OE hitch came on car, but no frame reinforcements?
 

My 2003 (11/02 build) 5-speex E53 that I bought last summer came with a factory Westphalia hitch and aftermarket 7 pin wiring. I have not towed with it until last week when I got my 19 foot popup trailer out of storage and towed it for about an hour. I was very impressed by the cars towing ability and actually thought it towed better than the Tahoe we used last year. The 5-speed is actually geared perfectly for towing and I didn't feel like I was hurting the clutch at all. Very happy with it.

I have a receipt from the PO that shows the hitch was installed shortly after the car was purchased but it was done by a third party shop, which explains the Hidden Hitch wiring and connector. Having a wild hair, yesterday I started poking around to confirm that the chassis reinforcement plates were also installed. Sure enough, they are not.


My trailer is big for a popup, but it's still not a massive trailer. I already towed it over 50 miles and wasn't babying it. It drove fine and there don't appear to be any issues. The trailer is rated at about 2400lbs dry and I towed it without brakes.

My understanding is that early factory hitches did not have these brackets. Buy, I've also heard that aftermarket hitches caused the Lion's share of damaged cars. Is it possible that I have an early hitch that simply didn't come with the brackets? And should I worry about taking my trailer on a trip over memorial day next weekend?

Thanks in advance...

I guess my feelings are that if the E53 was originally sold with a hitch like this, it should be good to tow most loads, especially smaller ones. Otherwise everybody would have broken their bumper and chassis as soon as they towed. Towing less than half the capacity seems like it should be fine. And I didn't notice anything odd when towing around last week.

Also, for posterity's sake, my car has no air suspension and didn't sag at all in the back with the tongue weight. I was very impressed. I actually​had to flip the ball hitch over so it would sit lower, expecting it to sag. Honestly, this is a great towing vehicle if only EVERYTHING about towing with it wasn't so darn complicated.

Even though you have a factory hitch, it could be that the hitch came off another car and that when they removed the hitch they didn't bother with the reinforcement plate or the electrical module. I found a factory hitch on Craigslist for $100.00 but when I went to look at it, it was just the hitch and none of the reinforcement plates or the electrical module. Told the seller that he was missing half the hitch and the hitch wasn't worth the asking price.

I have a receipt showing installation about a month after the car was purchased, so I would guess it was new from the dealer, just not installed at the dealer. The PO almost universally used the dealer except for this and a couple tire and battery changes according to my massive stack of receipts.

I thought I read in one thread that the original hitch design was revised after some folks bent hitches? But now I can only find reference to aftermarket hitches bending with cargo carriers attached to them.

I'm gonna take it for another spin and see if I feel or hear anything worrying.

Or the installer who is not a BMW dealer didn't know how to install the hitch or took some short cuts to install the hitch by not installing all the parts. I have an original factory hitch with the wiring module. The previous owner never used the hitch because the sticker that covered the hitch pin holes were still intact when I went to use the hitch.

So are you saying that the OE hitch was always sold with the frame reinforcements? I was under the impression that early ones did not have the reinforcements.

My is a 2001 X5 with the factory hitch. The installation manual that came with hitch was also included with the owners manual in the glove box when I purchased my X5. The manual shows all the hitch pieces and their installation. Reinforcement plates are shown in the installation manual.

Ok, so that is different information than I had thought. Sounds like I should not be towing in general then.

is this the plate that is missing from your hitch?

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/g8oAAO...s5/s-l1600.jpg

That part is available on line. You can find it on eBay.