Stealth Hitches Hidden Rack Receiver - Custom Fit - 2"

Video Transcript for Stealth Hitches Hidden Rack Receiver Installation - 2023 BMW X4

Hey everyone, Ryan here at etrailer. Today on our 2023 BMW X4, we're gonna be showing you how to install the Stealth trailer hitch receiver. But before we do that, let's take a minute and check this out. When it comes to a vehicle like the BMW X4, the first thing that would come to my mind if I was wanting to put a hitch on it is how's it gonna look You know, 'cause these are really nice vehicles and if it we inchesre me, I wouldn't want, you know, a big giant hitch hanging down here taken away from the appearance of it. And when it comes to, you know, the appearance, it doesn't really get much better than a Stealth hitch. And that's because when you're not using it, the tube is going to be detachable.

And, so, right now, believe it or not, the main body of the hitch is installed on our vehicle ready to be used. So you can't even tell it's there at all. It looks completely factory. But, when we're ready to use our accessory, you take the two, (metal clanking) and this will pop into shoe position, lock in place, and now we can put that accessory in. Something I do wanna mention, there are two different variations of this hitch, if you will.

You'll have this one which comes with just the receiver tube opening and this is only intended to be used with accessories like a bike rack or cargo carrier or something like that. If you're wanting to tow with it, there's a towing package available which will come with this receiver, too. And then a special ball mount that you can put inside the main body, the hitch, that will allow you to actually hook your trailer up to it. And that kit also comes with trailer wiring. So, you know, depending on what you're trying to get done, you know there's gonna be a kit available for you.

And with that said, too, a lot of times, you know, let's say, if you're just gonna use accessories now and then a couple years down the road you you want to end up pulling a trailer around or something, a lot of times you can pick up those other components separately and kind of convert this into a towing package, if you will. When picking out a hitch for your X4, I do want to emphasize it is important to use our fit guide, the dropdown menu in it, in regards to the type of submodel that you have because between the different submodels there are some minor differences, and as far as what this hitch is going to fit, it's gonna fit the M Competition series like we have here today, as well as the xDrive30i submodels. I know there's a few others, or different types of submodels, and if you have one of those, just a checker fit guide, and you know, even if this exact hitch isn't a fit, there's gonna be another one available, more than likely, that will give you the same results as this one. A lot of people do wonder if the hands-free lift gate assist is still gonna work whenever you have the hitch installed, and the answer is yes, regardless if you have the receiver tube in or out, it'll still operate, you know, you just kick your foot to either side of that opening and the hatch will open up like it should. The receiver tube is gonna have a two-inch by two-inch opening, which is a good thing.

That's a super common size and so a ton of different accessories will work with it and it is going to use the standard five eighths pin and clip. Now, one doesn't come included with the hitch if you need one, not a big deal, you can get it here at etrailer. A lot of times, too, if you end up buying a new accessory, they'll come with one. So, just something to look out for there. As far as what the hitch can handle, that's gonna have a 600-pound maximum gross tongue weight rating, and that's gonna be the amount of weight pushing down on the hitch, and that's a pretty high number. So you should be able to use just about any size bike rack or cargo carrier that you'd want to, for example. With that said though, I do always like to recommend, never a bad idea to grab your BMW's owner's manual. That way you can check in there and make sure it can handle that much weight safely. We'll grab a couple measurements now and these will help us figure out what type of accessories will work best. So if you go from the ground to the top inside edge of their receiving tube opening, taking into account the lift that we're parked on, that's gonna be about 14 inches, which is pretty good. You know, it sits up pretty tight against the bottom of the vehicle. So if your accessory has a straight shank, probably be in pretty good shape. If you have one that has a rise in it, even better. Buy you a little more ground clearance back here. If you go from the center of the hitch pin hole to the edge of the rear bumper, that's only gonna be about an inch and a half, which is really good. So you shouldn't really come into too many issues here, but if need be you can use that measurement to help figure out exactly if any of those folding-type accessories you might have can be stored in that upright position without hitting