Quote:
Originally Posted by bmwsalepro
First, I have been with BMW for 27 years in sales and management. BMW does not offer a towing package on most of the true M vehicles so you went aftermarket I assume.
Allow me to tell you what happened to a fellow manager I worked with. He had a regular X5 without the factory towing package and bought a boat. He saw what it would cost him to have the BMW parts installed and balked at the price went out and got an aftermarket tow hitch for a lot less. About a year later he brought his X5 in for an oil change and they called him into the shop. You see the aftermarket piece was pulling the undercarriage mounting sites apart. So use this as a guide. If BMW doesn't want to offer a tow package on one of their vehicles, there's a reason for it.
Now look at the picture you included. You see how it's sitting lower already in the rear? Now put four people and supplies in the vehicle and see how it looks. If I am correct and you incur damage, you'll be having warranty issues like not being covered for any damage to your X3M.
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Written like a true sales guy and not someone with any practical hands on experience.
First.... "you went aftermarket I assume" - no need to assume, I clearly listed exactly which components I used in my original post.
Second, every hitch for this platform (Stealth, draw-tite, etc) uses the exact same bumper beam mounting points as the OEM hitch on G01 X3s, as you can see in this thread:
https://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1582562 . So, aftermarket vs OEM is a moot point as they share the exact same chassis mounting points.
Third, towing a load with any vehicle will cause some rear suspension sag - that is normal and I had it on my past Jeep SRT when towing a boat. Sure, loading more weight (4 people and supplies) will cause more sag. What's your point?
Lastly, the X3M is offered with the folding rear tow hitch in UK/Europe and is rated for 2500kg. BMW likely does not offer the power-folding rear tow hitch in NA due to regulatory restrictions. I'm confident it also uses the exact same chassis mounting points as the hitches described in this thread.
Anything else?