brianko

After some searching for an American-made hitch and cargo carrier, I discovered that Curt makes all their hitches bin the U.S., as does Surco with their cargo carriers. I ordered a Curt class III hitch (13536, $144.95) and Surco folding cargo carrier (52018F, $219.95) from etrailer.com. The hitch installation is quick and easy. However, it is impossible to properly torque the rearward passenger-side hitch bolt due to the exhaust blocking the bolt. It's rather important to get the torque right, because the cone-shaped washers are what provide the proper force against the head of the bolt to keep it tight. At any rate, to properly torque this bolt, you will have to remove the two spring-loaded bolts on the exhaust flange. This gives the muffler enough room to maneuver it out of the way so the bolt can be properly torqued. (Don't worry about damaging anything, the exhaust is mounted on rubber mounts.)

The cargo carrier, unfortunately, had a few fitment issues: With the hinge, there is not enough clearance for the carrier to fold upright. Without the hinge, there is not enough clearance between the carrier and the rear bumper. The cost of sending the hinge back and exchanging it for a 2" by 2" extender seemed to be more costlier than simply keeping the hinge and forgoing the folding feature. And it's unclear to me why a 2-inch by 2-inch extender reduces tongue capacity by 50%, while the hinge (which, in effect, is also an extender) does not. So for now I'll just keep the carrier and hinge.


Next up: The hunt for the ever-elusive trailer harness that's rumored to be somewhere on the RDX.