OEM Trailer Hitch
 

BMW E53 X5 M54 3.0L > Exterior > Trailer > ES#185392 Trailer Hitch Kit - 71600009711

So i'm hoping to place my order for one of these in the coming weeks. I noticed it was back in stock at ECS. I did a search and found some threads for other hitch installs, but not one for the OEM from ECS. It says plug and play on their site. Is that true for all? Is there anything I should be on the look out for before I order? I would assume that this is the best all around kit due to everything which is included and the fact it is a factory kit. Just looking for some experience as its a good chunk of money.

OE is THE only way to go with the hitch for E53. If the ECS has the OE part, then there are plenty of DIY guides here, on this forum. The installation is a plug-n-play, but there is a lot of things to plug before playing...

+1 on above.

I just looked again in the how-to section. I have no idea how I overlooked the thread it was #1. lol

I just received my hitch from ECS. The box is huge. Haven't had a chance to install it yet but take my warning. You need to have a place to keep a 7' long box weighing over 100 lbs. Until you can install it. Mine is currently residing in my dining room which makes the CEO real happy...

Just ordered it from ECS.

If my X didn't come with the OE hitch I would have looked at having this hitch installed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASooeaT-dNg

Do they show the installation requirements for this anywhere?

I believe that is the same hitch that is offered as the OE hitch in Europe. The BMW instructions posted on this site (Online references, pdf, E53 reference documents) at the link below show both that hitch, and how to carry the hitch ball in the standard OE tool tray. Wiring would have to be the NA version to tie in to standard North American trailers, and a bike carrier is a challenge, but it is a neat hitch installation. Not sure if it includes a place for safety chains, as the BMW documents don't show any attachment points.

http://www.bmwmotorsports.org/pdf/e5...iler_hitch.pdf

The European one, or the NA version? Same instructions, in any case, at the link in the post above.

That is pretty cool. Any idea what the cost and load rating is?

Available from BMW dealers in the UK and Europe. There are posts on this site about those who have brought them in, those posts should have pricing info if you do a search. Load rating is same as North America, 5000 or 6000 lbs depending on year and transmission, but technically this drawbar is not legal in North America as it doesn't meet federal regulations. Ball is metric, but close to 2".

I am not looking to start a raging battle. I think the OEM hitch looks heavy duty as hell and I am sure it is a better part.

I chose to go with this hitch: 2000 2006 BMW x5 x 5 Trailer Hitch Receiver Class III Reese Pro Series 51093 | eBay

$115 Delivered to your door.

Fairly simple install. You use the existing bumper bolts, and you drill a 1/2 hole into the subframe.

Rated for 6000 lbs / 600 lbs tongue weight which is all the x5 is rated for anyways. :dunno:

Personally I think it is good ENOUGH. and in that degree it is great. I would never tow crazy amounts with my x5, because i love her, so to me the OEM hitch is overkill, especially if only rated the same.

Now I am not saying all of this without backup.

What I use my hitch for is hauling my dirtbike, not heavy, but quite significant tongue force. Bike weights 240lbs, it also held me and 2 other buddies jumping up and down on it. No signs of stress.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps963a9f3d.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps3f237a37.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps75848f80.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ps4f413085.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psb7a49d6b.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psf0fd3adb.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...pse50ed97b.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...psafbeb75f.jpg

Please dont say its bending, the hauler doesnt fit 100% tight which gives it that slight angle. I have hauled like this over 20x without issue.

Just throwing that out there!

Glad it is working for you.

Have you calculated the bending moment being applied to the hitch? When BMW publish 600 lbs tongue weight limit they specify that the maximum load distance is 8" from the pin. Your CoG would appear to be a multiple of that, hard to tell from the pictures. Not sure what your hitch manufacturer publishes as a load limit for carriers, but it shouldn't be the same as a tongue load limit.

Also, BMW publishes a lower limit for bouncing loads, 330 lbs tongue weight. They use the lower figure for non-highway, where a load isn't always constant.

