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2013 BMW x5 - Trailer hitch recommendations?

140K views 276 replies 72 participants last post by  abfx 
#1 ·
Hi All:

I am new to the forums, but have a question for the experts on this site as to what would be a recommended hitch make and model. I am looking at the following but need advice. :dunno:

I have just purchased a new 2013 X5 and want to use a swagman bike rack we already own. My 7 year old gave me the stinkeye when I told him we had no hitch to put the bikes on this new SUV. He told me we should have kept our 2009 Honda Pilot because that one was better since it had a hitch on it!!! lol

Here are two I have been looking at which are bolt on. I am handy and not afraid to bend a wrench.

Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch for the 2013 BMW X5
http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch/BMW/X5/2013/75600.html?vehicleid=2013106127

Reese Towpower 44590 Class III/IV 2" Square Tube Professional Hitch Receiver
http://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpowe...=1356873331&sr=8-1&keywords=2013+bmw+x5+hitch

Cheers,
Gary_a_
 
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#29 ·
Yes good to know.
I wish your website had better information and photos. I just bought a BMW hitch this week, had I known this I may have gone with the invisihitch.

It sounds like another benefit of the invisihitch is that you can remove it. Because the BMW hitch requires me to cut my bumper I'll have to leave it on the vehicle when I sell it on.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Thanks for the photo Daryl.

Cheers to you to being a great contributor and sponsor!!!!



This is the picture of the BMW hitch for comparison, construction actually seems more similar than different, both worlds better than the other choices in my opinion. The fact that yours is hidden is a big plus for most folks.

Jay
 
#32 ·
Thanks Jay. Very much appreciate the encouraging words. And I agree that the two hitches are very similar in their overall design approach. But in my opinion their construction is actually more different than similar.

As for the similarities, it is not by coincidence that the high-level designs of the two hitches are so similar. BMW imposes several design constraints that we must work within if we want our hitches to be BMW OE hitches. To point out one such set of constraints, the hitch must attach to the vehicle at the rear chassis studs and only at the rear chassis studs. The flat plates that rest on the chassis must be of a minimum area, and the hitch must not touch any frame member or body panel elsewhere. (The purpose of this particular set of constraints is to fully preserve the function of the vehicle's crumple zones in the event of a rear-end collision). Hitches that do not satisfy all of BMW's design constraints will never be offered by BMW anywhere in the world so, of course, we all comply. And once you satisfy all of the constraints, you end up with pretty similar looking products.

As to construction, however, I will point out that there are no welds on the invisihitch that are load bearing or subjected to shear forces. Instead, our steel plates completely collar the hitch beam at every connection. Our welds simply keep the collars from sliding on the beam; they are not load-bearing welds at all. The same cannot be said of the other hitch. The most obvious example can be seen in the center of the two hitches. In an emergency braking situation with a heavy trailing load, those center welds on the competitor's hitch will bear the full force of 6,000 lbs trying to torque those welds off. In fact, normal repetitive towing with stopping and starting will constantly try to rock those two welds back and forth.

If a hitch ever fails, you want it to fail through deformation. That is to say, you want it to bend... bend very badly even. You never want a hitch to suddenly break and fail catastrophically in a way that could detach the trailer and the safety chains in the same moment. Our construction technique of collaring the hitch beam is done with purpose. It precludes catastrophic failure at any weld point. It is also one of the things that enables us to achieve the 30% higher international tow rating on the X5. But we do the same thing on all our hitches, even those for the Z4 that likely will never carry anything heavier than a bike rack.

I suspect this is far more than you wanted to know about hitch construction. But it's important stuff if you happen to make your living designing trailer hitches. Or if you tow heavy...

Daryl
daryl@invisihitch.com

 

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#39 ·
Very interesting. Extremely informative. Nice job, Daryl.

BTW, there is been no mention of this so far, but a properly installed tow hitch requires coding in order for the car to recognize the installation AND for the rear camera to work properly (nice feature BTW)! This would be a significant EXTRA cost for those that have their local dealer do it (will they even code an aftermarket installation???). It would be nice if the Invisihitch can offer a solution to this as well, e.g. coding instructions using free available software ...?

