[lainsonj]

Hi There.

Almost 4,000 km on my FuSpo and loving every km! Great power for a daily driver, great sound (I know it's fake, but I don't care!). This is my first Ford and I'm blown away! Not missing my POS outback that ate through 2 CVT transmissions in under 160,000 km.

I am, however, missing my hitch mounted bike rack! I was thrilled to see any towing capacity as it meant I could get a hitch and attach the rack. I've called all the major hitch manufacturers and on release, nobody made a hitch that would fit. Curt mfg. confirmed the challenge was the muffler.

Received a call back from Curt today. The design, engineering and testing is complete. Manufacturing is scheduled to start, meaning hitches will be available in about 4-6 weeks. Woohoo! No more jamming the bike in the trunk!

 

[JaredC01]

Awesome! My Kuat has been waiting for a hitch as well!

 

[elronino]

I'm a huge cyclist, and while I hate putting my bike in the car, I hate having it smashed when someone rear ends me . I'm also hesitant as the trailer hitch might look ugly.

I'm still interested, and would like to see what it looks like installed.

 

[lainsonj]

The Hitch showed up at the dealer today, so I'm hoping to have it on the car by the weekend. Pics to follow!! Pretty beefy class 2 hitch with 3500 towing capacity (much more than the car is rated for).

 

[Fuze]

How will the hitch be installed ? Welded up I presume ?

 

[lainsonj]

How will the hitch be installed ? Welded up I presume ?

Looks like a direct bolt on. No welding required. They need to drop the exhaust to get it in, but from there the install looks pretty straight forward (at least from curt's instructions).

My appointment is for Thursday, so I'll post some pics Thursday evening.

 

[lainsonj]

Hitch is on and...

Doesn't look bad to me at all. Nice and tucked under the bumper, so it doesn't stand out. No structure showing. I've attached a couple pics. Let me know what you think!

 

[gzsport]

Doesn't look bad to me at all. Nice and tucked under the bumper, so it doesn't stand out. No structure showing. I've attached a couple pics. Let me know what you think!

Not bad at all! Might have to get one myself to pull my motorcycle.

 

[MI-Cheesehead]

Thank you for your pictures with this hitch mounted on your car. I saw that the hitch is available but was a little skeptical when the car picture in the instructions wasn't even a 2017 Fusion, much less a Sport. Your hitch looks good. I want to get one so that I can use a bike rack. Thanks again!

 

[steve95628]

I wanted to chime in on the hitch installation. I recently bought my Fusion Sport and decided to put a hitch on it. I use the hitch primarily for a bike rack but also occasionally to pull a motorcycle trailer. Anyway, I purchased the Curt hitch and installed it yesterday. The hitch fits great and is reasonably hidden, or at least blends in enough it's not totally obvious. The installation was as stated in the Curt instructions but, as is usual with things like this, not nearly as easy as indicated. The 40 min estimated time was way off and I rate my ability at such things better than most. Anyway - I wanted to offer a few tips...

1) You do need to drop the muffler and all 3 hangers need to be freed. I removed the muffler from the two side hangers but chose to remove the bolts for the center one. I used a car jack to hold the muffler in place and lower gently and slightly vs letting it hang on it's own.
2) Fishing the wire through the frame takes some patience and it helps to bend the tip of the wire. No more than 1 inch. Also make sure you put the right plates & bolts on the wire for the holes. There are two different size. Getting the bolts out again is easy, the plates, no so much.
3) have the two bigger bolts facing down sticking out of the frame rail. The side bolts need to be push in but close to the hole.
4) use a jack to raise the hitch in place. Put the fishwire through the holes on the hitch. Raise the hitch slowly into place to ensure the bolts go through the holes (these are the bolts facing down). One at a time, unthread the fishwire and put a nut on it. Hold it all the way up and tight it snug but not tight.
5) Pull the side bolts through, make sure they are perpendicular and not crooked. These are trickier as they could fall into the frame rail easily and then getting them out would be difficult if not impossible. I used a small flathead screw driver to push against and inner thread to hold the bolt in place while I unthreaded the wire. I then carefully threaded the nut onto it.
6) Once all nuts are on, I made sure the hitch was lined up and torqued the bottom bolt first to cinch it up. Then torqued the side bolts.
7) I reinstalled the heat shield, rehung the muffler and was done.

