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If your owner's manual does not cover towing and there is not a tow label in the door jam, then yes it will void your warranty in regards to components that could receive damage such as transmissions, rear diffs, suspension, and/or brakes.
Not to mention, if involved in an accident while towing and the officer knows much about cars, you could end up with fines, loss of driving privileges, etc. Depending on your local laws in regards to improperly operating a motor vehicle.
i doubt most officers will know about the towing rating of every car. They probably know the rule of thumb that electric/hybrid vehicles are not designed for towing and/or if you’re towing a weight which is too heavy for your car size. The c class is commonly used for towing and most of us didn’t know the 63 AMGs don’t have a tow rating until we looked it up. As long as you weren’t towing something heavy that led to the accident (which wouldn’t be the case with the OP towing bikes) it should also be fine since the officers will be specifically looking for the factors that actually caused the accident.
The rear diffuser will not work with the hitch. It has to be trimmed. Pretty easy to do with a dremel (see pics), but it means you cannot run an aftermarket 'big fin' diffuser, stock only. I suppose you could trim an aftermarket diffuser also, but you'd be trimming quite a bit and it would look off.
Our rear exhausts have a bracket that connects them from left to right. The hitch gets in the way of this bracket so bracket had to be spaced out on both sides with spacers to clear the hitch.
Oh, as for insurance and liability and all that jazz, people talk out of their *** on that front (including in this thread). I called my insurance company and got this in writing - "Your car does not have to be rated by manufacturer for towing for us to cover your trailer and belongings. What we (insurance company) care about is whether your trailer is added to your policy, and the amount of coverage you carry on your trailer"
As for manufacturer warranty, I couldn't tell you. My car is out of warranty now anyway, and when it comes time to trade in, I plan on removing the hitch before going to dealers. Just because I would prefer to not get into this discussion with dealers on a car I am about to trade in anyway.
Diffuser trimmed:
Exhaust clamp spaced out:
Final product: (I wanted the wiring to be quickly disconnectable when I trade the car in, so we didn't bother running it seamlessly underneath the car)
Obviously, the C63 makes for a great tow car. It tows my ~1200-1500 lbs like it's not even there. What's best - I can get the bikes to the track and do a few sessions in the car as well, which I do sometimes.
For all the haters and sceptics, here's my real tow car
Great work and post. Glad to see the voice of reason here after all the snobbish ‘oh no it’s immoral to tow with a AMG buy a suv or it will offend me’. I also agree with you re insurance/law enforcement with the towing - as long as you’re not towing something unreasonably heavy and that the towing itself was a factor in an accident you’ll be absolutely fine.
i tow cars around my parking lot with my smart car all the time. people say there's no way it can pull a 6000lb truck, well it does. It may not like it but all 68 squirrel powers make it happen. I dont see any reason why a c63 couldn't tow. The chassis has amg stiffening/extra welds, the spring and dampening rates are much higher, the brakes much bigger. Should you tow a small light trailer going 150? no. tow a small light trailer at regular speeds sure why not. It's no more dangerous than people hauling those scary uhaul trailers at 90mph that even say on the side 45mph max speed. lol.
Props for posting this up for the community to reference and actually towing with it. Id almost consider installing one to put a tire carrier on it for track use but the wifey would kill me.
well, the biggest danger we’ve established in this thread is that it offends the sensitive people on here who find it a sacrilege to use your amg in a practical way. It’s not just on here, but I also saw it in the M4 forums - really ridiculous statements and jokes being targeted at OPs who asked about tow bars for their M4/5a. I go on long continental trips across Europe regularly and thus need to carry more than what my car can carry - the only way to do so is by adding a cargo hitch box/small box trailer. Only a fool would sacrifice the joy of a long trip with the AMG and drive a crap car instead because some snobs on the internet deem it ‘wrong’.
08-23-2022, 09:24 AM
