etrailer | Mount: Draw-Tite Max-Frame Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2019 BMW X5

Click for more info and reviews of this Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch:
www.etrailer.c...
www.etrailer.com
Don’t forget to subscribe!
/ etrailertv
Full transcript: www.etrailer.c...
Hello neighbors, it's Brad here at Etrailer, and today we're taking a look at installing the Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2019 BMW X5. Now this is what your hitch is gonna look like when it's installed on the BMW, and it's really nice that it's a two inch by two inch receiver tube opening, and that just means you're gonna have plenty of options when choosing bike racks, cargo carriers, or ball mounts. Another pro of this hitch is it's a hidden cross tube, in fact, this one bolts up behind the impact bar, so the only thing that you're gonna see, is the receiver tube opening and the safety chain loops. Now all of your accessories are going to stay in place with a five eighths pin and clip, and this is not included with the hitch, a lotta times when you pick up accessories, they'll have one included. But if you wanna pick up a locking version, we have plenty of those available here at Etrailer, which is really nice if you plan on leaving your accessories on the vehicle, you can lock it in place, and know that no one's gonna walk away with your accessories Rolled-style safety chain loop is nice and open, allowing us to put a standard S hook, or even a larger clevis style, when hooking up your trailer. And speaking of towing, this one's rated at some pretty serious numbers.
Your gross trailer weight rating is gonna be 7200 pounds, and that's gonna be the weight of the trailer plus the accessories loaded up. As far as your tongue weight, you have 720 pounds, and that's gonna be the suspended weight that's put on the inside of the receiver tube opening, so, that's gonna be your bike racks, cargo carriers, and with 720 pounds, that means a four-bike bike rack fully loaded will not be a problem for this. Now as far as towing, even though it's very high weight capacities, you do wanna check the vehicle's owner's manual to see what it's capable of towing. That way, you're not gonna overload the vehicle. Also check your ball mount and any other components you may be using.
A few quick measurements from the center of the hitch pin hole to the furthest point of the rear fascia, looking at about 3.5 inches, and that's gonna be important for some of your accessories that stow up, you have foldable bike racks and cargo carriers. And this one, I don't worry too much that I'll make contact with the fascia. But just keep in mind as you open up your hat or your tailgate, it may make contact with those accessories in the stowed position. Now if you are planning on choosing a ball mount, or picking out accessories, it's gonna be important to know the ground clearance, and this one comes in at 12.5 inches, so that's important. That's a fairly decent ground clearance, but when choosing a ball mount, you wanna make sure that it's nice and level with your trailer, so, measure the coupler and then take that 12-inch measurement and from there you can determine whether you need a rise or a drop.
Now you may be wondering what is it like to install this hitch on this X5, and unfortunately, this is probably one of the tougher hitches that we have to do here at E-Trailer, we do plenty of different vehicles. And German cars in general are very well made, but that also means they're very hard to take apart. There's a lot of hidden spots to get, to hardware that is a little bit tricky. And this one with the tailgate also gets tricky. There is trimming required not only on the bumper beam, also on some plastic.
And overall this is kind of a trickier one to do. Now I'm gonna walk you through all the steps to make sure that you get it done, but if you are not mechanically inclined, I don't like to stray people away for trying it themselves, but this is kind of a trickier hit, so you might wanna rely on some handy friends that might have some special tools to help you along. Either way, let's go through this installation, and get your hitch installed. To begin our installation, we're gonna go ahead, open up our hatch, and drop our tailgate. And that way we can gain access to the screws that are behind this plastic cover. We need to get our tail lights taken out. Now this cover should come off fairly easily, you can use your fingers to just kinda pry on it, there's just gonna be some small clips that they snap onto here. So once we pull those off on both sides, we're gonna see that we have two T30 Torx bits holding our tail lights in. Now throughout the installation, we are gonna have some hardware that we're gonna be obviously removing. You're gonna want to have a nice organized spot to keep this, it's gonna make reinstallation that much easier. Now as far as getting our tail light