[mountainman]

I wonder if the area of the hitch bar that rubs the exhaust can be shaped with a grinder to create adequate clearance, without compromising integrity. I am really keen to get a receiver hitch so I can carry my mountain bikes. Does anyone have pics of where these hitches are actually rubbing the exhaust?

 

[Chris]

I'm interested to hear if the Fiesta hitch will fit on the Fiesta ST as well. I refuse to use roof-racks for bikes and I prefer to use a hitch. Has anyone tested yet?

I have the same feeling. Would just want a hitch to carry my mountain bike. Don't like the idea of lifting a dirty, greasy full suspension mtb up onto a roof rack.

 

[Chris]

I was just looking around on Uhaul's site and they have a set up for 160. not sure on true fitment and such. Really wouldn't want anything that makes any contact with the exhaust as I already know the noise would probably drive me insane.

 

[spangenb]

I expect to have my local guy fab one up. He sells Mustang suspension and bracing parts so who knows maybe he will sell the final product too.

 

[RavynX]

I got mine installed 2 weeks ago. I had to get an exhaust shop to weld in a stiffer hanger to prevent the exhaust from bumping it.

 

[RavynX]

Here's the hanger they welded that replaced the OEM hanger.

 

[raamaudio]

Great you can just buy a hitch for a decent price, if anyone knows I would like to see what it weighs.

I built my own hitch for the C6 Vette I had as the ones for sale weighed 32 lbs, mine ended up tucked up so well you could barely see it and weighing 6lbs! I took the car to a highly regarded custom hitch and trailer manf shop and the president of the company crawled under the car to take a look then offered me a job He said it would handle 1000 lbs easily and my trailer was at 700 loaded, it was a 1946 aluminum teardrop.

That said, a home built hitch will take some time but could weigh significantly less than a manf one.

Rick

 

[RavynX]

Shipping weight of the Curt hitch is 39 lbs. Do you have any photos of the hitch you built vs the manufactured one?

The Curt hitch is rated at 150lb tongue weight. The Draw-Tite and HiddenHitch models are rated at 200lb tongue weight since they have the square tubing. I believe all the weight in these hitches are the flat plates that wrap up to the car's frame.

 

[raamaudio]

The Vette hitch would not be anything like the ST one.

If I make one it might come through the rear fake grill as it might able to tie to the chassis better and require far less metal thus far less weight.

Span, let us know what your local guy does, might offer, etc....I have far to many things to do for some months to come to tackle one right now.

Thanks
Rick

 

[RavynX]

The Vette hitch was more out of curiousity than anything. I figured it wouldn't fit the ST.

DreadlyST posted this person's photo from Australia...
http://www.fiestast.org/forum/fiesta-st-discussions/480-any-hitch-luck-yet-6.html

 

[raamaudio]

See, my idea of where to have the hitch is a good one. I bet it could be made far lighter, my experience with hitch manf is they simply just go for mass instead of cleaver design and low weight. On the Vette I had the received very deep between the exhaust tips, a bit harder to get to but allowed less weight and stronger for the weight. I used a 1.25" long ball mount and ball, it was fairly heavy but only on when towing.

 

[RavynX]

See, my idea of where to have the hitch is a good one. I bet it could be made far lighter, my experience with hitch manf is they simply just go for mass instead of cleaver design and low weight. On the Vette I had the received very deep between the exhaust tips, a bit harder to get to but allowed less weight and stronger for the weight. I used a 1.25" long ball mount and ball, it was fairly heavy but only on when towing.

Mass productions are what sell. You gotta remember that different people have different priorities. Some like easy accessible hitches rather than getting on their knees or back to install a ball-mount for the hitch. Some people don't want to cut up their bumper to fit a hitch like in the pic I posted.

For those of us wanting clever designs, we are left to our own accord unfortunately.

The one poking out of the grating will be much lighter than the standard hitches that are already out since you won't have to weld in those large plates. I'll be curious to see a DIY post on creating a hitch that goes through the rear bumper grating like that one in Australia.

 

[Chris]

Here's the hanger they welded that replaced the OEM hanger.

View attachment 982

So is that all you had to do to prevent the exhaust from hitting the hitch? Just make a stronger hanger? How much was the hitch?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RavynX]

So is that all you had to do to prevent the exhaust from hitting the hitch? Just make a stronger hanger? How much was the hitch?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, pretty much. Hitch was $120.something.

 

[spangenb]

Got a Draw-Tite 24855 hitch and Curt plug-n-play wiring. I need to pull my trailer this weekend for both camping and autox so I had to give up on the idea of a custom hitch for now. It's funny that the eTrailer site goes to the trouble of separating the ST and the regular hatchback, but they use the same hitch number. Both the wiring and hitch were very easy to install and the hitch is *almost* a perfect fit. You can see in the first photo with the blue arrows where the fascia gets bulged down a little on the left side where the hitch bracket interferes and pulled up a little to the right of the receiver where the hitch tube interferes with a tab that connects the fascia to the car. They say you have to cut the muffler heat shield in the instructions. That's b.s. The hitch fits fine over the muffler with the shield there. Plenty of clearance with my 2J muffler too. The exhaust hits the fascia opening well before it would hit the hitch. I need to buy a 4" rise draw bar since things are too low in the second pic. It was just a test fit so don't yell at me for not having everything tied up

 

[RavynX]

Yeah, that's the only issue with the DrawTite and Hidden hitches, they prop up those tabs on the bottom bumper. The Curt hitch clears everything but it's not quite as hidden as those other two.

You can see the tab being pushed up clearly in MightM's photo from the other forum...

 

[RavynX]

Here are photos from my car and how the Curt hitch looks. I thought I posted them here on FiestaST but I guess not.

 

[raamaudio]

Anybody weigh the hitch before install?

 

[spangenb]

Anybody weigh the hitch before install?

I didn't weigh the hitch but it's not light. Has to be in the neighborhood of 20 lbs. I had to have it and all the current options look about the same so I didn't pay much attention to the weight.

 

[raamaudio]

The hitches for the Fiesta ST seem to be more reasonable in weight than some for other cars like the C6 Vette hitches that were around 30 lbs and grossly overbuilt. I made my own hitch and had it inspected at a master of custom hitches shop owner and he offered me a job on the stop, it weighed 6 lbs.

It was tucked up high and had a long ball mount bar so when not installed you could not see the hitch unless bending way, down, close and low and then barely. The bar was a bit heavy but it was only used when towing, pop it off at the track was the idea. I was asked to reproduce them but it was designed around the Corsa Sport exhaust I had, to many different exhausts used to make it viable and the liability issues were too much to deal with in our law suit filled world.

If I needed a hitch for the ST I would absolutely make my own and most likely under 10lbs in steel. I would take a look at using Aluminum for it as well, sometimes aluminum is the wrong material for some applications as having to use much thicker gauge would not save much weight if any. Eitehr way I would have it inspected again of course.

Being the car is so forward weight biased having a 20 lb hitch on the back is not a killer in all out handling if even much of a detriment or might help a bit, more likely to effect acceleration and braking results.