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Curt Tow Hitch # 13382 Installation Do's and DON'TS!!!!

Model Years 2018 to 2023
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5.9K views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  anotero  
#1 ·
So, I installed one of these yesterday, should have done it years ago. Anyways: they say that experienced people can do it in 30 minutes (I can see that) and others will take about an hour (I can see that, too). HOWEVER:

Do's:
  • Raise the back end of your vehicle (don't forget to put chocks behind the front wheels. I used some steel ramps from Harbor Freight. The work fine, IMO. I have a flat garage and the driveway slopes down from it, so I can position the ramps to keep the car level and it gives plenty of working room.
  • You do not need to remove the muffler!
  • You do need TWO (or three if you got 'em) people to do this quickly and safely.
  • Do read the instructions but more importantly, watch the installation videos on the product web page.
  • You do need to slightly elongate two holes in the frame. It's pretty simple to do with an electric drill and a small grinding attachment (maybe even a Dremel tool will work). And you will then need some paint, even just a engine marking paint pen, to put on the newly ground area of the frame to prevent rust. If you're truly OCD, you could use color-matching paint but why? It's underneath the car and nobody can see it! Relax, eh?
  • Do insert the two rear spacers before lifting the hitch into place. It's very difficult to do this later and you risk permanently losing the hardware you put inside the frame.
  • Get the Curt # 56040 four-way Subaru connector for the trailer lights. No drilling but you do need to unsnap a bunch of panels in the trunk. You'll need a Phillips screwdriver, a flat-head screwdriver (or panel remover), and a 10mm wrench. You can drill to install the ground wire, but you can also partly undo the left rear vertical plastic panel and there is a ground already there that you can bolt it to for a clean installation. FYI: the cable and connector just stay under the back carbo covers of the spare wheel and when you use it, you just run out under the tailgate. Takes about 30 minutes to install this. Difficulty level? 1 of 5.
  • Do be very very careful after you have fished the hardware through the frame that you don't remove the fishwire and then accidentally push a carriage bolt back into the frame. You won't be able to finish installing the hitch, you will NEVER get it out of the frame, and it'll just be in there rattling as you drive until the end of time...or you sell the car...or we run out of gasoline.
After installing it, I am quite please by the fact that the hitch receiver is positioned very close to the underside of the bumper. As long as I'm not doing some radical off-roading, it'll never get in the way or have any effect on clearance.

Image



DON'TS:
  • Do NOT do this yourself!!!!! The hitch weighs (30? 40?) lbs and is an awkward shape. Even with a cargo strap to help hold it up, you'll be miserable doing this and might even scratch or damage the bottom or edge of the bumper or worse: drop it on your head/neck/chest. Ask me how I know!*
  • Don't use a short 3/4" socket, you'll need a 3/4" deep socket. Go on--ask me why!*

*I live a pretty solitary life <sniff>, with my own house but no partner or kids or housemates or (generally) people who can help me out on a moments notice. Genius that I am, I felt that I could do this myself. How hard could it be?

Turns out, quite hard! I pre-positioned a tie-down, hooking it to the shock springs and looping it around the horizontal bar of the hitch. The problem is that the mounting bars are heavy, too, and they want to make the whole hitch rotate. And you don't just lift the hitch up into place, you lift and slide into place (mostly slide). This is very hard to do by yourself, I even tried using a pair of jacks to hold it up but that didn't work well. Ultimately, after fishing the hardware through the frame, with no small amount of force, I got the hitch mostly in position but, on my back, pressing up one end with one foot while forcing it past the bottom edge of the bumper. With two or three people, that entire process will be very easy to do.

Finally, the front bolts, because of the spacers, will barely, if at all, protrude past the nuts. But on the rear bolts, they'll protrude well past the nuts as you tighten them down. I did not realize this and my regular 3/4" socket got pushed off the nut and the about five pounds of large torque wrench, extension bar and socket came down on my face and cut my nose open. F@#$. It hurt and it'll scar, too. I went to the ER just to make sure I didn't need stitches (they just cleaned it--OUCH!--and put on a steri-strip and some glue: fun way to spend part of my Friday evening!). Use a 3/4" deep socket! And for some reason, my torque wrench never "clicked" so I just tightened the hell out of the bolts! I finished tightening the rear bolts with a 19mm box wrench. You definitely don't want them coming loose while towing something!

