P5 trailer hitch

Don

Member
A Canadian company, "Hidden Hitch" makes a very high quality, easy to install hitch for our cars. I was about to weld up something on my own, and did a little searching first, and since this one was just $90, I decided to give it a try.

I bought mine through J.C. Whitney, and with 10% off, I got it for about $80 plus shipping. It arrived, dropshipped from the manufacturer in less than a week.

Possibly you can order it straight from the manufacturer and get a better deal, especially those of you living in Canada. Their part number is 48-3893-R and it's specifically made to fit the Protege 5. Weight limit for the trailer is 2000 pounds, with a maximun tongue weight of 200 pounds.

Installation is very simple, as it's held on with just 4 bolts, and you don't have to modify the car in any way. I got mine installed in less than an hour - The most difficult part was getting the two muffler rubber hangers undone, as you need to lower the muffler a couple inches to get the hitch up into position.

It comes with all hardware, and includes the drawbar and even a pretty little cap to cover the receiver when the drawbar is removed.

Highly recommended.

DSC00551.jpg



Don
 
Don said:
A Canadian company, "Hidden Hitch" makes a very high quality, easy to install hitch for our cars. I was about to weld up something on my own, and did a little searching first, and since this one was just $90, I decided to give it a try.

I bought mine through J.C. Whitney, and with 10% off, I got it for about $80 plus shipping. It arrived, dropshipped from the manufacturer in less than a week.

Possibly you can order it straight from the manufacturer and get a better deal, especially those of you living in Canada. Their part number is 48-3893-R and it's specifically made to fit the Protege 5. Weight limit for the trailer is 2000 pounds, with a maximun tongue weight of 200 pounds.

Installation is very simple, as it's held on with just 4 bolts, and you don't have to modify the car in any way. I got mine installed in less than an hour - The most difficult part was getting the two muffler rubber hangers undone, as you need to lower the muffler a couple inches to get the hitch up into position.

It comes with all hardware, and includes the drawbar and even a pretty little cap to cover the receiver when the drawbar is removed.

Highly recommended.

DSC00551.jpg


Don

Awesome!!! I have been looking for one of these to pull my 4X6 Motorcycle trailer... Did JC Whitney have it listed online, or did you see it in the paper catalog? Also, If you don't mind me asking, how heavy is the item you are going to pull with it??
 
Don, do you think an aftermarket exhaust will get in the way. Hard to tell from the angle of your image. I want to do the same to hitch up my mountain bike.
 
Umm, are you forgetting that our cars are not designed to tow? Putting a hitch on and towing something will put alot of stress on our already weak trannys which in turn will void your warantee.
 
It will NOT void your warranty.
I'm looking at putting a similarly small hitch on my MP3 to haul and AutoX trailer for tools, coolers air tank, race tires, jacks, etc. As long as you're not racing around while pulling the trailer you're fine.
It will not void your warranty.
 
chuyler1 said:
Umm, are you forgetting that our cars are not designed to tow? Putting a hitch on and towing something will put alot of stress on our already weak trannys which in turn will void your warantee.

Towing a small utility trailer, a jet ski, small motorcycle, or autocross equipment trailer will not hurt anything. It's no worse than having 5 passengers and a full load of luggage in your car. Now towing a horse trailer, RV, or a car would definitely damage the drivetrain. Plus, if there are just 4 bolts for the install, it would be very simple to remove when taking the vehicle in for a warranty repair.
 
azeli73 said:
Don, do you think an aftermarket exhaust will get in the way. Hard to tell from the angle of your image. I want to do the same to hitch up my mountain bike.

