The hitch instructions have a copyright to Cequent Towing Products.

"Cequent draws upon a 75-year old heritage of superior towing and trailer brands - Draw-Tite, Reese, Fulton, Wesbar, Bulldog, Highland, Hidden Hitch, Bargman, ROLA and Tekonsha."

I never knew there was one parent company for Draw-Tite, Reese, and Hidden Hitch.

Just an observation.

 

Anyone have pictures of trailer installed yet?

 

I just snapped a couple shots of the hitch receiver. This will be used for my bike rack... no trailers.

Apologies for the quality... my camera battery died before I could get something decent. The hitch doesn't look as bad as I feared.

 

I had a hidden hitch on my 07 for towing a snowmobile on a trailer. Like 700 lbs.....some of it in deep snow in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
Worked great! Was an easy bolt on. The 09 is different but still looks pretty easy.
Wiring kit is the same, good quality plugs. slightly tricky to pop the threshold and open the side panels. Pull the rubber weather stripping loose around the bottom 1/3 of the hatch opening.

I actually have my 07/08 hitch for sale here in classifieds!

 

Looks good. The instructions show that you have to cut some of the plastic underneath, did you find that was necessary or not?

 

Yeah it's necessary. Otherwise the mounting plates will not sit flush against the frame. It was easy to cut off... I just used a box cutter. The keyhole notch is also necessary in order to feed the spacer plates into the frame. The passenger side was a bit of a pain because the exhaust was in the way. I recommend doing this with an extra set of hands. I probably wasted an hour just getting the damn hitch over the bolts... being extra careful not to push the bolts into the frame. I ended up using a jack to help lift the hitch to the right height.

Another thing that slowed me down was some interference with the heat shield (or whatever it is) above the muffler. A small portion of this metal shielding was sandwiched between the hitch mount plates and the frame. Don't worry about this unless you notice a problem when you are torquing the bolts. I ended up jabbing a screwdriver in to push the metal out of the way. It was real soft and flexible so it was easy to bend. Once that was out of the way I was able to torque the bolts and everthing sat nice and flush.

It's not a tough job. Should take an hour or less with the right tools... and two people.

 

Are the areas of cutting plastic visible when standing behind the car, or only when one gets down at ground level and looks for it? Thanks for the info.

 

You can't see it unless you stick your head under the car and look up.

 

You cant even see the cut plastic then- the plastic is above the hitch frame where it mounts to the underside of the frame channels.

 

Actually, you are removing the plastic above the hitch frame where it mounts. What's left of the plastic is still easily visible if you look up.

 

Thanks for all the info ... Hidden Hitch and Swagman XT 2-bike rack are on their way!

 

FYI I just installed the hitch frame - it took about an hour and was uneventful. I used a dremel tool to trim the plastic wheel well where needed. The hitch seems very sturdy and solidly mounted.

I have a new Thule bike rack that I will be road testing in a few hours.

 

I tested the Thule Doubletrack 2 rack with this hitch receiver and it works find on the Fit. The rack is easy to use and the hatch will open with the rack in place with no bikes loaded. The rack folds up when not in use.

 

Thanks for the info. Anyone know if the Thule T2 2 bike rack will work with this? Specifically, if you can open the back with 2 bikes mounted?

 

idk about GE, but here's my GD w/ a hitch and rack



the rack folds to give you access to the hatch area

 

I put the etrailer hitch on my Fit last week by myself. I read the other posts where people said it wasn't that difficult, but I thought it was a bitch. It's really difficult to do with just one person. I'd recommend having someone help to raise the hitch into position to get it over the carriage bolts--there's a risk of pushing them back up into the frame. Also, in another thread, there was some debate as to whether there's a T-connector for trailer wiring. There is, and it's completely "plug-n-play"--no splicing required.

 

I believe the correct Monroe AirLift is MA811 for the little Chevy , one before the Cobalt. Check the posts in suspension section. The 793 may be short.

 

I used a couple of 5 gallon plastic buckets to hold the hitch up in the air as I bolted up each side. This was an easy technique for one-man installation since I already had the buckets. If you don't have buckets laying around, you wouldn't be likely to think of this as a solution.

 

Rear shocks on GD's and GE's are different. Dave used the MA793's on his GE, apparently with good results.

 

Great. Make sure that info is posted in the suspension section. Unless:

MA793's have 12 mm bottom eyes while 811's have 10 mm. Both have 3/8" upper stems. Is the lower bolt 12 mm on GE's? If its still 10 mm then you'll have to add a sleeve. According to online parts catalog the bottom eyebolt is still 10 mm. Unless you have the means to replace the lower bushing you'll need 1mm thick x10 mm ID sleeves.
The shocks have a new P/N and depicted different so the 793 lengths may be OK but the eyebolt is not.
Compare the extended and compressed lengths of MA793 with the original 09 shocks. Need to be within in a quarter-inch..
The 09 shock differs from the 08's and needs comparison.
The 793's have a longer travel of 9.5" vs 8.6" making it possible that the shock could extend enough for the springs to fall out. Additionally, the compressed 793's are 0.6" higher, meaning the shock can bottom and destroy the valving on a hard jounce.