Please count me in on the group buy.
 
#33 ·
"Any thoughts on a group buy for the invisihitch setup with factory wiring harness? I'm thinking of getting one by summer time but would move more quickly if there was a deal."

I have been wanting to respond to this and now I can.... We have had a couple of meetings here about offering this type of Group Buy to members of the bimmerfest community, and it is definitely something we would like to do. After all, the pairing of the oem harness with our X5 invisihitch was an idea that was brought to us and then urged on by members of this community. And it has been a very successful product pairing indeed.

There is just one issue we will have to work through internally before we can offer a discounted Group Buy to the community. That issue relates to the price-protection provisions that appear in some of our agreements with dealers. Basically, we guaranteed minimum advertised retail pricing in some cases, with the dealer getting to approve any advertised discount in advance. We certainly desire to stay whole with our dealers, so regardless of whether a Group Buy here would constitute advertising a discounted retail price, we will be seeking their concurrence before doing it. Based on discussions we have already had with dealers, my guess is that we will reach an understanding whereby we can run a short-term Group Buy for this community, provided that it takes place before the prime towing season (hitch-buying season). But we do need to work through this issue properly and completely with our dealers. This may take another couple of weeks, at which time I hope to post a more exciting follow up.

Daryl
 
#34 ·
Daryl,

Thanks for your participation. One of the only complaints that I have with my invisihitch is that I lost the tow hook mounting points. Not a huge deal, but I thought you might want some feedback.
 
#35 ·
BandB -- Thank you. Yes, I completely agree. Although the hitch's safety-chain eyelets are certainly more than strong enough to pull the vehicle rearward onto a flatbed or out of a ditch, you shouldn't be forced to go that route if you don't want to. The appropriate threaded tow eyes will be added to the invisihitch at the factory tow-eye locations.

Thank you for bringing this up!
Daryl
daryl@invisihitch.com
 
#37 ·
To the OP. If the ONLY thing you will carry on the hitch is bikes, have you considered the nifty BMW rack that screws into the rear tow hooks?

Sent from my HTC Inspire using BimmerApp
 
#42 ·
Having your dealer bring the vehicle's software up to date should either be covered under your service warranty or not (depending on the status of your particular coverage). That issue is independent of programming the hitch option, which is not covered as "software maintenance." The rules are the same, regardless of which steel beam you are installing. If you are covered, you can always force the issue if necessary by bringing your vehicle in for a software update prior to bringing it in for hitch coding.

Or you could talk to your SA about the invisihitch. They wouldn't be the first dealer to install and code either hitch for the same price... :)

Your mileage may vary, but I do not yet know of a dealer who "throws in" the software maintenance when installing the BMWNA hitch but charges for it when installing the invisihitch. In both cases, it can turn out to be a hidden cost if you are out of coverage on the software maintenance and you aren't savvy enough to know that you need to negotiate it up front.

Daryl
daryl@invisihitch.com
 
#45 ·
You're correct, Daryl. I should have clarified that my perspective was because my car is outside of the 50K manufacturers warranty period. Any coding is done at the "normal" hourly dealer rates.

This is good stuff ... I appreciate the full disclosure of this post!
 
#44 ·
Here is an update on where things stand: We have now had discussions with every dealer with whom we have price-protection in place. The good news is that all are amenable to our offering a discounted Group Buy... within certain constraints that they all need to agree on. So at this point, our efforts are turning to negotiating the specific constraints so that everyone is comfortable.

I expect this process will go smoothly and have a good outcome. Timing is harder to predict, but my best estimate right now is that next week will be filled with emails and conference calls, with the final terms worked out by the end of the week.

Thank you for your interest! I assure you, this is receiving my best effort. It shouldn't be much longer.


Daryl
daryl@invisihitch.com
 
#46 ·
PAX5 -- If you are inclined to code the hitch option yourself, there are other X5 owners on this forum who have done so successfully and would probably be willing to provide some guidance. It is not complicated. I believe I saw in the thread entitled "Coding" that blue dragon coded his own hitch, so you may want to PM him.