Advice on the carrier Iif you know this stuff I apologize)

I had a 97 Maxima with a receiver hitch and used a Saris/Grabber post rack that could carry 4 bikes. Coming from the receiver to the mast went out a little over a foot and half from the bumper. No bikes on it and the car still came down about an inch and I would smack the bottom of the carrier pulling out of driveways. Take that stuff at angles. I still have my grabber in the garage and use a Yak roof rack now with QTowers.
 
mazdadan said:


Towing a small utility trailer, a jet ski, small motorcycle, or autocross equipment trailer will not hurt anything. It's no worse than having 5 passengers and a full load of luggage in your car. Now towing a horse trailer, RV, or a car would definitely damage the drivetrain. Plus, if there are just 4 bolts for the install, it would be very simple to remove when taking the vehicle in for a warranty repair.

Ahh, but there is where you are wrong. A trailer, even when driving at constant speeds, pushes and pulls against your car. That stress goes straight to the tranny's gears. That extra friction causes the gears and fluid to overheat resulting in a transmission failure sooner or later. Special transmissions and hitches on trucks are designed to combat this problem. You can also get a tranny radiator (ther is an official name for this, they sell them at U-Haul) which will help.

If all you plan to do is drive around town with it, thats fine, but long distance trips will do a number on your transmission.
 
chuyler1 said:


Ahh, but there is where you are wrong. A trailer, even when driving at constant speeds, pushes and pulls against your car. That stress goes straight to the tranny's gears. That extra friction causes the gears and fluid to overheat resulting in a transmission failure sooner or later. Special transmissions and hitches on trucks are designed to combat this problem. You can also get a tranny radiator (ther is an official name for this, they sell them at U-Haul) which will help.

If all you plan to do is drive around town with it, thats fine, but long distance trips will do a number on your transmission.

Again I have to disagree....When I owned my '82 Mazda RX-7, I had well over 150K miles on it with no catastrophic effects from pulling a trailer. Most of the trips were to events several hours away. There are probably quite a few people on this board who could chime in and back me up on this one. Again, most people are not pulling a trailer that will put enough drag on the car to do any major damage.
 
Like everything else, a little common sense and you can make all of this stuff last.

I had a friend with a Chevy truck, addon transmission cooler, and the corvette servos added to his auto transmission. Towed his power wash trailer all over town with jack rabbit starts and last minute stops. Transmission was gone in 6 months. Another friend had the same setup in a full sized Blazer and hauled horses, construction trailers etc. and put 80k with normal maintenance before selling it sound as could be.

I think tranny coolers take about 15 degrees off the fluid temps in auto transmissions which even without towing would be a real boost to the longeveity of the transmission. Couple that with good driving and no worries. Would a manual transmission have fluid? that may be a stupid question.
 
Well, a utility trailer I'll give you. But a trailer with two skimobiles or something is going to take control of the car.

I used to haul tons of stuff in my 90 grand marquis which had over 150K on it. I could blow away my g/f in her corolla with a loaded down full-size dual axle U-Haul on the back. It was invincable. I just wouldn't try it with a small car that people know has a weak transmission.

I'm not trying to be the enemy here, just making sure people are thinking about what they are doing. I mean, you get the trailer, use it to haul your tires and a cooler or whatever. . .and before you know it your friend is asking you to transport his dirtbikes to a competition and you break down on some hilly back road in the middle of nowhere.
 
Snoopy said:
Would a manual transmission have fluid? that may be a stupid question.

Yes, all cars have transmission fluid. Its not the shifting that causes the overheating, its the friction of the gears.
 
Boy, I never though my simple post would start a FIRESTORM :eek:

I've towed small trailers (and some not so small) with 4 cylinder Japanese cars for many years, without ANY problems. I towed home a CAR on a dolly with our last little 4 cylinder Mitsu and the towed car outweighed the Mitsu - No panic stops, mind you as braking was marginal, but so far as the engine and trans were concerned, nothing overheated.

Auto transmissions run hot because of all the fluid is being asked to do, but there is no "gear friction" to speak of in manual transmissions which will cause heating, no matter WHAT you tow. Some folks can break a manual trans (without towing anything) while some of us can put 200K on one, sometimes towing significant loads - It's much more the operator than the load which determines if you're going to have trans problems.