the back of your X4. To compare this hitch to another one which is made by Draw-Tite, with that hitch, it's going to be permanently fixed back here, meaning the receiver tube is not detachable. With that said, it's not bad looking by any means, you know, for the most part that Draw-Tite is gonna be hidden. You'll see the receiver tube opening there but, you know, it's really gonna depend on on what you're looking for and what you're trying to get out of the hitch. With the Draw-Tite, you can use accessories and be able to tow with it, kind of right out of the box. So, you know, if appearance is utmost importance, hard to beat the Stealth hitch. If you're gonna be using the hitch a lot, and, you know, willing to compromise the appearance, the Draw-Tite would definitely be worth looking into. How this is actually gonna work here is pretty straightforward. When you're ready to remove it, you'll have this lever, turn that, the receiver tube will drop out and then you can store this forever, and they actually make carrying cases for these that are really nice if that's something that interests you. But, then when you're ready to use it, (metal clanking) just lock it into position and that's really all there is to it. So, ultimately, at the end of the day a really nice setup. You know, Stealth makes really high quality hitches and which in turn makes everything go together pretty good As far as the installation goes, it's time consuming, for sure, but definitely doable. Just stay patient, and, you know, if you got a decent set of hand tools and a little bit of time to set aside, you know, maybe some mechanical confidence, you know, this is something you could tackle, just take your time with it, you know, if it's something you don't wanna mess with, definitely understand that, as well. You can always check out our dealer locator and hopefully get you pointed to a shop that can potentially handle it for you. But, with that said, why don't we go ahead and start to install a hitch now. To begin our installation we're gonna be here at the back of our vehicle and you can go ahead and open up the hatch, and, first and foremost, what I did was use painter's tape and put it around all the edges and seams that we're gonna be working with. That way we don't scratch anything up. So I got that done and then we can take our floor covering and just fold that up and and out of the way. (plastic shuffling) We're gonna have this little cover here on the inside. We're just gonna pop that off and set it to the side and from this point on whatever we do to one side of the vehicle, we'll also do to the other side 'cause it'll be set up the same way. On this little plastic cover here we're gonna have a pushpin-style fastener and we need to remove it. I'm just taking a little flathead screwdriver and we get underneath of it and loosen it up, and to pop it out, and then this little plastic cover will just lift off and we can get it removed. With the cover gone, that'll expose a fastener here, in our case it's an eight millimeter head, yours might be a seven, just kind of depends, but either way needs to come out. (power tool roars) We're gonna have two torques bit-style fasteners we need to remove. So one will be right here. (power tool unscrewing) It's a T 20, and then one just like it on the side piece here. (metal clanking) I'll get that pulled out. You can get this side panel removed now and so you wanna start at the top (plastic crunching) and work it out. Then once you get about halfway, you just wanna slide it up to release it. We're able to remove these two rubber grommets and just pop these out with a flathead screwdriver and deep inside of there there's gonna be two 10 millimeter head nuts and those are helping to secure the taillight. So I have a deep well socket and something I like to do is just take a piece of paper towel and put it in the socket, and that'll help kind of hold onto that nut and hopefully prevent it from falling out and dropping down. (metal cranking) And we'll go ahead and get both of these removed and the studs that they're on are pretty long and they're fine thread, so it does take quite a bit of turning. (metal cranking) Sometimes, too, if you just keep turning it, and it feels like it's not doing much, which this one is backing off, it just takes a while 'cause they're nylon lock nuts, you can't always go to the next one and loosen it up. And there's one more that we can loosen, too, and then, you know, by doing that you can kind of put a little pressure on the taillight once it's loose and make those nuts easier to to get off there. (metal clanking) So the bottom one's just about ready to come off. My paper towel fell off so I'm just gonna take a magnet, and at least get it close in there. (metal clanging) And there it is, that's what the nut looks like. I'll continue to work this one until we get it off and then we can move on to the last one. The third and final nut is gonna be right there, again, a 10 millimeter. And, while you're removing this, make sure you have a hold on the taillight 'cause it's the last thing