picts
 

I've been looking for this for an alternative hitch for a long time. Would you mind posting more picts?

2007x5man, thanks for this heads up... Looking at the hitch from etrailer.com, it seems like it bolts on to the same location as the OEM trailer. Aside from this one being "lower" (i.e. - about 1 foot from the ground), are there any other differences to the OEM? Although they seem to have the same 6000 lbs rating, I would think that since this is "lower" than the OEM, it would create more of a twisting force to the mounting locations than the OEM. But hey, it may not be that relevant.

Cost wise, it looks like:
Curt Receiver Class III Receiver Hitch #13077 $185
Circuit Protected Modulite 4 Pole Harness with Hardwire Kit (Includes Testers) #118176KIT $65
Ballmount 3/4" Rise or 2" Drop, 6,000 lbs. #2923 $19
TOTAL = $269

Are these the parts that you purchased?

Lastly, the instructions do state that the bumper still needs trimming "With hitch on vehicle, mark bumper fascia and trim until fascia fits back onto vehicle without interfering with hitch."

How much trimming?
Why does the dealer need to "reprogram" the ECU?

THANKS SO MUCH for calling this to our attention... The OEM hitch just looks quite ugly in comparison...

I installed the hitch and wiring harness myself. Local BMW dealer did the reprogramming of the ECU. I did not believe them when they told me this needed to be done but it does. Here is the link to Etrailer for the hitch. It says it requires cutting but it doesn,t. Hitch comes out right under the rear bumper facia. Looks very clean. http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2007_BMW_X5.htm

You didn't say "why"...

Here are the answers to the additional questions above.

Once your x5 detects the wiring harness it will start showing fault messages when started.

As stated in my earlier post, I purchased the wiring harness from BMW. After talking with numerous people including trailer hitch professionals and the technical people at Etrailer. I decided it was best to play it safe and get the BMW wiring harness rather than have someone hack into my wiring. There is not much good information out there on the new X5 regarding adding an aftermarket wiring harness and I was not able to find one when I did mine. Although the BMW wiring harness is expensive, I think it was $230 from the dealer, it is well made and is a custom fit with high quality grommets that fit through the body of the car and have all the necessary electronics to make it work properly. Seemed like a safe bet.

My objective was not to get the lowest cost install possible it was to get a good clean install and save a few bucks in the process. Also having done a lot of wrenching on performance cars in the past there is a part of me that likes to tinker with mechanical stuff.

2007x5man, this is perfect! Thanks very much for your input. When I showed my wife of what the hitch would look like, she was pretty disgusted. When I showed her your pic, she says "Now, that's more like it!" I am exactly the same way in that I also want to do some mechanical stuff. I figured that if I can install a supercharger in my M3, that I should be able to install a hitch on my wife's X5!!!

So last question is... how did you mount the connector plug? The BMW instructions have it being mounted to the frame of the hitch. There's no such mounting point on the Curt trailer.

Hitch Install
 

Thanks again for the info.....assume this is a link to the detailed hitch info:

http://www.etrailer.com/pc-H~87455.h...eid=2007106094


Any idea whether there would be any issues fitting this onto a 2008? I assume it would work, but it is intesting that this hitch does not come up when searching for that model year on the eTrailers site.

Appreciate your finding this solution for, what I'm sure, is a lot of us...there was no way i was going to go with the dealer installed option.

Ron

I went to the local Parts house, and got a trailer hitch wiring connector bracket and used two self threading machine screws to mount it to the bottom of the hitch next to the receiver. Part was about $5. I had to relocate a few of the holes to adpapt to the holes in the BMW connector, but it was very simple and looks factory.

So, did you have to jam or manipulate the bumper cover back into place? I'm a little bit worried as m installer read through the instructions and is convinced that he'll have to trim the bumper. Perhaps I'll print out your photos for demonstration purposes...

Thanks,
Andrew

Does Bumper Cover Need to Come Off for Install?
 

I didn't quite see this noted, would we still have to take the bumper cover off to secure the hitch?

Thanks