Finally got the Mopar Hitch Installed

[Armendegga]

Finally got the mopar hitch installed over the last few days... All in all, probably took me about 4-5 hours or so spread out of 2 days to get completed... There were a few things I encountered that weren't in my friendly instruction booklet... Overall, I'm pretty happy with the job, and I saved myself $200 in labor by doing it myself. (I found the hitch for $125 +$75 shipping to Canada on eBay).. COnsidering Dodge up here wants $275 for the hitch, and another $200 for the installation, I'm pretty happy with the $200 I paid.

A few notes that I found that weren't really included in the instruction booklet, or general observations I noticed:

- When removing the fascia, it the booklet mentions that there are only 6 rivets. Mine had 8. (2 in the wheel well on each side, and 2 on the back bumper on each side). The hitch only comes with 6... You will need a minimum of 2 more. I purchased a plastic rivet tool that came with 40 rivets for about $25 at Princess Auto... Worked well.

- When removing the fascia, there are clips in between the wheel well and the back, about 4 if I recall correctly, I had to use a screw driver to pry them up so I could remove the bumper.

- Prying off those rubber exhaust hangers are pretty damn annoying... What is even more annoying is reconnecting them after the hitch is installed as your room to work with got decreased... Many curse words were said with this process.

- As for the actual install of the hitch, it is pretty straight forward. One thing I would suggest - DO NOT TIGHTEN the bolts until you have them all installed ready to be tightened. After the first couple I put in and tightened, I realized that I had to install them in a certain order to make sure that I had access to each of them, and I realized that I didn't have enough room to put in the others so I had to undo a few of them and get them all ready to be tightened.

- There isn't a heck of a lot of room, expect to use a socket wrench as well as a crescent wrench for tightening the bolts, don't expect to be able to make very big turns at once... It's a bit of a slow process.... If you have a ratcheting crescent wrench - that would probably work best.

- Remember to hook up the wiring harness prior to securing the metal bumper. There are a few clips that secure to the underside of the metal bumper, and if you don't connect those prior to installing the bumper, the hitch prevents you from being able to secure them, and you'll have to undo the bumper to do it.

- When installing the metal bumper back onto the frame, have a magnet ready incase the nut falls off and tries to fall somewhere where you can't really get at it.

- One thing I was worried about was the actual cutting of the bumper - I used an exacto knife. The paper template that you get gives you the outline to trace. It says that you need to trace starting 14" from the inboard edge of the passenger muffler cutout... There is about an inch or so of leeway if you don't do it exactly 14" apart. The plastic tubing that will go over where the bumper was cut out will hide any minor blemishes, it will not cover any boo boo's that you make that extend an inch away from where you cut. Overall, this process was easier than I thought it would be.

- The hitch does not come with the 4 pin bracket that connects to the hitch receiver that your 4 pin connector sits into. The part number for this is: 68026722AA... It's about $7 or something from the dealership.

Some sizes that I can think of off the top of my head:

Screw that is in the wheel well holding the fascia on - 7mm

Metal Bumper nuts - 13mm

Nuts that come with the hitch for installing - 16mm

Bolts that come with the hitch for installing - 18mm

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and I'll answer the best I can. Overall - for any of you that are wondering about how difficult this will be, I didn't find it too bad at all. I'm glad I decided to do it myself. I didn't need any assistance from anyone else, so it is definitely possible to do it completely solo. Expect a few curse words when dealing with the muffler hangers, and when your wrench slips off a bolt and you smash your hand into undesirable places:)

Have fun!

Important Note!!! You will need to take the Journey to the dealership to have the plug enabled. It requires some kind of flash update.

Note 2: The hitch (nor the wiring harness) does not come with the little bracket that fits on the hitch receiver that holds the 4 pin adaptor. I was able to find the part number. It is 68026722AA. It costs about $5 or so from Dodge. This holds the 4 pin connector so it doesn't just hang loose.

Edited July 28, 2011 by Armendegga

[UPMedic]

Thanks for the notes! I'm sure they'll come in handy.

[Derekmclain9]

Maybe a pic of the finished product to get an idea of what it looks like.

[Armendegga]

Sure, I'll add a pic of what it looks like, it looks basically the same as some of the other pics floating around in here

[bestman77]

WD40 for the muffler hangers, makes it super easy to slide on an off

[derfnl]

HI,

Just wondering what hitch you ordered? I'm in Canada as well... pick up my Journey today and need to order a hitch. There are a bunch on eBay that say they will fit a 2011, but when you click into the details it only goes up to 2010.

Thanks!

Fred

[Armendegga]

I ordered the OEM mopar hitch. If it's the mopar hitch it will fit all Journeys.

[camley88]

WD40 for the muffler hangers, makes it super easy to slide on an off

What did you use to pry them off with? i tried some things last night and i couldn't get the one off in the center of the car. I was able to get the back one off but nothing worked on the center one. I do need to try WD40 though!!

[Armendegga]

I used a long screw driver and sort of pried at it... That was the best i could manage. Putting the centre ones back on I found to be harder than taking them off unfortunately. I never thought of using WD40 though... That should make it easier!