holding it in. (metal clanging) You can take our taillight now and just pull straight out on it and we don't have a ton of room here because it is still connected so we're gonna need to disconnect it. These electrical connectors are a little tricky. There's an itty bitty tab, they're in the middle, and you can push that down and start to kinda work the connector out, and with it unplugged we'll set it to the side. Moving to the bottom side of her vehicle now, along the edge here, just behind her back tire, we're gonna have two 10 millimeter head screws. (power tool roaring) And I'm doing this first 'cause it'll loosen this piece up a little bit and make it easier for us to get our wheel well trim removed. Moving to the wheel well edge here, this trim piece, there's gonna be three plastic rivets holding in, just like this, and the hitch is gonna give you new ones. So a couple of ways you can get these out, you can try to pry 'em out, that's kind of a pain though. So I like to take a a drill bit, a little bit bigger in the center of it. (power drill drilling) And just drill it out like that. Makes it a little easier. Just be careful, you don't wanna run your bit way up in there. (power drill drilling) And sometimes, too, if, you know, drill it out and the head stays on there, you know, at that point you can pry it out, but, got lucky so far, let me get this last one out. (power drill drilling) As far as getting this trim piece off, what I like to do is just kind of work it back and forth to help kind of loosen everything up, and then you want to kind of pull down on this piece a little bit, and up on this piece, 'cause it's clipped in like that. And then there's just these little clips holding it in which these are coming out pretty easy. Sometimes if they're hung up in there you might have to come in with a plastic pick or something and kind of push down while you're pulling that out. And, you know, we'll get it to about here, just enough to kind of clear where the fascia and the quarter panel meet and enough to allow us to get to these two screws. I did take a soft towel and kind of stuffed it in here to keep this pulled away. And then we'll grab our eight millimeter. (power tool roaring) Pull out those two screws. (power tool roaring) Back underneath, in our case, and in the center, on each side, we're gonna have one 10 millimeter head screw we can remove, and depending on your submodel, you know, it might be set up a little different. We have the M series, so the M competition, I believe it is, and, you know, the other ones might have an underbody panel here, look a little different, but ultimately you're gonna have to detach the actual fascia from, you know, whatever it's bolted to. So, go ahead and check everything out, and get those fasteners removed. Moving on to these reflectors here. If yours are vertical like ours are, you're not gonna have to bother with them. If yours are horizontal, you'll have to remove 'em, so you can check the instructions and give you some guidance there. But I'll say if you go to pull those out, be extremely careful 'cause they're really easy to break. I may have learned the hard way, so just take my advice there, you know, be really gentle with them, get 'em popped out, and then you can get to the fastener that's located behind it and pull it out. At this point we can get our fascia removed and so you definitely want some help with this. You wanna start with the corner. All right, and again, like with this one, I like to just kinda work it to help loosen everything up, and then, (plastic rattling) if you come in kind of behind it and push up and out like that, it'll start to release these clips, and everything's coming apart pretty easily, if you have to, we'll have these little retaining pieces there, you can push down on those while you're pulling out, 'til you kinda release everything. Just take your time while you're doing this. You know, ideally you'd want the person on the other side to kinda be at the, you know, the same position that you're in. I'll just carefully keep working this off here. (plastic rattling) (metal scraping) (plastic rattling) (plastic banging) So I missed a couple of fasteners, it didn't look like we would have to remove 'em but I think we will 'cause the fascia's getting hung up. You got these two on each side that looks like it's connected to a plastic bracket with some wiring and stuff on it. So, just gonna pull 'em out with a 10 millimeter. If I had to do it again I would probably pull them out at the same time we were taking these ones off, but, you know, we'll figure it out here and now we should be able to get our fascia off. After taking them screws out, fascia came right off. Then on each side, in our case, we have an electrical connector, a little squeeze on it, get everything unplugged, and we'll set our fascia off to the side somewhere safe. We are gonna need to lower our our exhaust now and even though we have some reinforcement beams here, just be on the safe side. I like to take a strap and just run it from side to side. That way it'll help support the