positioned lower, you would have to offset the hitch ball back up to maintain the vehicle rating, if that matters to you. If aftermarket companies don't specify similar limits it shows that they aren't considering the attachment point to the unibody in their calculations.

JCL, don't know if you read the thread in the link I provided, but there seems to be confusion about the tow ratings. According to the info on the thread, BMW rates the X5 for 7,700 lbs everywhere else but in US or Canada, where it's only rated for 6,000 lbs Why would that be, it's the same car after all? Could it be lawyers or MAYBE because the BMW OE hitch is only rated up to 6,000 lbs, hence the 6,000 lbs rating. In other words, the X5 is capable (even in US and Canada) of tow weights up to 7,700 lbs WHEN equipped with a properly rated hitch. Of course, BMW voids warranty if you go above 6,000 lbs, so there's that as well to consider. But I was merely pointing out what the X5 is ENGINEERED to tow. YMMV.

[JCL]

While the X5 can likely pull 7700 lbs without worry, it is engineered to do that with approx 5% tongue weight and no weight distribution equipment. I wouldn't do that myself. I think there is more of a tongue weight issue than a trailer gvw issue. And any hitch that positions the ball further out or lower than the OE hitch ball position is stressing the vehicle-receiver interface point more than it was designed for, due to the bending moment.

[conedoctor]

I agree in more stress but the question is more or too much.

The article is really informative and will clear up some of this.

If you want to see some mega sketchy towing check up the Hensley hitch. Hensley-Hitch-RVShow-Video.mpg - YouTube

[sjjon]

I installed the execuhitch setup on my E70. Love the hitch, it's great that it stays hidden and it doesn't hang down much at all. I can't speak to the capability at the levels that your talking though, I tow a trailer that is about 3750lbs and have had no problems at all.

Save yourself some money and headache though and if you get the execuhitch setup, go with the manual release mechanism, I originally had the electronic unit and it failed. company was very good about taking it back and sending me the mechanical one though, great customer service on their part.

[conedoctor]

So is the manual one much cheaper?

For the amount of time I will pull the drawbar in and out and the amount of salt and stuff on our roads the manual one sounds like the ticket and solve a few issues all at once.

[sburke91]

Based on my discussions with Invisihitch when I ordered a few months ago, they have stopped making the electric unit and only handle the manual unit. I'm very happy with my unit.

[conedoctor]

From what I have found the 7700lbs in Europe also has a 330lb tongue weight, so in Europe you can tow a pile of weight but it better be far back on the trailer lol

I will post the article today on why things are like this.