So: DON'T INSTALL THE HITCH BY YOURSELF!!!
 
#3 ·
Hobiecat111629 said:
I walked away without injury, but this was my experience as well.

Fishing the bolts through was my biggest frustration and It took me 3.5 hours to do it myself.
Click to expand...
You did it solo, too? Dummy! :ROFLMAO:

I was surprised how fishing the bolts/plates through the frame wasn't too difficult for me but I did bend the straight end of each wire into a long arc to get them to come out of the next hole. And I actually had to further enlarge the two holes after I had started pulling the hardware in--the plates fit but the bolts needed a larger opening. I was worried about severing the fishwires.

Well, at least we got it done...
 
#6 ·
Nice write up! Solid information for those who haven't done this and might be unsure of the process. I do recall having to use a u-joint socket to tighten at least one of the nuts with a 10" extension as well, I couldn't get the socket to sit correctly on the nut, I think it was the drivers side closest to the rear bumper. For the trailer wiring, I chose to run the 4 pin connector outside of the car permanently, I cut a hole in one of the rubber grommets under the spare tire and ran it through that and around the bottom of my car to a mount near the receiver area, I have some pictures on my build thread: POST

I did my '20 four years ago and I did it by myself with the car on the ground, did it less than hour, super easy installation IMO! However, I am mechanically inclined and work on my car for fun in my spare time, so yeah. :ROFLMAO:

I just sat the hitch on my chest after feeding the bolts/washers through and raised it up and spun the nuts on! I will say that a second person would have made it easier if you don't have the strength to hold the hitch up on your own.
 
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#7 ·
Blue Bendite said:
So, I installed one of these yesterday, should have done it years ago. Anyways: they say that experienced people can do it in 30 minutes (I can see that) and others will take about an hour (I can see that, too). HOWEVER:

Do's:
  • Get the Curt # 56040 four-way Subaru connector for the trailer lights. No drilling but you do need to unsnap a bunch of panels in the trunk. You'll need a Phillips screwdriver, a flat-head screwdriver (or panel remover), and a 10mm wrench. You can drill to install the ground wire, but you can also partly undo the left rear vertical plastic panel and there is a ground already there that you can bolt it to for a clean installation. FYI: the cable and connector just stay under the back carbo covers of the spare wheel and when you use it, you just run out under the tailgate. Takes about 30 minutes to install this.
DON'TS:
  • Do NOT do this yourself!!!!!

Use a 3/4" deep socket! And for some reason, my torque wrench never "clicked" so I just tightened the hell out of the bolts! I finished tightening the rear bolts with a 19mm box wrench.

So: DON'T INSTALL THE HITCH BY YOURSELF!!!
Click to expand...
I installed same hitch 5 years ago on my 2018. Took about an hour and a half. No lifts. Did it myself. A bit of a PITA, especially the routing of the bolts with the fish wire. Used a torque wrench with an extension and a long 19-mm socket. The problem nut was on the driver's side forward and had to futz that with a short combi because of clearance. Couldn't torque it down, but it be on there just fine.

For the trailer harness, there is no hole big enough to stuff the flat-4 connector through to the outside from the tire well. There is that hole with plug on the upper left back of the tire well. I cut the wiring harness, cut a slit in the hole plug, stuffed the 4-wire through the slit, and spliced the wiring harness together on the inside. Works fine.
 
#12 ·
Last 4 vehicles; '05 Forester, '09 Forester, '17 CRV and '19 Crostrek have all been done by me and only me. Think the Crostrek was the easiest, took about 1.5 hrs. Hardest was the '09 FOrester, but that could have been weather related. None of them are super easy, but they are straight forward if you read the instructions and watch pertinent videos. I was fortunate that at our previous house, the driveway slap was sunken due to poor drainage, This allowed a lot of room under the back end of the car.
 
#16 ·
I installed mine last year and went in from the top in the trunk area. I believe I had to enlarge a hole (IIRC), but I felt better about enlarging a hole in the trunk than on the bottom of the car. I did it myself and I removed the muffler. I agree that you don't need to remove the muffler, but to me it was easier just to remove it and then replace it afterwards. I did not end up using the spacers and my hitch sits level.
 
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