I am trying to figure out, why the BMW engineers have come up with SO MANY parts for the something that could have been accomplished with only one piece... They have no brain and probably suck as engineers...

Different countries with different systems, example you need to buy a converter if you have electrical appliances that you want to use oversea.

UK people drive on the wrong side of the road, whereas US people drive on the Right side of the road.

This looks like the hitch that you can buy at etrailer.
http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...ailer-ebay.jpg

His hitch has that kicker strut, so it not a pure cantilever. That bike wouldn't weight 600 lbs or even 330 lbs.

Again, it is more than enough for ME. That BMW Mount looks like you are replacing a lot of the parts you already have. My mount came with grade 8 bolts, I am not worried about their shear strength. I am no engineer but I am confident using this, and would be up to the 6000 lb rating. Im not towing 12k lbs here or anything, nor ever would with my baby. me and two buddies (over 600lbs between us) with the bike, bounced on the thing at the very end, probably 18" from the hitch. Nothing happened. Its cool when the rear air suspension automatically levels though..

BMW has NEVER been known to sell ANYONE more than they needed... :)

here is the physics 101 from the NASA website... in our case only the example 1 is applicable:

A force F is a vector quantity, which means that it has both a magnitude and a direction associated with it. The direction of the force is important because the resulting motion of the object is in the same direction as the force. The product of the force and the perpendicular distance to the center of gravity for an unconfined object, or to the pivot for a confined object, is^M called the torque or the moment. A torque is also a vector quantity and produces a rotation in the same way that a force produces a translation. Namely, an object at rest, or rotating at a constant angular velocity, will continue to do so until it is subject to an external torque. A torque produces a change in angular velocity which is called an angular acceleration.
The distance L used to determine the torque T is the distance from the pivot p to the force, but measured perpendicular to the direction of the force. On the figure, we show four examples of torques to illustrate the basic principles governing torques. In each example a blue weight W is acting on a red bar, which is called an arm.
In Example 1, the force (weight) is applied perpendicular to the arm. In this case, the perpendicular distance is the length of the bar and the torque is equal to the product of the length and the force.
T = F * L

In our case, the Force is stationary for the sake of the argument and is
F = m x a (mass multiplied by acceleration).
the mass is known, 240 pounds (108.5 kg),
the acceleration is 9.8 m/s*s (earth gravity),
so our force is 1063 kg*m/s*s,
and the length of towbar is 18 inches (0.4572 m) = 486 kg*m*m/s*s = 486 N*m (not to confuse with 486 joules, which is the energy resulted from the same calculations)...

naturally, the longer the towbar, the greater the "lever" effect...

1 Nm = 0.7375621 lbs*foot
486 Nm = 358.46 lbs * foot (or, more common term, "foot-pound)

so, in the stationary condition, we are applying a torque of roughly 350 pound foot onto the hitch bar and the hitch assembly.

Once we introduce the additional forces of driving forward and bouncing the load vertically, the numbers will decrease on "up" and increase on "down" move, also, as the vehicle is moving on the decline, the torque will decrease, as if the vehicle is moving on the incline, up the hill, the center of bike's gravity will move further away from the 18" mark and the torque will increase...

I am just too lazy to venture into these calculations...

The main point is, will the mounting points sustain the load, and more importantly, will the places where they are mounted to, sustain the load... those items can be calculated, based on the type of metal used, the thickness of the metal, the type of the attachment of different materials, the ability of the metal to take the repeating bending stress without losing the resistance property and the metal fatigue that will eventually settle in the material before anything would break.

These are the calculations taken into the account by the engineers who design these things...

Remember the Fast 5 movie - when Dominique Torreto and Co. ripped the "unbreakable" safe from the enclosure, as the enclosure was not reenforced enough to protect the vault... so, it did not matter that the vault was good, the surroundings weere not up to par...

oh, and by the way, I am not here to rain on your parade - I am in engineering myself, and can only appreciate a well executed mechanical (or electrical/electronic) masterpiece... And I think, the OE tow hitch is an engineering masterpiece...

