[silverWS.6]

This hitch is exactly what I've been looking for lately! I won't be towing a trailer though, it'll be more of a platform for extra trunk space. Figured this would give me more MPG's on a road trip than a roof rack. Anyways, anyone know how much weight I could put on a platform with this setup? Or where I could get a platform from to use with this setup?

 

[carbon02]

SilverWS-

There's some posts on here that I've posted to about the rear cargo carriers. I've tried several of them. Stay away from anything that requires an adapter to make a cargo carrier with a 2" shank fit the small cruze hitch. That includes the aluminum harbor frieght one. It simply sits too far out from the bumper, causing the items to be only a few inches <6 off the ground.

After a lot of searching I went with the Curt Manufacturing 1-1/2" shank adjustable basket. It works great.. Full access to the trunk, and it sits about a half inch from the bumper.

I've used it for coolers, and portable grills.. Pulled it on vacation 2000 miles over 5 days with no problems.

I've had about 50 lbs of wieght on there. The basket itself is something like 45 lbs. I wouldn't use it to haul firewood, but reasonable items it works great!

The key in the design of the Curt basket that you have to look for is the adjustability of the basket on the shank. You need a basket that can be placed fairly close to the bumper. There's simply too much sag with baskets that sit 4-8 inches from the bumper.

I'd love to find an aluminum one made for small cars with the smaller reciever, but I never had success. I spent a lot of time googling this, and found a Saturn Sky (2 seater convertable) with this basket. I've also seen it behind Corvettes during vacation trips to National Parks.

Good Luck..

 

[silverWS.6]

Thanks carbon!! That's great info and definetly a good door to getting me started on this

 

[fastduo]

I picked up one of these Curt hitches from AutumnCruzeRS at Lordstown and just installed it last night. I figured this thread is lacking in the picture dept, so here are some of mine:

****NOTE- This was taken on a test fit, and the front bolt must go in the farthest hole back, NOT the one it's shown in here:

I got it mounted up there with the bolts loose, and then made sure it was centered on the car before I tightened them up:

I do have a ball to go on this, but didn't have it handy yet. The ball mount conveniently fit in next to the spare tire, between the tire and some padding, so it shouldn't rattle. I hope it'll still fit with a ball on there.

It was convenient to get under there, but I'm generally not a fan of her booty up in the air like this.

I also finished up by spraying the bolts/nuts with a little bit of spray undercoating so they don't rust, and I broke out the black spray paint to touch up a couple of chips in the finish on the hitch.

All in all, it was about an hour job, which included getting the car out, jacked up, all parts/tools out there, getting the job done, and putting everything away.

A couple notes:
- Make sure to mount the driver's side of the hitch first, or else you won't have it clear the exhaust.
- The directions mention something about trimming a heat shield. The hitch is also compatible with the Verano, so it must have the heat shield. No shield here.
- The directions also mentioned dropping part of the exhaust. It looked like a bigger job than I wanted to get into, so I just worked around it with a universal. Still tight for a universal though.
- Having a padded floor jack underneath the center of the hitch helps to hold it up while you start the nuts.
- I'm very pleased with the fitment- required no modifications at all and the clearance with the RS bumper is perfect.
- I don't think the directions said you needed needle nose pliers, but it really helps to get the little wire out of the hole. You'd be there for hours trying to get that wire to feed out of the back hole. The pliers worked well, but there's a trick to it. The wire is bent on the end, so as you loosen up on the pliers to slide them around the bend and toward the end of the wire (to be able to pull it through the hole), it can slip out of the pliers easily. It takes a few attempts before you get it.

Now I need to order the wiring kit!

Fantastic. Thank you.

 

[fastduo]

Well I give up after having 3 hitches in my garage. Im not gonna waste anymore time on getting it blemish free from Curt. I think touching it up myself will remedy my issue. Just dont know what to do with the 2 other hitches. Maybe Ill try to sell them here at half price to someone locally.

Happen to have any more hitches for sale?

 

[sciphi]

Not much else to say besides it's pretty easy. A jack is necessary for supporting the hitch while guiding it into place. And do the driver's side first, otherwise it's impossible. No dropping the exhaust needed. Including making this post, it took me 45 minutes to install.

 

[justdofit]

Sorry to bump this old thread but I'm looking at importing one of these into Australia as I dislike the local hitches the cut through the rear bar... I want to use it for a bike rack only so wont bother with the wiring...

One thing I noticed that's different with my Australian Cruze ('12 SRI-V) is that it has a loop welded to the right hand side chassis rail where the curt hitch bolts up... Looking more closely at the curt hitch - it has a cut out that would appear to clear the loop on the chassis...

It's hard to make out though and would be handy to know roughly how much clearance there is before getting one of these shipped to AUS ($200 shipped - better than the $900 local dealer fit price).

