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(More customer reviews)Wow, this is a beefy hitch! I ordered this and the Swagman XTC Cross-Country 2-Bike Hitch Mount Rack (1.25 and 2-Inch Receiver) and a few days later I had a large box and a small box on my doorstep. The large box was HEAVY and I thought for sure it was my bike rack. Nope! The bike rack was neatly folded in the small box and my Curt Class I Receiver was in the large box. I'm not making a big deal about the weight, just consider yourself warned when you try to install this puppy.
The instructions are a simple 1-sided job, and look more like an engineering schematic than helpful directions, so allow me to share my experience. I was installing this on my 2009 Mazda 3 sedan. To do so, you first have to enlarge four holes on the box frame underneath your trunk. You could do this with a hole ream, a step drill, or a 1/2" drill bit. I chose the last option. Make sure to use a metal bit with some cutting oil, and definitely wear safety googles. Nothing sucks worse than getting a hot metal shaving in your eye! Next, you use this cool little fishing wire to pull the bolt and bracket through the frame and into the hole. The best way to do this: take the coiled pigtail end and fish it through one of your enlarged holes. Then grab it where it exits the frame (make sure to leave a little wire hanging out of the hole!). Push the pigtail through the metal bracket and then thread the bolt into the pigtail coil. Slowly pull the wire from the enlarged hole end and the bolt should pop through the hole. You have to pull slowly or else you might pull the wire off the bolt and then you have to try and fish the bolt and bracket out of your box frame. I used a long screw driver to kinda help the bolt/bracket along the frame cause it felt like it was catching on something. I only recommend threading through the bottom two bolts. Gravity will kinda hold them in place. The two side bolts will fall back into the frame very easily if you're not watching what you're doing and you bump them will lifting the hitch into place.
Remember how heavy I said the hitch was? You'll be laying on your back trying to lift this beast into place, making sure not to push your bolts back into the frame all while making sure you don't drop the hitch on your face. Quickly thread the nuts on the two center bolts, tighten finger tight, then fish the side bolts through and tighten the nuts down on them.
I had a hard time getting any of my sockets up between the hitch and frame to tighten the nuts down to 50 ft-lbs. It was very slow going and probably the part that took the longest. I probably should've used my air ratchet, but I didn't want to over-torque the bolts.
All in all, very nice hitch. Great finish and I'm sure it will last a very long time. Instructions could've been better, but take your time and you should have no problems installing. Also, there's a video on the eTrailer website and YouTube showing how to install this on a Mazda 3. Watch those first.
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Curt Manufacturing 11386 Class I Receiver
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