I wasn't happy with the movement of the lower rear fascia. With the piece that Curt has removed and "discarded" (I saved mine) there is nothing really structural to hold the fascia in place. I chose to use zip ties through the outermost screw holes in the fascia, around the hitch, to give it rigidity. If I can post the video, you can see the difference. While this causes it to bend inward slightly it's not noticeable when standing behind the vehicle.

Here's a link to a Google Album with the pics and videos... I had to put the link in like this because of some stupid number of post requirement to post links / photos. Oh well. goo.gl/photos/4MPpLZ1mGnE7zWgF8

Hope this help anyone doing an install!

 

[Mubalzich69]

Has anyone towed an actual trailer yet? I have a large 13' kayak that I haven't been able to use since I got this car. I've been debating on installing a hitch and purchasing a trailer, but I'm hesitant as I'm not sure what to expect with the towing capabilities on this car. I had a truck before so there was never an issue.

 

[lainsonj]

Yup! I've been towing a little box trailer back and forth to the dump. I've loaded it up with paving stones as well with no issues. It tows straight and true.

Also, about a month ago I ended up towing one of those uhaul u-boxes on a trailer because they screwed up the delivery. Towed it empty and full. I don't think you'll have any trouble towing a kayak.

I've got the curt hitch and a European ball and receiver, which is all one piece. Very solid.

 

[ArthurUSCG]

I wanted to chime in on the hitch installation. I recently bought my Fusion Sport and decided to put a hitch on it. I use the hitch primarily for a bike rack but also occasionally to pull a motorcycle trailer. Anyway, I purchased the Curt hitch and installed it yesterday. The hitch fits great and is reasonably hidden, or at least blends in enough it's not totally obvious. The installation was as stated in the Curt instructions but, as is usual with things like this, not nearly as easy as indicated. The 40 min estimated time was way off and I rate my ability at such things better than most. Anyway - I wanted to offer a few tips...

1) You do need to drop the muffler and all 3 hangers need to be freed. I removed the muffler from the two side hangers but chose to remove the bolts for the center one. I used a car jack to hold the muffler in place and lower gently and slightly vs letting it hang on it's own.
2) Fishing the wire through the frame takes some patience and it helps to bend the tip of the wire. No more than 1 inch. Also make sure you put the right plates & bolts on the wire for the holes. There are two different size. Getting the bolts out again is easy, the plates, no so much.
3) have the two bigger bolts facing down sticking out of the frame rail. The side bolts need to be push in but close to the hole.
4) use a jack to raise the hitch in place. Put the fishwire through the holes on the hitch. Raise the hitch slowly into place to ensure the bolts go through the holes (these are the bolts facing down). One at a time, unthread the fishwire and put a nut on it. Hold it all the way up and tight it snug but not tight.
5) Pull the side bolts through, make sure they are perpendicular and not crooked. These are trickier as they could fall into the frame rail easily and then getting them out would be difficult if not impossible. I used a small flathead screw driver to push against and inner thread to hold the bolt in place while I unthreaded the wire. I then carefully threaded the nut onto it.
6) Once all nuts are on, I made sure the hitch was lined up and torqued the bottom bolt first to cinch it up. Then torqued the side bolts.
7) I reinstalled the heat shield, rehung the muffler and was done.

I wasn't happy with the movement of the lower rear fascia. With the piece that Curt has removed and "discarded" (I saved mine) there is nothing really structural to hold the fascia in place. I chose to use zip ties through the outermost screw holes in the fascia, around the hitch, to give it rigidity. If I can post the video, you can see the difference. While this causes it to bend inward slightly it's not noticeable when standing behind the vehicle.

