Towing with a BMW?

[spielnicht]

I can honestly say that I've never seen a BMW towing something behind it on the road. I was having a conversation with a friend about the PITA of working on my house without easy access to a flat-bed truck. Long story short, he was suggesting I do what he does and get a utility trailer to tow things around. Hummmm?? Interesting. I also flip BMWs (not physically...lol) in my spare time, so being able to potentially pick up smaller BMWs is a big plus.

I'm curious how many if you out there put their BMWs to work towing things around and what is it considered too excessive to be towing with a BMW.

I personally don't like driving SUVs (that's all my wife), but I could seriously consider an X5 or X6 (M50i) as a replacement for my 550i to do this.

[tturedraider]

A fair number of BMW car owners use utility trailers. Absolutely no problem. In Germany they tow small “caravans”, camper trailers. I would not tow another car on a trailer. That is not a good idea.

I have some photos I will post later. You can google and find some.

[BIGW0RM]

One of BMW's racers Bill Auberlen (really nice guy) use to tow his big ass power boat to Havasu with a X6.

[MADBMWX5MC]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

A fair number of BMW car owners use utility trailers. Absolutely no problem. In Germany they tow small “caravans”, camper trailers. I would not tow another car on a trailer. That is not a good idea.

I have some photos I will post later. You can google and find some.

Spot on. Having served 7 yrs in GE, I saw this many times.

[BlkGS]

I suspect you're gonna find that moat W driver's aren't "get their hands dirty" types, and don't tow ever. Not to say they can't, they can tow quote heavy loads with X5 or X7, just that they don't.

I'm likely going to get a small folding utility trailer for use around my house, though will probably tow it with other vehicles because the tow hitch was a fairly rare option on X5s, and mine doesn't have it. Adding it is a like $1500 endeavor. On the other hand, both of my American SUVs came standard with tow hitches and tow packages, so I can just use them.

That said, I also am constantly thinking about how I should have just bought an f150, and maybe we will just buy an f150.

[SmokieRiver]

I used my prior 2001 330xi to tow a double ski trailer.

[noemon]

I've towed my jet ski with a 3 litre diesel cayenne for years. And that means the yearly 600 mile round-trip from its garage(Glyfada) to the beach(Elafonisos) and back, and it's almost daily in and out for 4-5 weeks every summer. no issue whatsoever, can't imagine an x3 or x5 struggling with trailers up to 1 tonne total weight.

That boat above is a different story. That must certainly weigh more than 1 tonne with the trailer and that is beyond a regular car's capabilities.

I would tow something like that in an emergency or perhaps force the car to suffer it once in a non-emergency but I would really not pull a trailer as big and heavy as that on a recurring basis with a standard car. The car would be destroyed fairly quickly, clutches, brakes, tyres, even nuts and bolts.

I think 1 tonne is a good upper limit and guide for X5's, Cayennes and such, which places other standard cars on a trailer as no-go's.

[BMWbiker]

I saw a white BMW towing a trailer over the weekend. I think it was an X3, but I saw it only briefly as it passed me going the other direction. It may have been an X5.

[tturedraider]

Personally I would not tow the last two big “caravans”, but those are Europeans towing them and they do it frequently, and I would only tow a car with an SUV.