Quote:
Originally Posted by sirdaft1
You sir are a saint. THANK YOU. That was FAR more helpful than most every other thread that I've read on the topic. Wish I could appreciate your reply more than once. 
Also, sounds like you strongly recommend the BMW hitch? Any 'hidden' options that you would recommend? Or would you say function over form when it comes to a tow hitch for an X5? Thanks again. |
I'm just glad I could help.
As far as I know all trailers with electronic brakes are 7 pin now a days. The BMW harness is 7 pin and the brake controller I sent a link is 7 pin. The BMW harness does come with a 7->4 pin adapter. Though 4 pin trailers generally only have lighting.
As for hitches. Here's the things you may want to consider about towing and hitch selection and their ability to handle tough towing situations. Towing is a balancing act to prevent trailer sway and maintain good handling. Sway can make towing merely miserable (when your constantly fighting to keep the car in its lane at slow speed) to dangerous.
The name of the game for towing comfort and safety is preventing sway.
Sway prevention primarily requires 2 things; having the car and trailer towing level, and ensuring your tongue weight is at least 10-15% of your trailer weight. Of course these two are related, the more tongue weight the more the rear of your car sags. If you have leveling suspension this can compensate to an extent. To ensure level towing you need an adjustable hitch ball that you can raise and lower to ensure both vehicles are towing level. The only ones I've seen that are adjustable require a receiver hitch. Which is why I don't lean towards car hitches that aren't receiver type. They lack the adjustablity one needs to tow at highway speeds without sway. Also you can't use an anti-sway hitch without a receiver type hitch.
So having my come to Jesus towing experiences (code brown), and I have done thousands of miles of towing with a travel trailer, I'll take safe, easy relaxed towing any day over a setup that doesn't make it easy to compensate for sway. If your loads are light (less than 50% of tow vehicle weight), speeds are low (55mph or less), winds are low then you can get away with less optimal towing. But if you're driving thousands of miles at highway speeds and variable winds, you'll want form over aesthetics.