I wish my 6-speed transmission was an engineering masterpiece!!!

That said it does shift very nice and i do enjoy everything about the way it works...

Hey, quit dissing the engineers! :rofl: Those of us who are in the club will get defensive, lol.

It is really very simple. The X5 is a unibody. There are few places to attach external accessories, so BMW designed a way to transfer the load through to the formed box sections that stiffen the rear structure. Those inserts in your photo are what is key.

Other hitches sometimes use the same attachment point as the BMW hitch, but don't include the stiffeners. Some hitches, like the one you show, don't even do that. They bolt straight up to the sheetmetal that forms the trunk floor, or attach to the existing cross tie. It doesn't matter how strong the receiver is, or whether you use grade 8 bolts, it is about whether the floor pan can take that load without tearing at the seams (the failure mode that has been seen). And bouncing gives it a fatigue load different than a pure strength limit.

Anybody who has installed the expensive and complicated OE hitch gets it. Those who haven't, look at the price and get sticker shock. I can understand that.

Fully agree that it isn't a straight cantilever. That said, the 600 lbs tongue weight limit has no relevance at anything more than 8" from the pin to the CoG of the load. It would be like saying that a bolt was overtorqued to double the specified torque, but it is OK because the tech used a longer wrench to accomplish it. Torque is torque.

I don't have the distances or weights for this carrier, but a sample calculation would be:

240 lbs bike, plus 60 lbs carrier, equals 300 lbs.

Load being applied at 24" vs 8" spec is a three time multiplier on the bending moment, so 3 x 300 = 900 lbs equivalent tongue load.

Using the OE hitch, it would likely survive. That assumes the load didn't bounch at all (which has a 1.8 multiplier effect, recalling limit of 330 vs 600)

Using an aftermarket hitch, no idea. But it appears to be surviving so far. I would still inspect the trunk seams from time to time.

I sure hope your post was in jest. As the 2 hitches look like vastly diff beasts and I would be willing to bet the smaller 1 piece would fail far sooner than the BMW OE piece. Besides that I like the ECS kit as it comes with all the wiring and harness for a plug and play. Sometimes more money for OE isnt worth it, but in this case towing a trailer and being confident in how it is attached is worth the extra cpl hundo. For me at least.

It is perhaps easier to approach it by agreeing that the bending moment that BMW designed for can be easily compared, without worrying about the absolute value of that bending moment.

600 (or 330) lbs x 8 inches. Relate everything to that. If you have half the weight, at three times the distance, that is 50% beyond the design stress.

And all this is for a static load. The real issue is fatigue, as you inferred.

Anyway, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. Just pointing out that there are more things to consider than the grade of attachment bolt. I fully agree with your comments on it not being about the receiver itself, but rather the integration of it into the vehicle, and the strength of the surrounding structure.

I installed the factory hitch/wiring as-recommended by this forum: very heavy-duty, no worries from now on. Wish my ball/carrier didn't bounce around so much inside the 2" square opening with light trailer loads on a light trailer. :(

I have nothing but the OE tow hitch on my E53s, even though, the maximum that I am towing, is just a bicycle rack (OE rack, BTW), which is a heavy thingy to begin with (thingy = scientific term, people go to college to learn that!!!)... once installed onto the car, that thingy does not bounce around (the bikes have wheels spinning)...:thumbup:

In my experience the 2" square piece you insert in the receiver can vary in size depending on the supplier. You can also shim it. However, the first thing to check is whether you have sufficient tongue weight.

They make stabilizers, look them up.

I get what you guys are saying, but you are just SAYING. I am doing. They are not bolted to sheet metal, or the floor pan. This is not one of those mounts that screws through your spare tire floor in the trunk.