[bestman77]

Yep, long screw driver does the trick. Just get some good Wd40 on the rubber and the metal and it will slide right off. Some were so easy that you can do it by hand!

[larryl]

If you have a long handle pry bar it works even better along with the WD40-mine came off quite easy and its an 09

I installed the Curt hitch from Ebay it is great

[camley88]

Finally got to installing the hitch last night. The WD40 worked perfectly. I have the 11 Journey and the Curtis 13335 (i think that's the number) hitch. Here are my comments:

- the two back rubber hangers and the two front are easy to get off; its the two inside rear ones that are trouble as the spare tire cover limits the room

- once the muffler is lowered, the installation of the hitch is easy and i was able to do by myself. I rested the hitch on the spare tire and loosely installed the passenger side first by screwing on the middle bolt first.

- the driver side was a little tougher as their is a wire harness that gets in the way. I had to pull this in towards the center of the car

- to reinstall the muffler, i started at the back and got the outside ones on first; then the two forward ones and finished with the rear inside ones (again hard to get too!)

- final note was that the spare tire doesn't go straight up anymore....the hitch gets in the way. What I did was pull the tire forward and up and over the hitch part that gets in the way. Then tighten it up all the way

Hope this helps!

[dodgeman324]

I also installed mine today. My Draw-Tite model came by Fedex this morning, and this afternoon at about 2pm I started the install. Most of my time was getting exhaust hangers undone. I just had shoulder surgery last week so my actual grip strength is decreased which made getting them off more difficult and time consuming, but the WD40 is a definite must when working with those things. As said by several other members, the actual hitch install was pretty easy. My kit came with included wire with perfectly sized threads at end for the carriage bolts for feeding bolt through impact bar, I was impressed that they include those these days. I was expecting to use my own wire methods to prevent bolt loss inside framerails. I went with the Draw-Tite because 1) I didn't want to cut bumper and 2) I already have a ball and ball shank for normal horizontal receiver, therefore, not needing to purchase a vertical receiver shank (is that what it's called). Because of my shoulder, I used a floor jack to lift hitch into position while I threaded on nuts and washers. Putting the exhaust back up went much better than taking off, somehow. Well, here's the pictures of my finished product. Now, I'm just waiting on a Modulite kit in the mail to hopefully get a trailer wiring hookup going. More to follow on that.

[b1pig]

Thanks for including some pictures. We just got our 2011 Friday. The tow hitch was one of the things I'll hopefully get for it in the future.

[dodgeman324]

No problem on the pictures. I took my bumper off which made it much easier to install, but it wasn't required, just fyi. If you go with the Mopar Hitch, you will have to take bumper off and cut into the bumper. I didn't wanna do that.

[Armendegga]

Cutting the bumper isn't actually required. Another user has it completely hidden behind the bumper . I chose to cut mine though, which was pretty easy in itself. The instruction booklet gives you the template to use for cutting. And yep, you're right, with the Mopar hitch, you need to take the bumper off

[45dodge]

I also installed mine today. My Draw-Tite model came by Fedex this morning, and this afternoon at about 2pm I started the install. Most of my time was getting exhaust hangers undone. I just had shoulder surgery last week so my actual grip strength is decreased which made getting them off more difficult and time consuming, but the WD40 is a definite must when working with those things. As said by several other members, the actual hitch install was pretty easy. My kit came with included wire with perfectly sized threads at end for the carriage bolts for feeding bolt through impact bar, I was impressed that they include those these days. I was expecting to use my own wire methods to prevent bolt loss inside framerails. I went with the Draw-Tite because 1) I didn't want to cut bumper and 2) I already have a ball and ball shank for normal horizontal receiver, therefore, not needing to purchase a vertical receiver shank (is that what it's called). Because of my shoulder, I used a floor jack to lift hitch into position while I threaded on nuts and washers. Putting the exhaust back up went much better than taking off, somehow. Well, here's the pictures of my finished product. Now, I'm just waiting on a Modulite kit in the mail to hopefully get a trailer wiring hookup going. More to follow on that.

[45dodge]

Hi,nice job on the installation.Need some info on your hitch.Part # and is it a class 111 hitch.Also where did you get it.Thanks for your help.Paul

[whitesxt]

I have the same hitch, Draw Tite. i got it installed in a DDP Performance.

[rosy29]

Hello. We just purchased an 09 Journey RT 2wd a couple of months ago and love it! It has every option except for the nav, AWD and the tow package. I hope that we do not regret the AWD but we seem to be getting great fuel economy with ours the way it is. I would now like to add the hitch as I have a snowmobile trailer. I am also in Canada and can get the Mopar for $210 here in Saskatoon. The aftermarkets are only about $20 cheaper. Looking at different posts, the aftermarkets seem to stick out like a sore thumb on this vehicle. Normally I'm not so fussy but on our Journey I seem to be. I have a few questions if you can help me out. First, how has the hitch been for you? I'm not sure what to think about the 90 degree adapter that you have to buy. And secondly, what type of wiring did you purchase? My dealership wants about $170 for the mopar which I think is rediculous. I can get an aftermarket for around $50. Just curious as you said you had to flash the computer, I wonder if this is necessary on an aftermarket easy plug style adapter. By the way, I have seen yours and I think it looks better that you cut out the bumper as opposed to the other option of having it looked bubbled out with the mopar hitch. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Armendegga]

Hey there,

The hitch has held up well. I haven't towed anywhere near 2000 lbs let alone the 3500 its rated for. I lie the look of the hitch being mostly hidden as well versus sticking out like the vertical hitch receivers, but that's a matter of preference. The 90 degree adapter seems to work good, and I haven't had any issues with it yet.

