(Summary/collated) Tow hitch on MME (towing capacity and towing equipment for MME)?

kgautam28

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Anyone aware of towing capacity and towing equipment for MME?
Not looking for towing a trailer but a bike rack at the most.

What options do we have?
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ChasingCoral

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generaltso

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Anyone aware of towing capacity and towing equipment for MME?
Not looking for towing a trailer but a bike rack at the most.

What options do we have?
Read through the links that others have posted for LOTS of discussion. But in a nutshell, the towing capacity is zero for North America and Ford will not be offering a tow hitch of any kind. There will likely be aftermarket options available eventually.
 


NormF

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I have been communicating with http://torkliftcentral.com/ in Kent, WA. They have a 2 inch hitch as you can see in other posts. I have been asking them for a 1.25 inch version for a light bike rack (Thule has an excellent one). I encourage all MME owners who are interested in a lighter, less bulky hitch for bike rack usage to send a note to TorqueCentral.
 

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Towing example from FB
Ford Mustang Mach-E (Summary/collated) Tow hitch on MME (towing capacity and towing equipment for MME)? B7F64963-2A60-45A1-8385-A61E51D2C012
 

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I just noticed this thread.

For the benefit of any interested members, I bought and already installed the mechanicals of the Ford Europe-authorized tow hitch for the Mach E. Although my description about the equipment and its installation is embedded in another thread, I plan to post the DIY How-To once I finally connect all the electrical stuff. Key information points are below:

Point #1: the North American Mach E has some (not all) of the body prep already built-in. For example, below the very bottom covering of the trunk cargo floor, there are two knockouts in the metal floor. One of them, the white-painted knockout, is actually there for hosting the Ford Europe-authorized tow electrical cable with its waterproof rubber seal. Guess how I know this ;)

Point #2: The Ford of Europe OEM-authorized tow hitch accessory system is made by a Dutch company named BRINK. Its tow hitch kit for the Mach E has the blue Ford oval on every page of its multi-language instruction, and the electrical 13-pin tow connector is stamped / embossed with a FORD seal across its center. For me, this was one of the reasons I went with the Ford of Europe towing kit rather than a U.S. aftermarket kit, despite its higher cost. On occasion I do intend to tow, for example a trailer with by motorcycle + sidecar, and perhaps also a small teardrop-style camper trailer.

Point #3: This Ford of Europe OEM accessory tow system for the Mach E is authorized to tow a horizontal load of about 3,306 pounds, and the listed technical "hitch weight" is 136 pounds for towing, and somewhat more for attaching a bicycle or similar non-towing rack. The European "swan neck" draw bar tow system does have corresponding aftermarket bicycle racks available from other manufacturers like Thule. When I use words like "is authorized" I refer to the mechanical capacity as designed and tested by BRINK for the Mach E towing kit. Even in Europe, every country's DMV-equivalent office issues legal authorization limits for the driver on its highways, which IMHO are separate from manufacturer's engineering capacity calculations, and which are beyond the scope of this post.

Point #4: rather than a Curt-type square horizontal mount, the BRINK tow system has a vertically lockable "tow draw bar" which is colloquially named a "swan neck" with the tow ball on its top. NOTE: this is different from a "goose neck" tow system where the much larger attachment arm of the towed trailer, usually a heavy industrial equipment trailer, reaches up over the tailgate and down into the center of a towing truck's bed. Because of its vertical locking mount, the Ford of Europe OEM tow draw bar is not adjustable for height at its ball, unlike the U.S. Curt-type horizontal tow hitch. This Ford of Europe tow system has a 50mm tow ball, which is .8 of one millimeter off the U.S. 2-inch tow ball, or in practical terms the same diameter (I tried mine on several U.S. trailers to confirm). The BRINK tow draw bar for the Mach E is detachable, has a "safely mounted / locked" visual indicator and comes with its individual built-in lock and key.

Point #5: the price of the 3-component Ford of Europe OEM towing system is (was in September 2022) about $600 U.S. plus whatever the Value Added Tax would be (varies with European countries and whether a European or an American is the in-person purchaser), to which one has to add the shipping cost.

Point #6: unlike the U.S. aftermarket "stealth" tow hitches for the Mach E, this Ford of Europe OEM accessory has an electric towing control module, with a wiring kit to connect to the Mach E CANBUS control systems. This is where the North American MAch Es come up short... they are missing the easy - peasy plug & play connectors in the rear left trunk corner where the new module gets mounted. The Ford of Europe tow kit mounting instructions, however, incorporate two alternate ways to connect the wiring harness and the new control module if the plug & play connectors are absent (like on my car, or my kit would already be all connected grrr... ). The final installation step is to log into FDRS (discussed in another thread) and "turn on" the towing control module and system for the Mach E, which are already present in FDRS but dormant.

Hope this is useful info. Within the next month I intend to commandeer my Sonny Boy's garage and finish the wiring kit connections, and I will then post complete DIY How-To instructions.

My original comments and installation pics are on page 3 of this thread:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Gets Towing Capacity Boost In Europe
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