Hitching a ride

I've always wanted a hitch.  Mostly because it would be handy, when it came to getting building supplies or hauling junk away or picking up a large piece of furniture or something, and also for attaching a bike tray.

But I always thought that it was welded on or something had to be done to get it installed.  So I never got one.  Instead I had a roof rack and a few attachments for it.  Cargo box, bike carriers.  And for the most part they work pretty well.  It's fine for road bikes, but mountain bikes with hydraulic brakes.  They are a little tight to get on.  But they will work.  I even modified my Thule mounts to accept a mountain bike.
But now with the Yakima roof bars, they don't fit.  And with the Venza being taller, it's a royal pain in the behind to get them on the roof.  The one nice thing with roof racks is that you can move it over to another car by changing the feet.  Each hitch is custom to the make and model of the car.

So I decided I should just get a hitch and bike carrier for it.  I ordered the bike tray down in the US, and I was going to get the hitch installed up here, but I did a little research on installing one and it's a 30min job.  There's no welding, only 6 bolts.  If you have a hoist it's a 30min install.  But it can be done without one, it's not as easy.  But it can be done.  Because I ordered one and we did it.

The hitches look small, but they aren't, they are as wide as the interior of the car and heavy.
So this is it.
It's a CURT Class III hitch.  That just means it's a 2 inch hitch, versus a Class II which is the smaller 1-1/4 inch hitch.
You can haul more with the 2 inch, but for a bike, a 1-1/4 inch is all you need.  But it limits you to 2 bike tray only.  The 2 inch can take 4 bikes.


I called around and a hitch installed can cost about $350.00 CAD.
Then add on the cost of the wiring harness, installed is $150.00 +tx.
I ended up ordering online in the US at eTrailer.com and they have video instructions for installation, which is how I realized how easy it was.
This hitch is about 180USD.  The harness itself is $50 USD.  Then it's all up to you (and another person, but I've heard it can be done by one person.  How? I don't know.  I tried, but called Tresa to help me.

I jacked up the car so that we could have more room to work underneath and get it bolted.  It says in the video instructions to drop the exhaust.  But people said they didn't need to.  And I didn't need to either, but you need a few special tools to do that.

It took me about 70mins.  But a big chunk of that time was hunting for tools and going over to my neighbour's to borrow an extension.
I think if I had everything.  It would have only taken me 45 mins.


So the passenger side was a breeze.
You undo the bolt that is used by a sway bar.  And take off the stickers that protect the threads of the holes that are already there to bolt on the hitch!

It's already set up to take a hitch.  So easy.

So going over to the driver's side.  If we didn't have the dual exhaust.  It'd be a piece of cake.
You can't see the challenges until I get right underneath and you'll see what I mean.

First off you don't need to lower the exhaust like in the video to get the hitch in.  But you need to lower it in order to make it easier to bolt it in.

And that's because the exhaust partially blocks access to the bolts.  NICE! Seems to be how the world works for me most times.  Smooth sailing then a wrench gets thrown my way.

Fortunately I have a swivel adapter for my socket wrench that allows you to get in at an angle.  It just took me a while to find the 1/2 inch one.

Wear some gloves because it'll save your knuckles.
The instructions that come with the hitch are great.  They tell you what tools you need and torque specifications.

So we managed to install the hitch without lowering the exhaust.  Even Kieran helped install the hitch, because we held the hitch in place while he got the bolts and threaded it in.

Then I torqued everything down.


And about an hour later I was able to work on the bike tray I got from Yakima (with my neighbour's help) and got it installed.  It's not exactly light, but it has to be sturdy.
And it folds out of the way when not being used to haul a bike.

This item I got off of Amazon for $382USD (local it's nearly $600CAD but they won't warranty it here if you get it in the US). I wasn't planning on getting one of these until next year, I'm not sure what prompted me to bite the bullet and order one sooner rather than later since it was (at this time) the end of August. But it was a good thing I did, the price went up in price by nearly $100 USD less than a month later.   So the price difference between getting it local in TO vs US was now that much less.

All in all it's about the same price as getting a roof rack and bike carriers.
But you can't put a cargo box on the back.  Well you can but it's not as long because it's only as wide as the car.

And it is so much more convenient to bring the bikes now.
Even a 9 year old can take his own bike off the carrier.

No fear of losing a wheel on the Burlington Skyway.
But that's another story just waiting to be posted.