The wiring I used was already included in the tow prep kit, and the harness with the 4 pin plug was just sitting in the back when I bought it... You should notice that you actually have the wiring from the battery already done up to the back bumper... You are just missing the actual 4 pin plug harness that connects to it. There is another thread on here where another user was able to (after much frustration) get the actual plug ordered. I don't recall it being $170 though... You also have the option of going cvompletely aftermarket with it as well which may save you some cost. I believe that the only reason I had to get the computer flashed was because I was using the wiring that was already built onto the journey. If you are splicing into existing wiring/direct from battery, I don't believe that a flash will be necessary.

[michael_pmm]

I bought a 2012 Crew AWD 3.6vvt back in December and part of my agreement with the dealership was them giving me "cost" on a factory tow hitch. It turns out their "cost" is only $160 off the $900 the everyday joe pays off the street . I admit that i am a bit of a perfectionist with my cars and after days of reading forum reviews and calling shops i realized i didn't want the Vertical hitch anyway. Not only because of it's added price and some people mentioning "wabble" when using a bike rack, but i personally didn't think it looked as clean and neat as it should. I really like the looks of the DRAWTITE hitch in this forum and took the picture to the U-Haul hitch dealer near me to see if theirs was as tight and clean. The lead tech told me u-hauls hitches are manufactured by DRAWTITE and will be close to the bumper.... $315 later (nice price) and i'm NOT over joyed about the finished look. I was hoping for a higher, less bulky look like Dodgeman324's.....The only thing i can see is that maybe the 2012 has a slight difference in rear profile with the "stow and go" and spare tire that makes a difference in the hitch....Oh well......

So, as for performance. I loaded my two ATVs on a 5x8 utilitly trailer and pulled them all day up and around the small mountains near my home without even a hickup of trouble. Which when it comes down to it is what it's all about.

[Psyke]

I really like the looks of the DRAWTITE hitch in this forum and took the picture to the U-Haul hitch dealer near me to see if theirs was as tight and clean. The lead tech told me u-hauls hitches are manufactured by DRAWTITE and will be close to the bumper.... $315 later (nice price) and i'm NOT over joyed about the finished look. I was hoping for a higher, less bulky look like Dodgeman324's.....The only thing i can see is that maybe the 2012 has a slight difference in rear profile with the "stow and go" and spare tire that makes a difference in the hitch....Oh well......

while it might have been made by drawtite, the model dodgeman has and the uhaul model you picked up are definitely different. Dodgeman's has fully straight bars from the mounts to the hitch, while yours are bent bars that drop down from the mount, then angles/curves towards the hitch. I believe I found the model Dodgeman bought here: http://www.etrailer....leid=2012201530 which includes a video for installing it if anyone is interested in doing themselves. I have no plans for hooking up a trailer, but I'm looking to install one of these at one point sans wiring harness just so I can tow bicycles (and realizing I really don't have enough room for even one bike in the trunk with the second row up....)

Edited May 22, 2012 by Psyke

[Rebus]

I bought a 2012 Crew AWD 3.6vvt back in December and part of my agreement with the dealership was them giving me "cost" on a factory tow hitch. It turns out their "cost" is only $160 off the $900 the everyday joe pays off the street . I admit that i am a bit of a perfectionist with my cars and after days of reading forum reviews and calling shops i realized i didn't want the Vertical hitch anyway. Not only because of it's added price and some people mentioning "wabble" when using a bike rack, but i personally didn't think it looked as clean and neat as it should. I really like the looks of the DRAWTITE hitch in this forum and took the picture to the U-Haul hitch dealer near me to see if theirs was as tight and clean. The lead tech told me u-hauls hitches are manufactured by DRAWTITE and will be close to the bumper.... $315 later (nice price) and i'm NOT over joyed about the finished look. I was hoping for a higher, less bulky look like Dodgeman324's.....The only thing i can see is that maybe the 2012 has a slight difference in rear profile with the "stow and go" and spare tire that makes a difference in the hitch....Oh well......

So, as for performance. I loaded my two ATVs on a 5x8 utilitly trailer and pulled them all day up and around the small mountains near my home without even a hickup of trouble. Which when it comes down to it is what it's all about.

That UHaul version looks like my hitch, which is made by Curt. The Draw-Tite/Hidden Hitch brand hitches use the straight pipes.

[metalbender]

I installed a Hidden hitch on my 11 crew and used a modulite convertor for the wiring. No flash needed for the vehicle. Ran a 2 wire 12 ga to the back to power the module and a spare in case I want to have batt charging for a Teardrop trailer. Installation was a breeze, had the car on ramps at the back. Hitch sticks out a bit but is ok by me.