I had read several reviews where some folks needed to grind or cut, but this tow hitch fits in perfectly. The instructions can use a tune-up as the pictures are dark and hard to relate to the actual parts of the car and the installation. The one thing that is required is that you trim away the body caulking as it does impede the proper fit of the hitch against the cross member of the frame. Also, be sure to leave the fish wire on the bolts until after you get the tow hitch fully in place. Otherwise, you will push the bolt back into the frame and that won't be fun. All-in-all, this is a great hitch that gets tucked up under the bumper with only the receiver showing. I highly recommend it!

Easy install.you don't need to take the heat sheild off just cut them with a undercut saw and metal blade.install the bolts on the drivers side first.i used a jack in the middle of the hitch to get it alighned.

I gave a 4-star review because they could package them better. For how they package them, the box gets destroyed, and so the first one I ordered was returned to the seller by the shipper saying that it was damaged.. I believe it was just the box that was torn apart. Never the less, the second one arrived and the box for it was in rough shape and didn't offer any protection to the hitch. They may as well just shrink wrap it with padding and call it a day.Anyhow, a few pointers/items to consider, the main ones are:- really would help to have an extra pair of hands. You can do it yourself, but you will need to get creative. I used a basic tie down strap that doesn't have a ratchet, only a spring clasp so that as I pulled out the slack I could raise up the hitch. I started by using two jack stands set as high as they would go, and I set the hitch on the stands at the flat part of the plates to get the hitch as close to the bottom of the car. Then I ran the strap over the bumper and around the middle part of the hitch to where it would be just about level as I lift the hitch.- really make sure you scrape all of the insulation off the frame of the car at the area around where the bolts for the exhaust insulators are located. I didn't scrape all of that area to begin with and caused me to have to undo the bolts I was able to fasten and scrape it all off. This was the main thing really that was the cause of not being able to get the hitch on at first.- my car is the 2.5L and only has 1 exhaust muffler, but I ended up not having needle nose pliers to remove the speed nuts for the heat shield. FYI, if you have a trim removal tool, that will work, but it's a little difficult if you don't have the clearance to stick into the slots on the speed nuts. So I was only able to remove 1 or 2 of the nuts before I gave up trying that, and decided to make the cut to the heat shield while it was still on the car. Just wanted to put that out there bc it would actually save time just to cut the shield while it's on the car. You can remove the speed but for stud that you have to remove so that you will have some flexibility to cut thru the shield, but it doesn't have to be completely removed. You can make the cuts and scrape off the insulation without doing so.- the last pointer is that when do you go to bolt on the hitch. Get one or two nuts on each side fastened onto the bolt one or two turns. For the remaining ones you may need to really push up on the hitch to get the flange nuts to catch the threads . You may not be able to tighten more than a few turns by hand. As long as you can get the nuts started onto the bolts is actually fine bc once you start to fasten the bolts down with an impact or wrench, you will be able to tighten it down enough that the bolt threads will go all the way through the nut and then a couple threads. I say that bc when I got all of the nuts hand tightened on, I was convinced at first that I wouldn't be able to tighten them down enough, and was surprised at how much travel I was able to get once I hit it with the impact.- also, I wish I had invested in a impact ratchet power tool prior to doing this.

We installed a cargo carrier to add additional cubic feet to our small SUV but will use it more often for a bike rack

I’m fairly mechanically inclined. This took me a little over an hour to install. I do suggest watching one of the many videos to prevent removing to much of the heat shields. Also there are more places that will need seam sealer removed than the videos show due to manufacturing differences.

Happy with how easy they made this to install with the fish wires I was able to mount this hitch by myself in less then two hours very pleased with the results.

You will need to cut out 12"x7" of heat shield and remove all Caulking that is exposed (maybe 20" linear).If you don't do this, it will not fit, and you will need to start over.The instructions say 12"x4"; but this is absolutely incorrect for CURT 13293 ( V-5 S0186U-RB ) which has a 6"-6.5" plate.You may not need to remove the trapezoidal plastic bumper trim.

It was a very tight fit, had to remove body caulk to get all the way up to frame

fits 2017 - present gmc acadiaeasy to install