All of our equations mean jack shit because for one they aren't accurate, and two I have loaded up over 900 lbs on this thing over 24" out of the hitch, jumping up and down. No stress fractures, no tearing subframe. Nothing.

The thing works perfectly, it is sturdy as shit for what i am using it for. and expressions like "Will fail much sooner" Sound retarded because its not going to fail. I am not an idiot that is going to try to pull a stump out of the ground with this thing and I am not an idiot that likes to spend $300 on nothing.

You guys on these forms make me laugh sometime (like right now). I think some among us need to spend money on anti anxiety medicine not throwing money down the drain to ease their conscious....

where is the bottom arm bolted to? It is not clear from the pictures posted earlier on this thread.

It is bolted to the subframe of the x5 There is an extremely heavy duty box frame that runs right behind the rear differential which you drill a hole into and then use a special bolt which expands when you torque it the first time like a pop rivet and then you retorque it with a 1/2" Bolt.

Any downward force would be transfered very evenly with the mount. I believe the shear strength of the bolts does matter, unless you think the rear frame is going to rip off?

sounds like a "Jesus" bolt... Interesting, a frame that is behind rear diff... i wonder, what the purpose of it there... i need to pull out some of the blueprints, see what it does...

It appears that the Reese cross bar bolts on to item 14, in the parts book drawing attached. That is a lateral tie piece that holds the two axle supports (2 and 3) from spreading apart. It is not strong in the fore/aft directions, unless you through-bolt to item 1 (not sure if your hitch does that, or not, as some do). It shows as being braced to item 1 in any case. Item 1 is the trunk floor. Item 14 is braced to the trunk floor because it isn't very strong by itself, it is very thin. It is the piece that BMW discards in their OE hitch installation. So, it appears that despite your claim, this is one of those mounts that is attached, either directly or indirectly, to the spare tire floor in the trunk.

This equation is totally accurate. The math is pretty simple. The design load is published as 600 lbs vertical at 8", if you use the reinforced OE hitch. You have applied 1.5 times the rated load, at 3 times the rated distance. That is 4.5 times the design load. Glad that worked out for you. Some of us just believe that some calculations do mean something. You don't have to agree, you are certainly entitled to your own opinion. You are saying that because it hasn't broken yet, it is strong enough to last forever, that fatigue isn't a factor. OK.

As an aside, the strength of the front bolt doesn't matter. It is strictly a locating point. All the force from the hitch stabilizer bar at that end is upwards, not downwards, so the bolt doesn't see any significant stress.

The failures that we did see back in the early days of the X5 were in fact to the rear pan, item 1. Yes, it was ripped off. Repairs were expensive. That was why the aftermarket hitch manufacturers added that longitudinal brace. They also include a line in their hitch warranty that states that they do not guarantee that the hitch is fit for use. Their 6000 lb rating is likely based on bench tests of their hitch in a jig, not on having it mounted on a vehicle. We all accept that it has a 6000 lb rating, just not that their way of rating the hitch has any relevance.

Here's a youtube video on how to install the reese or similar hitch.

Trailer Hitch Installation - 2001 BMW X5 - etrailer.com - YouTube

As I mentioned before, this is your car, and you can do anything to it - my opinion would matter ONLY, when you are selling your car and I am buying it... other than that - my opinion is just that - an opinion...:nanana:

However, my opinion about your opinion about the math and physics is that your opinion rather incorrect - the force of gravity is still the same, regardless if you are in the US or in North Korea, or 30 miles up in the space... same goes for 2+2 - it is always 4, no matter what propaganda might be telling you.

Of course, you are entitled to the opinion that the gravity does not matter and 2+2=7... This is totally free country and thank God, we are not in North Korea or the Soviet Evil Empire, where they would have beaten the "4" into you against your will... :stickpoke So, it is very much possible, that your opinion about the equations is totally right...:thumbup:

I am totally with you, dude - the collective opinion of the old farts that owned the stupid car for long time and saw things, matters not... Carry on... we will be here when you have questions...
Let me pop some corn...:popcorn:

Thanks for reminding me, I need to take my Meds. :rofl:

http://realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/y/r/60.png

The center support bolts through the Rear Axel Carrier.

