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:
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DON'TS:
*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!!!
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.
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!!!
