Trailer Hitch

[95525ibob]

Anybody put a hitch on their car? Looking for help on the wiring for a 4 pin harness.

Is there a factory option for a hitch? Will there be a plug I can hook up to or just cut and paste wires.



I bought a Curt hitch from summit racing. Have to drill some holes tonight and see what happens.

Almost time to fish the lower river! Best fishing in the world, I hope the new car brings me luck.

[AHenry014]

The curt hitch (and others of the same design) is the only offering in the US for the e34. I had one and used it a lot. It works great, just cant support a whole lot of tongue weight, so be careful with that. The euro cars had an oem option. Some people in the US import them. Keep in mind the ball is commonly 50mm, which is basically a 2" ball. AFAIK there is no other ball option.

As for wiring, there is no plug and play option for the e34. Its a splice job. Go for something like this:
http://www.hopkinstowingsolutions.co...lid_state.html

its basically a relay box that uses the signal and brake light splice as a trigger. Hooks to the battery. Never had any issues with false light out notifications.

[demetk]

Easy to just solder in the wiring.

Reese class II receiver hitch on mine,

[struka]

Anybody put a hitch on their car? Looking for help on the wiring for a 4 pin harness.

Is there a factory option for a hitch? Will there be a plug I can hook up to or just cut and paste wires.



I bought a Curt hitch from summit racing. Have to drill some holes tonight and see what happens.

Almost time to fish the lower river! Best fishing in the world, I hope the new car brings me luck.

I was planning on installing a Curt hitch and get the wiring but ended up going a different route and selling the hitch. I still have the plug that I bought in the box, never used if you are interested. I will have to see which kind though.

[95525ibob]

Light load, I use a 500lb jet ski to fish from. Canadian custom

The plugs are pretty cheap what did you want for it?

I was thinking of mounting this up under rear bumper.

https://www.amazon.com/Hopkins-Towin...6VMH2EF7RXW9X4

[Layne]

In the OEM installation, there is an 'anhangermodul' that just plugs into the taillight harness and powers the trailer lights through relays rather than adding them to the existing lighting circuits. If you can find one, it's the way to go for sure. Tapping into the existing circuits isn't the end of the world though, especially if you use LED bulbs in the trailer.

In either case, you need a 'taillight converter' to connect to a 4 pin trailer. Euro trailers have the brake lights and blinkers separate, just like euro cars. On US trailers they are the same light. You need the converter to merge the two signals into one. Easily available at autozone etc.

[AHenry014]

I wouldnt bother trying to wire in a 7pin plug. You'll never need it. Wire a conventional 4pin plug in the truck and just string the connector out when you need it.

[Layne]

I wouldnt bother trying to wire in a 7pin plug. You'll never need it. Wire a conventional 4pin plug in the truck and just string the connector out when you need it.

Who said anything about a 7 pin plug? The relevant euro plug is 13 pins, but no you don't need it and they are stupidly hard to get in the US.

(it does have interesting functions, like charging an auxiliary battery and reverse lights though)

[AHenry014]

I was speaking to the link above, Hopkins 47185.

[Layne]

I was speaking to the link above, Hopkins 47185.

Oh ok. Link doesn't work for me.

7 pin (or maybe just 6?) is used in the US for electric brakes. There's no such thing as electric brakes in europe as far as I can tell (they have 'push brakes' hydraulic or mechanical). Brakes are a good idea for heavy loads, you need them to get the 1900kg tow capacity on an E34, but small trailers almost never have them in the US, and when they do they're electric. You'd have to custom build the trailer if you really want to tow 1900kg with an E34 (or just do it anyway, but not on hills). So yeah... 7 pin = not needed.

[AHenry014]

Brakes are on trailers made to tow 3000lbs or more. Seeing as how the Curt hitch is only good for 1500lbs, 7pin would be silly to wire in.

[m735is]

I love the hitch I put on my touring. I used the converter box wiring also.

[noypi2]

I love the hitch I put on my touring. I used the converter box wiring also.

What hitch did you have...I want to do this on my touring in the future. Any pictures?




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[Layne]

What hitch did you have...I want to do this on my touring in the future. Any pictures?

I have the Westfalia one, factory installed. Here's a pic with the bumper off (trailer ball not attached). For some reason the factory replaces the bumper shocks with rigid struts when the hitch is used. I suppose the shocks wouldn't work anyway with the hitch inside the bumper.


2014-04-16.jpg

[moroza]

What kinds of tongue and trailer weights are yall pulling? Where's the 1900kg figure come from?

I figure if my 3000# 90hp (when new... 36 years ago) Yota can handle 5500# GCVW, about 1800 of it in the trailer, my 3600# 320hp E34 can too.

[Layne]

What kinds of tongue and trailer weights are yall pulling? Where's the 1900kg figure come from?

1900kg max is on a sticker on the ball gooseneck. Inside the car are additional stickers indicating that the tongue weight cannot exceed 75kg, but cannot be less than 50kg when the load is over 1500kg. The most I've actually towed was 2300lbs of concrete on a 500-ish lb trailer. It's nice to be able to haul things on an irregular basis, but the gas mileage and power suffer so badly that I wouldn't want to RV across the country with it. You'd use more fuel than a pickup truck.

[m735is]

I have the Curt one. I actually had it on my e32 but sold that car and kept the hitch. It doesn't fit the e34 (since it's e32 specific), so I had to extend the bumper mount with some aluminum I cut off of an e32 rear bumper. So far it has handled my 5X8 trailer loaded with 4 motors I took to the scrap yard. I does handle 2 motorcycles pretty easily. Plus the fact that when I dragged my touring home last year, the rear bumper was smashed loading the car onto a car dolly- it's not pretty.I'll see if I can get pics.

I do see how the stronger rear bumper mounts would help.

[95525ibob]

https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...bmw/model/525i

This is the one I got. $188 CDN

Drill Two 1" holes in the bumper plastic and 5 3/8 holes to mount it.

Fits great. Well designed for sure!

[Layne]

I do see how the stronger rear bumper mounts would help.

The euro hitch does not touch the bumper in any way.