Here's a link to a Google Album with the pics and videos... I had to put the link in like this because of some stupid number of post requirement to post links / photos. Oh well. goo.gl/photos/4MPpLZ1mGnE7zWgF8

Hope this help anyone doing an install!

Thanks for taking the pictures. I was hoping Curt tucked the cross bar further up so the air deflector peice could be notched/ cut out for the reciever to be poked thru.

 

[ArthurUSCG]

FYI: The part number for the Curt hitch is 12464
If you add a 2 after the number (124642) it will come with a one piece Euro style mount with 2" ball and pin.
If you add a 1 after the number (124641) it will come with a one piece Euro style mount with 1 7/8" ball and pin.
The mount is a 3 1/8" rise and should put the top of the ball about 16 1/2" from the ground.


Looking up the price at etrailer, it's $20 cheaper to order the kit then separate components.

 

[martinbrown096]

Awesome! My Kuat has been waiting for a hitch as well!

 

[toygun718]

Hitch is on and...

Doesn't look bad to me at all. Nice and tucked under the bumper, so it doesn't stand out. No structure showing. I've attached a couple pics. Let me know what you think!

How it’s been since the install I’m thinking about this, thanks

 

[toygun718]

I wanted to chime in on the hitch installation. I recently bought my Fusion Sport and decided to put a hitch on it. I use the hitch primarily for a bike rack but also occasionally to pull a motorcycle trailer. Anyway, I purchased the Curt hitch and installed it yesterday. The hitch fits great and is reasonably hidden, or at least blends in enough it's not totally obvious. The installation was as stated in the Curt instructions but, as is usual with things like this, not nearly as easy as indicated. The 40 min estimated time was way off and I rate my ability at such things better than most. Anyway - I wanted to offer a few tips...

1) You do need to drop the muffler and all 3 hangers need to be freed. I removed the muffler from the two side hangers but chose to remove the bolts for the center one. I used a car jack to hold the muffler in place and lower gently and slightly vs letting it hang on it's own.
2) Fishing the wire through the frame takes some patience and it helps to bend the tip of the wire. No more than 1 inch. Also make sure you put the right plates & bolts on the wire for the holes. There are two different size. Getting the bolts out again is easy, the plates, no so much.
3) have the two bigger bolts facing down sticking out of the frame rail. The side bolts need to be push in but close to the hole.
4) use a jack to raise the hitch in place. Put the fishwire through the holes on the hitch. Raise the hitch slowly into place to ensure the bolts go through the holes (these are the bolts facing down). One at a time, unthread the fishwire and put a nut on it. Hold it all the way up and tight it snug but not tight.
5) Pull the side bolts through, make sure they are perpendicular and not crooked. These are trickier as they could fall into the frame rail easily and then getting them out would be difficult if not impossible. I used a small flathead screw driver to push against and inner thread to hold the bolt in place while I unthreaded the wire. I then carefully threaded the nut onto it.
6) Once all nuts are on, I made sure the hitch was lined up and torqued the bottom bolt first to cinch it up. Then torqued the side bolts.
7) I reinstalled the heat shield, rehung the muffler and was done.

I wasn't happy with the movement of the lower rear fascia. With the piece that Curt has removed and "discarded" (I saved mine) there is nothing really structural to hold the fascia in place. I chose to use zip ties through the outermost screw holes in the fascia, around the hitch, to give it rigidity. If I can post the video, you can see the difference. While this causes it to bend inward slightly it's not noticeable when standing behind the vehicle.

Here's a link to a Google Album with the pics and videos... I had to put the link in like this because of some stupid number of post requirement to post links / photos. Oh well. goo.gl/photos/4MPpLZ1mGnE7zWgF8

Hope this help anyone doing an install!

Thanks for your photos and steps, one question does the hitch touch your muffler at all of any part of the muffler thanks

 

[ArthurUSCG]

Thanks for your photos and steps, one question does the hitch touch your muffler at all of any part of the muffler thanks

Nope, there's plenty of space between the hitch and exhaust.

 

[toygun718]

Nope, there's plenty of space between the hitch and exhaust.

Thank you