I snapped a few shots of the metal loop on my car. I could just grind it off, but I'm thinking it's there because of some ADR (Australian Design Rules) requirement for a rear tow strap point? If so, removing it would make my car un-roadworthy :sad010:

@Sunline Fan had a good photo of that side of the hitch, showing a decent amount of clearance... but it's hard to gauge the gap from the photos.

Any help with a quick measurement of this gap would be very greatly appreciated

 

[justdofit]

My bad guys, looks like I need to rtfm in the future. The curt instructions mention the tow loop - I've uploaded a pic for anyone who may come across this in a search.

 

[Sunline Fan]

Interesting, never seen that loop before. Let me know if you need any help with measuring the hitch spacing. It may be a day or two because it rained A LOT here today.

 

[justdofit]

Interesting, never seen that loop before. Let me know if you need any help with measuring the hitch spacing. It may be a day or two because it rained A LOT here today.

Thanks mate - I appreciate it.

I think it's just an ADR requirement to have a rear tow point.

I went ahead and ordered the hitch after seeing the instructions and a few more photos online.

 

[Blue_RS]

Anyone ever remove one of these hitches after they install it? How do you get the bolts back outta the holes

 

[lonewolf04]

So picked up the Curt hitch and T wiring. Couldn't see clearly in the couple photos that were posted, but my T wiring needed a direct power line up to the battery to operate the module. I called Curt about this because the verano has a kit that doesn't need the external power and one that does. The claim from Curr is due to different BCM wiring it needs the external power. Mines a '12 LT. Wanted to see what T connector people were using.

 

[AutumnCruzeRS]

Anyone ever remove one of these hitches after they install it? How do you get the bolts back outta the holes

I kept the wire loom just for this.

 

[chevrasaki]

So picked up the Curt hitch and T wiring. Couldn't see clearly in the couple photos that were posted, but my T wiring needed a direct power line up to the battery to operate the module. I called Curt about this because the verano has a kit that doesn't need the external power and one that does. The claim from Curr is due to different BCM wiring it needs the external power. Mines a '12 LT. Wanted to see what T connector people were using.

I installed the drawtite hitch which does not require any drilling, and I purchased a curt T wiring harness for the trailer lights I already ran power to my trunk for my amplifier so I didn't have far to go to tie the module power into the distribution block.

You could solder on a male 12V cigarette lighter socket for your power and just plug it into the 12V outlet in the back of the center console. You could also pop the wire through a grommet in the trunk and run it below the car to the engine bay making sure to secure the wire as you go. Or you could rip apart the interior and run a power line through the firewall and under the trim pieces back to the trunk.

Sorry I do not have any pictures readily available for the wiring. I'm going to be installing an aux battery in my trunk soon so I can get some pictures when I have it torn apart again.

 

[lonewolf04]

Thanks for the reply. I'll install the power wire at the battery, run it underneath the car and then up through the drivers tail lamp grommet. Won't be hard to do, but if it wasn't necessary I really didn't want to have to do it.

The Curt hitch I did not have to drill any holes, just run the bolts through the frame and pull through with the supplied wire. Went in really easy so now I can tow a small jet ski on a trailer.

 

[carbon02]

Anyone ever remove one of these hitches after they install it? How do you get the bolts back outta the holes

Tape a coat hanger onto the bolt if you don't have the original "fish wires". This will allow you to push it back through the original hole.

I thought the original installation fish wire was unique and I saved it. But whatever you do, don't just loose those bolts in that frame channel. It will make a lot of noise, that people won't expect, if they don't see remains of a hitch being installed.

People that didn't install their own hitch won't have the install wire, but a coat hanger should work. Tape it to the bolt really well. I've also used fishing line to tie around the bolt to hold onto the bolt during installation. It worked really well.

 

[NickD]

Cruze is the first vehicle I purchased in the last 60 some odd years that I didn't put a trailer hitch on it. Took one look at it and said the heck with it. Added a class II hidden hitch on my 88 Supra, and have a class III hitch on my motorhome.

Trailers typically have a combination brake and directional signal bulb on it, not handy with a vehicle that has separate brake and directional signals.

Cheapest solution was to add to more tail lamps to my trailer, standard trailer connector has four pins, so added one spade connector to it with a bit of cheating, that spade connector is for the ground.

Used pin 1 for the brake lights instead for the two outside brake lights, rest is the same except all four tail lamps are in parallel. Directional signal leads are connected to the so call brake lamps on the two inside added lights.

We always used our 04 Cavalier sports coupe for our kayak, made a special support of it with large suction cups on it and strapped both front and rear to the towing hooks on it.

Looked for towing hooks on the Cruze, where in the hail are they? Nothing on this Cruze that you can even clip on the strap hooks on it, certainly not to a piece of plastic bumper. So the Cruze was fired and my Supra got that job.

Cruze is our newest and most used vehicle, we purchased that for fuel economy and really good for this, Already passed the mileage we have on our motorhome, and soon to hit the total mileage on my Supra. But not the most ideal vehicle for pulling a trailer, carrying a bicycle roof rack, or mounting a kayak on the top of it.