and it's way more involved than the included instructions indicate - they say it only takes 30 minutes, but it took me 5 hours using a lift! (didn't do any wiring - don't need it)

The time would have been somewhat shorter if I had known the correct procedure for removing the rear bumper, but we had to figure it out as we went along.

I would not recommend doing this install yourself unless you have access to a lift and/or a very good selection of tools. I did it at a military base shop with access to all their tools in addition to mine. It could be done on jackstands, but will be more difficult.

The instructions don't mention removing the rear bumper cover, but it is essential to get at the vertical bumper bolts.

Removing the bumper is easy once you know how: remove two or three bolts in the wheel well area, pull out (break) the plastic rivets at the bottom of the mudflap area (one on each side). One of the bolts is horizontal behind the plastic wheel well liner, push it back to see the bolt.

The rest of the bolts are on the inside, three on each side horizontally. You must remove the subwoofer (easy) to reach them, and on the other side move out of the way the rectangular black platic box with the red plasic hoses coming out (not sure what this is), you can reach in above the nav drive for the farthest bolt.

Due to my keyless go wiring, I left the bumper cover dangling from the bumper vs. completely removing it. This would make the bumper very much in your way if doing this with jack stands. Without KG it would be easy to remove it completely.

Removing the nuts from the exhaust hanger bolts and the frame stud bolts is VERY difficult due to space. I spent a lot of time trying to reach them with various sized ratchets & extensions. I used a Stanley Rotator ratchet - you have to have some kind of ratchet with small angle rotation. A tiny ratchet doesn't work at first as you need more leverage. You will also need a breaker bar pipe to get them started, but have a few sizes ready.

When mounting the hitch bar, you must have two people as it's very heavy and hard to wiggle into place. I had to bend two metal brackets out of the way (holding KG stuff) - if you do this be sure to put some foam or something similar between them and the hitch bar, as mine is rattling, and it's much harder to reach once it's all assembled.

I also had to remove & remount with zip ties one of the KG antenna units.

The bottom line - call around and if a U-Haul place will sell the hitch and do the install for like $300, do it and save yourself a lot of trouble! I'm suspicious that places like that would have a standard rate to install them (my brother bought one from them & had it installed on a Saab for a very reasonable price including wiring), and they may not know how difficult the 211 job really is (make sure they don't charge by the hour first).

Curt part 11820 04 E500 4matic wagon

 

Very informative!

One point - perhaps you don't want Uhaul doing the job for a low rate. They might not be so careful with the bumper cover and the keyless go wiring, particularly after they get into the job, figure out it takes much longer than they thought, and that they aren't making any money at their flat rate price.

 

in Griot's Garage catalog. The exact same ones are much cheaper at SJdiscounttools.com - search for Titan gearless ratchet, it's much more compact than the Stanley one I used and has a 3% or less angle vs. 5%.

 

Both you and UHaul should have the official Mercedes procedures for bumper removal, etc. available before starting. Think UHaul will?

 

Which wiring did you use? MB OEM or some after market?

 

as it says in the post, for bike rack only.

 

Thanks for an eloquent and informative post!

While I haven't done a wiring installation on this vehicle. I strongly suspect it's a whole additional chapter in itself! Documenting the steps necessary to get our '07 Touareg wired up, including the Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller, would occupy a book equivalent in size to "War and Peace". Fortunately, I had input from Tekonsha tech support, our VWOA Regional Tech Rep and a skilled and sympathetic tech at the dealership.

Incredible that manufacturers can do such a shabbily inadequate job of preparing a new vehicle for a trailer hitch! In my particular case, especially so since the Raison d' Etre for the V10 TDI is trailer towing.

 

THIS IS IMPORTANT ADD ON TO ORIGINAL POST BY JEFFSANVELY:

I have bought the same hitch, Curtis model 11820.

-- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REMOVE WHOLE BUMPER (PLASTIC ASSEMBLY) --

I mounted the whole thing in about 60-90min. Here are the steps which I would recommend for everybody else. I would consider myself a good hobby mechanic however don't have wonder tools. The 2 'hick-ups' I can for-see are the removal of the rubber hangers and the loosening of the vertical bumper bolts when you have big hands....

1: Put the car up on stands (rear only) so you can get easily under the rear axle.

2: Remove 4 rubber hangers for the exhaust system; 2 close to rear axle and 2 at rear end of car (Remove the 4 rubber hangers with a huge screw driver; Stem / pry the rubber off the hanger bolts (gets easier with little lube and anger!))

3: Unscrew 3screws which hold lower end of rear bumper (plastic) to car

4: Now pull the exhaust assembly down

5: 2screws on each side to hold bumper to frame are easy to locate and than easy to take off

6: THIS IS THE POINT WHERE I TALK ABOUT THE 2 vertical bumper bolts mentioned in the first post. You can take a regular combination wrench and wiggle it on the upper "head" of the vertical bumper bolt (you can't see that screw however feel it when you are lying under the car looking at the lower end of the vertical bumper bolt and imagine the other end....) and than loosen the bolt on the lower end with a regular socket wrench. This way you DO NOT HAVE TO REMOVE the plastic bumper!

7. Now simply put the Curtis part 11820 on the bolts and use extra strong red thread lock.

(the whole process works better on a sunny day with metric tool kit a good friend to hold the beer for you and the hitch once you are ready to mount it)

 

Same experience as medmoritz with my non-KG E500: I did not have to remove the bumper cover. However: I pushed one of the vertical screws all the way up into the bumper mount, and it took me forever to get it back down. The hole in the hitch was ever so slightly off, and it took a crowbar to bend the bumper mount over a little until I could push the screw back down.

I backed the car onto ramps, and that gave me enough clearance to do the job. Without that one screw, it would have taken me less than an hour. With that screw, it was more like three.

The hitch is quite low, so it does fit under the Sport Package skirt. Every now and then, I scratch the hitch over the ground when I exit my driveway too fast, though. Nasty sound, that...

 

I want to buy a 2004 E500 wagon and want to install a hitch on it. What is the towing capacity ? I have a large trailer to pull ( I wanna get rid of the Suburban !) Thx