Even if your software is not up to date, applying the hitch option works most of the time. You just need to check the trailer brakes afterward to make sure an older module is not preventing the trailer brake lights from operating. If they are working, you are good to go. If not, I know of no workaround. You would have to get your software updated and then re-apply the hitch coding.
 
#48 ·
Brake light doesnt work because the AHM (trailer module) comes programmed for europe by default, so it comes ready to handle the 7 pin connector that comes with the OEM harness, in US and in Latin America the OEM harness comes with a 7 to 4 pin adapter because we use the four pins connector, but the adapter is not enough, in 4 pins connector brake lights are left turn and right turn on together, in europe (7 pins) there is a separate cable for brakes, so you need to code your AHM and change it from "ece" which means europe to "us", this will tell the AHM to turn on LT and RT on brakes.
 
#50 ·
Yes. We have an invisihitch for the X5M that looks just like our X5 hitch. The height of the hitch beam behind the bumperskin is offset on the X5M by about one-quarter inch... other than that the two hitches are identical. (The small height difference is to accommodate the different rear fascia of the X5M, so please be sure to clearly specify X5M when ordering).

There are actually three slightly different invisihitches for the X5 [E70] family:
X5
X5 with M Sport fascia
X5M

All have the same tow rating, and all are available with the same OEM harness. The very slight differences in height are for aesthetics... we like the opening to our receiver to be exactly flush with the underside gravel guard of the vehicle.

Daryl
daryl@invisihitch.com
 
#52 ·
invisihitch Group Buy

Folks,

I am pleased to tell you that we are now able to offer a Group Buy on the invisihitch. All the details are in my post "Invisihitch Group Buy" which is located in the site sponsor section. Here is a link to my post there:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=675950


Thank you for your patience while I worked through all of this with our dealers. And I really appreciate the many kind words and emails of support during the process.

Should you have any questions or concerns about the ordering or fulfillment process, please feel free to PM me here or just jot me an email. I can probably help you out with just about anything except extending the purchasing deadline.

Best,
Daryl
daryl@invisihitch.com
 
#57 ·
JohnMN,

As an OEM vendor, we are required to pass salt-spray and gravel-spray testing. All our hitches are dipped and heavily powdercoated. In addition, our precision-machined latching mechanism (where the ball mount or bike-rack connector inserts and latches in place) is constructed of 100% stainless steel internal parts. Lastly, the opening to the invisihitch receiver is constantly covered when not in use by a spring-loaded rubber flap. (When it is in use, of course, the ball mount or bike-rack connector blocks water, salt, mud, etc from getting inside). Put simply, we designed and thoroughly tested the invisihitch to prosper in harsh winter environments. And it does.

Daryl

 
#61 ·
X5 EOM Hitch Photo?

Bummed I didn't get in on the Invisihitch group buy. Anyway...

Does anyone happen to have a photo of what the North American EOM hitch looks like? I looked at Daryl's photos of the Invisihitch but I don't see any photos of the OEM hitch. Searches on bimmerfest and google also came up with nothing.

We just picked up a '13 X5 with the sport package and we need a nice looking hitch for the bikes.

Tnx all.
 
#63 · (Edited)
As it happens I am right now at the Invisihitch shop to have their hitch installed on my 2010 X5d. They will remove my previous hitch, a Curt Class III hitch and a Modulite wiring harness.

The Curt hitch is an inexpensive alternative if you don't mind seeing the 2" receiver sticking out from the back. The hitch requires minimal cut in the bumper facia, nothing like the OEM BMW hitch.

I will sell my hitch for $150 + S&H, follow my thread here http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=685194

I'll be adding some pictures later of the hitch and the facia cut to give an idea what we're talking about.
 
#67 ·
I just wanted to post and say a big Thank you to Inivisihitch! :thumbup:

I had it installed on my 2013 X5 and it looks absolutely perfect. You cannot tell the difference from a new an "un-hitched" SUV. There was no cut-out on the bumper and the look is great.

Thanks Daryl!
 
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