Im going to go have fun in my x5 and on my dirtbike and not worry about a damn thing!

The the $350 I Saved on my hitch I; went dirtbiking 5 times, took my girlfriend to dinner and a movie, got laid, filled up my tank a few times and bought a few shots for my buddies at the bar. Life is short...

isn't rear axle... er.. axel, a dynamic part, that is part of suspension, and as such is flexible in relation to the rest of...

wait... saved $350? well, then, it is a different story...

what part of the world are you at, that $350 lets you fill up your tank a few times? my single fill up (premium) is about $80...

dude, either you live in Venezuela, or Saudi Arabia, where gas is dirt cheap, or I really need to learn how to stretch the $$$ to get myself gas, dinner and a movie, get laid... oh, and buy my friends few shots... i hope you had a shot or two as well (unless you are not of legal drinking age, then never mind the drinks)...:guinness::guinness:

I seriously need to re-evaluate my spending habits!!!

There were plenty of warnings against not using non-OEM hitches, + plenty to support to account for the extra $.

Since I tow my boat or race car trailer, I wanted a stout hitch I wouldn't ever worry about. If I were merely towing a motorcycle trailer or small utility trailer, I prob. would have gone with a lighter duty trailer.

:thumbup:

Well there you go. A practical application and need.

DING! DING! DING! WE HAVE A WINNAH!

The first thing that hit me was that the angled piece on the cheap hitch attaches to the subframe; that subframe is designed as a semi-free floating piece of the suspension. The rest of that hitch ties to the existing bumper frame. With the vehicle at rest, it doesn't make any difference, but I would imagine it would transfer some road noise to the frame (minor annoyance) but if you were driving it down a rough road, there would be a lot of torsion being placed on that bar, and torque applied to a now-weakened subframe (because of the hole drilled in it) and bumper frame. I don't think I'd be using that hitch, but if you're ok with it... It's your car, and your 600 lb motorcycle hanging off the rear end. :stickpoke

Dave (who, after seeing the ~$500 price tag at ECS Tuning is pleased as punch to have bought an X5 that already had the factory hitch on it. :D )

no road noise noticed, no affect in ride, no worries about said motorcycle.

Yet... Metal fatigue takes time.

For my application personally I will be towing a fairly small 4' x 8' trailer full of my stuff. At least 80 miles in each direction. So i'm def gonna end up going with the ECS OEM hitch with all the connectors. To each his/her own but the piece of mind of a tried and tested piece of OE equipment is worth the extra cash in my mind.

>XSX450 perhaps a better solution, especially with your aftermarket hitch, would be to get a small motorcycle trailer. I think even with the more robust factory hitch, you would be exceeding the recommended tongue weight with that bike carrier. A trailer big enough for a pair of dirt bikes would weigh very little; I'd bet you'd be well under 1,500lbs with two bikes mounted. And the tongue weight woud probably be very low; well within the recommendation.

Just so you know, if there is ever an accident, and that bike comes off and hurts someone or damages property, your insurance will scrutinize your hitch and load before paying any claim. Auto insurers are well know for backing out of massive claims due to overloaded trailers, exceeding vehicle towing recomendations, etc. A favorite out is a vehicle may be rated for 6,000 lbs, but the fine print, (which most owners ignore,) might say over 3,500 lbs you need a weight distribution hitch and electric trailer brakes.

Rust will beat you to it.

OP, the OE hitch is the way to go. Sounds like you know that. FWIW it is a b!tch to install. Plan on several hours....took me about twice as long as I thought it would. Have some cold cervezas waiting!

I've heard that about the install as well; pretty sure mine has been on since the car was new, and it's got a nice coating of rust on it. I'd like to pull it off sometime & refinish it, but there's that whole "several hours" business, which involves pulling off the bumper cap and all that.