Curt hitch from etrailer on 07 3.0 E70

[DoodleD]

I put my hitch on today and it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. Etrailer says 90 minutes for the installation, I did it in about a 75 taking my time. You can see on my one photo the I did have to notch the bottom of the facia so the receiver would fit in, but it is underneath and you have to crawl under to see it. The notch is the width of the receiver, approx. 2" +/- by about 3".

I went with the Curt hitch because I use the hitch more for a basket and bike rack, even though it is rated at 6000 lbs. I do occasionally pull a utility trailer for other small jobs, but thats the most of it and my reasoning for going with the aftermarket unit and the fact that with electrical, it only cost me $277 total plus my time.

The electric was very easy too, it took me between 90-120 minutes. I was more concerned of what my X5 might do after I reconnected the battery and started it back up. When I did this, I got 3 errors messages:

1. Reset clock, which I had to do through the idrive.
2. DTC inactive - this corrected itself after about 1-2 miles of driving.
3. AWD inactive - this also corrected itself after about 1-2 miles of driving.

The good news is other than setting the clock, all my personal setting remained. So I'm good to go and want thank everone here on these boards where I learned a lot before tackling this rather simple job.

Feel free to ask questions, I'll do my best to return the favors.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563938218mAoQCG

[Fastbuck]

Neat job, good effort!

[Quicksilver]

Would have been nice to see the actual install steps.

[rvas69]

Looks nice! Did you actually study why that website offers three different hitches? Are those just different brands/designs?

[DoodleD]

There are step by step instructions with photos that I found and used from this forum. If you search "hitch installation", you will find them. I'll check and post them here.

I did study the three different hitches and originally ordered the Draw-Tite because of having that hitch on my last two SUV's, but later found threads showing the Draw-Tite requiring a large section of the facia cut out, exposing part of the muffler, which I did not like and I then had to search out a trim kit to finish the cut out. I did the trim kit for about $27. That's when I came across a photo of the Curt and changed my order. I also found some information on the Hidden Hitch but was unable to determine if a large facia cut out was required or not.

[DoodleD]

Thanks to Ranchhand for his step by step photos. http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e70-forum/...h+installation

[tim-atl]

Thanks for the pics Doodle!

How high is the hitch off the ground?

Tim

[DoodleD]

It is 12" off the ground. I'm not sure how much the factory unit is off the ground, but would be curious to know.