exhaust a little bit. By our exhaust tips, here, we're gonna have a bracket and that's held in place with a 13 millimeter nut. (metal clanging) And then remove that, we'll probably just pop that bracket off the stud there. On our bumper beam we're gonna have this plastic piece that's held in place with six pushpin-style fasteners just like this one here. So you'll have three on each side. You can take a small flat head screwdriver and pull it out. Then once we get all of them removed, you don't wanna unplug this or anything. What I'm gonna do is just kind of rotate it up and set it in the back of her car. We'll get our bumper beam removed, so on each side you're gonna have two 18-millimeter head nuts. So I got a deep ball socket and extension. (power tool roaring) And pull that one off, and I got the other side removed already. I'm just applying some pressure to it with my shoulder here to keep it in place. (power tool roaring) And with all of them off now we should be able to slide this off the back of our vehicle. We can grab our hitch now, and this is just gonna go over the studs, and the bumper beam eventually will go back on, but something that I like to do 'cause it's a lot easier to see and get to, just take your factory nuts there. We're just gonna snug 'em down. (power drill drilling) To keep this loosely in place. And my reasoning is if you have the bumper beam back on, we're gonna have a big block here that we need to bolt to this part, and with that bumper beam back on it, it's hard to see and hard to get to. So, we'll loosely secure this and get that done. (power drill drilling) Here's our block and you want the handle mechanism to be on the passenger side. So this'll just line up the holes there and you take the big bolts, (metal clanging) you'll run those through. (metal clanging) Then on the other side where they come out, you have these nylon lock nuts. (metal scraping) We'll get both of them going, and we can come back with a 15/16th socket and wrench and snug 'em down. (power tool roaring) Now that they're snug, you wanna make sure and come back with a torque wrench and tighten them down to the amount specified in the instructions. Now that we have that torqued, I removed the factory nuts from the studs. You wanna make sure that the hitch is centered, you know, not really much to do that there. There's not a whole lot of adjustment, so get it how you want it, and then, we'll take our (metal clanging) bumper beam. Put that back in place, and get all the hardware started here. (metal clanging) (metal clanging) now that they're all in place, and tight, come back with our 18. (power tool roaring) Snug them down. (power tool roaring) And then change out to our torque wrench and get these all torqued to the amount specified in the instructions, as well. We'll grab this plastic piece and get it lined back up and re-secured with our pushpin fasteners. I went ahead and raised our exhaust back up and secured it with the two factory nuts. Got rid of the strap that we had underneath there and now at this point if you're gonna be installing the trailer wiring, it'd be a great time to do that, while everything's still opened up and easy to get to. In our case, that's a part that we're not installing, so, we'll just continue to move on with our hitch here. When it comes to getting the fascia back on, you know, everyone's setup might be a little bit different. You may or may not need to trim a little bit out from underneath of it to get the clearance that you need. In our case, with the M competition model, it's wide open underneath there and I don't think we're gonna need to trim. I did hold the fascia up and roughly test fit it, to get an idea. It looks like we're in good shape, so if you have a different submodel, reference the instructions, see if they get you going in the right direction and then you can always, too, like I did, roughly hold it up there, take a look at it and do what you need to do. So, I think we're in good shape and we can get this put back together. With help from Joe here, we will go ahead and get this fascia put back in place, get it closed. Don't forget to plug in any electrical connections that you may have disconnected. So, the last thing to do with this is kind of get everything close, make sure it all lines up and everything before you completely snap it back into place, which it's all going together pretty good. So, I think we're in good shape. When you're putting everything back together, really the only difference is gonna be these new fasteners that they give you to re-secure the wheel well liner. If you remember we drilled those rivets out. These ones are more of a pushpin-style fastener and actually feel pretty high quality, so that's a good sign. But, with these, just put 'em in like that and push a head down and it gets super tight. So I'm just taking a little plastic tool here to give me some extra leverage to seed 'em completely in. With everything all put back together, that will finish up our look at and our installation of the Stealth hitch trailer hitch receiver on our 2023 BMW X4.