Draw-Tite Hitch Questions
 

My father-in-law is a former Draw-Tite sales rep and can still get hitches for a decent price, so I wanted to know if anyone has experience with them. Evidently, draw-tite has a warning about them potentially interfering with the vehicle stability system.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Supposedly he checked with Draw-tite engineering and did not get any answer on it.

I know the OEM hitches are preferable, but they are scarce now-a-days. I'm also not psyched about the way the brace on the Draw-Tite hangs down, either, but I think it is the strongest design of the aftermarket hitches, right? I also don't like how it seems to bolt to the rear body instead of to the bumper mounts.

Any other general opinions (other than "buy OEM and nothing else")?

Oh, I will be using the hitch to tow a single axle enclosed trailer and an 18' boat. I can use my wife's Pathfinder, but I am sick of having to. My car is a 2006 x5 4.4 with the sport package. It does not have the dashboard mounted controls for the suspension height, if that matters.

You can turn of the DSC. There a button under the MID above the HVAC Controls.

There's is no connection with the vehicle stability system, except that if you don't use the OE electrical connection the vehicle won't know when a trailer is connected, and so won't use the trailer stability control mode in the DSC. Regular DSC functions will still work fine.

It would be preferable to use the bumper shock mount locations than the rear pan, IMO, if you can't find an OE hitch. In that case I would ensure it does have the brace, even though it does hang down.