Who is towing with a stick shift?
 

Hey all - I know there have been lots of threads about how great the X5 is for towing. I'm thinking about using my 3.0i 5-speed to tow a car trailer (3500-4500lb.) on 500 mile trips. Before I fork out for the hitch and all, I wanted to get some idea from folks who have actually done it as to how that kind of load feels with the stick shift, in particular on the highway and in the hills. Thanks in advance.

Ram,
There aren't but a handful of us sticks here...
I don't tow so no help; I have had our '01 loaded
to the fookin gunwales on several occasions. I mean
stuffed with lots of extra weight: it never blinked on
long road trips, or in our Smoky Mtns, etc.

I suspect that tightazz creeper first will get you going
with no prob., though 2nd will come up in a heartbeat.

If I had to tow and had a hitch on, I would not think
twice about it. My 2Cts.
GL,mD

I tow my 4000lb boat and trailer all summer and towed it 1800 miles round trip last summer. X5 - manual tranny tows great. NO issues with towing at all. BTW my rig has trailer brakes.

Ram,

I have a 4.4 and have towed extensively with it but that's not your question. I was considering getting a stick (because I hate automatics) so I borrowed a friends '01 manual X5 (Sport package with auto leveling) for a test tow. I towed my open steel trailer with E36 race car on it - estimated total load of 4000 lbs. It felt fine, accelerated fine, pulled at decent highway speeds and really felt no different than my 8 cyl. I did not go 500 miles though. I expect it might struggle in serious mountains but that would be something that I could live with.

BTW, never got the manual and have now moved on to try an enclosed trailer so I'll need every bit of the 8 cylinder.

It should be pretty good given the low ratio of first on the manual.

It's great to tow with, I towed about 4000lbs of my stuff about 900 miles over the course of 2 days and a boat now and then. The 1st gear really gets any load going! 1st gear was designed with towing in mind. I could get it up to about 90 mph, but I mainly stayed at 65 and got about 18mpg.