I suspect this hitch will clear most exhaust systems, as it's tucked up tight, and the muffler is lower - You DO have to lower the muffler to get the hitch up there, but I suspect the hitch will be safely above most any muffler, especially one using the stock muffler hangers.

Me, I'm going to tow a little bit of everything - A 600 pound motorcycle on a 250 pound trailer for starters, but if I needed to tow my classic car on a dolly, I wouldn't hesitate to give that a go. Like anything else, you need to use some common sense . . .

This hitch receiver sits almost touching the rear bumper cover, and the muffler hangs lower, so I doubt you'll smack the hitch pulling out of driveways and such. With the receiver removed, and the little black cover over it, it's not at all noticeable when looking at the car from the rear. I asked the wife if she thought I should paint it silver, and she thought the look was "entirely in keeping with the look of the car" as it was.

I found the hitch in a paper catalog - They mentioned the P5, but did not give any specific part numbers. I went online and found mention of hitches to fit Proteges, but no mention of the P5, so I e-mailed customer service and got the actual part number to order - The full number you need to order from J.C. Whitney if you order by phone is 48ZS3893RF and it's $89.99

Any other questions, or need a pic of anything, e-mail me at alcarina@cs.com

Don
 
I have been very interested int he idea of towing with my protege, in my case, an MSP. What I would be towing is a sea-doo jet ski which I was thinking getting. Im not sure on how heavy they are. As for my mazdaspeed exhaust and rear valence, I could modify the tow kit to work aronud those, my main concern was if there was any part of the car that could handle towing anything at all. And if so what part and how to go about hooking it up.
 
I've been towing my utility trailer with my Protege since the first week I had it. ( I had a custom hitch done before anyone made one back in (2002). I now have over 70,000 miles on the Pro5 now. No transmission problems at all. I'm not at all nice about my driving. I tow a motorcycle through the mountains all the time. I'm going to redo the hitch now since I don't want it below the bumper. I'm going to do some custom cutting and fabricating to make the hitch come out through the bumper.
 
Slick!

It looks like it bolts to the subframe (or floor) and leaves the bumper completely untouched for collision protection. Does installation require drilling the four bolt holes in the vehicle? I have a Drawtite receiver hitch for my Civic that mounts with 4 bolts in the trunk floor. Works just fine. I upgraded the brake pads to carbon metalic for better fade resistance. I also have synthetic ATF in the transaxle for added heat protection. Just don't go over about 1,500 pounds of tow weight and it should work fine. Jim
 
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If you look, there is a reinforced square frame member on both sides of the car which stops just short of the bumper - Specifically designed for mounting a hitch. The holes are already there - One smaller one to the rear, and an oval shaped one to the front. One needs to be larger and oval shaped, as the hitch mounts with large carriage bolts, through a reinforcing plate about 1/4 inch thick, and both the bolt and the plate are mounted inside the frame, with the threads hanging down, going through the heavy hitch plate, with a self locking nut on the bottom. No drilling of anything.

The car was designed for this accessory (as most of them now are) and it fits like a glove.

Don
 
I just installed a Draw-Tite hitch on my P5. It wasn't very easy either. I'm thinking the hidden hitch is more well designed for this car as it uses just the holes in the frame to mount to. This probably gives you a little more "play" to get the holes to all line up. The draw-tite uses one set of holes in the frame and has an upright member on each side which bolts to the existing bumper bolts. This creates a problem because that's a fixed point on a different plane and alignment is very tough. You can get one or the other but not both!

Also, once bolted up you can't get the vapor recovery bracket bolted back where it's supposed to go. Did you have this problem with the hidden hitch? Also, Has anyone else used the Draw-Tite model and had any problems or am I just a whiner?
 
I had a drawtight on mine but it wasn't made for the Wagon. It had the same problem with the vapor recovery system. I got tired of it and modified the whole setup to look like this:

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Its not quite as sturdy but it will allow me to lower the car more without the hitch being to low.
 
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