davatk

Greetings,

I'm seriously considering getting the Curt 13155 (hitch) and 56190 (wiring package) for a 2013 GLK250. I've seen some threads on there from prior installs, but was wondering if anyone had any updated guidance that might help with some prior lessons learned. I think a lot of the pics from previous posts are no longer available - making the guidance more difficult to follow.

Anyhow, would appreciate any assistance !

Rascally Wabbit

Biggest issue is fitment as there is a redesign for the 2013 model. www.etrailer.com has a video available for installation. Hope you can tolerate the look of the aftermarket hitch when compared to the OEM. And from installing an OEM hitch myself, imo it is way beefier than anything I have seen aftermarket. The bumper reinforcement beam with hitch (OEM) weighs in @ 48 lbs. vs. 13 lbs. for a standard bumper reinforcement. Plus there are two additional side frame reinforcements! Furthermore, the OEM trailer wire harness is all plug & play, no slicing or dicing of the original wire harness. Yes, it only has a 1 1/4" receiver but there are workarounds for that. Good luck!

davatk

Didn't see a video specifically for the GLK 250 and the CURT Hitch. Written Iinstructions are a bit hard to make out the pics. Wish I'd have got the OEM hitch when I got the vehicle, but with only 9 months left on lease I can't see paying that much just to pull my jetski around a few times the rest of the summer..

musclecarman

I know there has been a few posts about trailer hitches on here. I've installed some hitches on a few of the cars that I have owned, the last one being a Curt hitch and wiring
harness on my Mitsubishi Outlander V6 . When I got my 2014 GLK 250 in March, one of the must options was a hitch. The dealer located one for me and I took delivery of the car.
I drove it back from Florida to New York not towing anything,and got 39.5 mpg hand calculated. My next trip down to Florida I towed my Harley Road King with my kendon trailer. The towing ability of the GLK totally impressed me. The factory hitch is wired into the system to give stability control also (There was no side sway). Also, on the backup camera it has a trailer mode that shows a line over the hitch ball so you can back the car up, right under the trailer coupling (Great feature). The other thing that it did, was tell me to check my right trailer tail light. I have LED tail lights on the trailer that consist of about
8 little LED bulbs in each tail light. Sure enough, one of those little LED's were out. It picked up that slight voltage imbalance. So I don't know if aftermarket will wire in with the same results. I also got a tic over 30 mpg towing that trailer and bike to Florida, and back
to NY.

Rascally Wabbit

@musclecarman, thank you for the post. When researching the OEM trailer hitch harness, there are two shown, at least for my 2010. Evidently the options on the vehicle (back-up camera et al) will make a difference as to which harness is correct for a particular vehicle. Now that I have the two harnesses required, it is obvious (your comment substantiates)there is a lot more going on with the OEM harness vs. an aftermarket.

dawaldo

I recently completed the installation of aftermarket trailer hitch and wiring on a 2014 GLK250. The hitch, by Curt, with 3500 lb. capacity went on per the installation diagram. However, I wrestled for several hours trying to drop the exhaust from the hangars. I strongly recommend you buy the specialized tool for this before you begin. The big problem was in the wiring. I was installing a flat four wire Curt package, with leads to positive and negative. The positive can be tapped into as a wire going to the 12V DC to 110V AC inverter and the ground is self evident, both in the right rear of the vehicle behind the covers. The big problem is hooking up the other wires. Using an electrical testor one can determine which wire, say, is the right turn signal. But when you hook up to it the car's computer determines a change in the wiring load or something and kicks off the circuit, with or without an error message on the dash. I found, after endless frustration, a way to circumvent this. There is an electrical connection box inside the vehicle that takes 6 wires in and four wires out. The wires out go through the body to the light bulb housing behind the taillight lens. If you connect to the downstream side of this box, the computer doesn't kick out the circuit and you can make everything work. That's it, I just saved you a week of frustration, and $1700 on the cost of installation vs the aftermarket MB dealer installation, for which I was quoted $2000.
To avoid all this, get a vehicle with the $575 hitch and wiring option factory installed, but when looking at a substantial discount for a year end closeout from a dealer on an existing inventory product without the hitch, you can DIY.

formerjeepguy

Would you please post pics of your wiring? With pictures it is a lot easier to follow what you have done.

Thank you.

davatk

When I installed mine, I called Curtis and spok with a guy named John. He was able to provide the wiring information. If you get him, I'm sure he can help.

davatk

I had a similar experience. Especially with the exhaust hangars. I will probably be removing the hitch at the end of my lease, so I will definitely be purchasing a tool for the exhaust hangars.

Regarding the wiring, I had some issues as well, but called the Curtis Tech Support line and spoke with a guy named John and he had the wiring setup for the GLK 250.

dawaldo

I'm sorry but I don't have any pictures. As I recall the 12V positive was a red/gray wire going into the bottom of the inverter, but you'll have to strip some insulation to verify. The junction box I referred to is the one located behind the taillight lens, that a 6 wire plug goes into on the interior side. In my experience don't bother trying to identify the correct wires here, but remove the taillight lens, run your wires through the body, and hook on on the exterior side of this junction box. In my recollection the turn signal wires are gray, but I can't remember about running and stop. FYI I have the LED lights on my 2014 GLK250, and etrailer.com told me there was no wiring harness suitable for this vehicle, but I found the Curt 4 wire harness with leads for 12V power worked "fine", although there was no support.

kbsdds

Just finished up wiring up my Curt 56190 tail light converter. Since I don't have either the 110 inverter nor a 12v power source, I tapped into the rear fusebox located under the rear trunk area. I tried using the wiring suggestion by the previous post, but it did not work at all for me. You need to ground both the red and white wire then grab the wires for the lights before they go into the back of the taillight assembly. Left brake/turnsignal is pink, tailight is black/ purplish grey and on the right side the right brake/taillight is royal blue. It takes a little while to fish the wires so they look professional but install is now done and works perfectly. I was able to install the Curt hitch without removing the exhaust. It just took a bit of manhandling to get it up and over the tailpipe