A couple people asked/PM'd about this from the other thread and I didn't want to thread crap that one up and get too far off topic.

Here are some pictures of my daily driver with the 03-06 Outlander hitch. As you can see I have a full size muffler (Tanabe) so modification is mandatory. The upright on the passenger side of the hitch has to be cut back roughly 2 inches to clear the body of the muffler. This really needs to be done with torches if you want to do it in a reasonable amount of time as the metal is quite thick. I then reinforced it with a brace to help compensate for any loss from that 2"X3" sectioning.

I did one of these for a car with an ebay muffler (small round deal, don't know the brand if any) and it cleared the hitch... but any substantial sized muffler you would need to section the hitch.

The mounting holes on the driver side are already in place, but the passenger side you need to drill one hole. You can use drop-in hitch bolts if you have a trailer shop nearby (or an old hitch laying around that used them). Drop in bolts are bolts with a metal bracket fixed under the head that you slip into the frame and the bracket prevents it from turning. Since I wanted to make this for free, I just took some old scrap bolts I had laying around and welded them to the Outlander mounting bolts (The Outlander has threaded holes in the frame; the frame rail is the same thickness on the Evo, but there are no threaded holes of course). I opt to put broad washers on the top side (on bolt first) to increase/broaden clamping distribution.

The tow hook has to go. You don't have to cut into the trunk, but the hook has to go and I sectioned the outer wall too for a more comfortable fit. You could probably space the hitch down about an inch and clear it, and this would also take the very small amount of pressure off the bumper, however you would want to use plate steel to space it down (if you used individual washers or similar you would lose the strength of the mounting) and I didn't have any desire to cut plates that thick by hand

 

I like your ingenuity

 

Thanks

 

The real purpose of the tow hook is to lash down the vehicle for transport by water from Japan.

 

you are the man, thanks for posting this. I really want to get one mounted on my 9 so I can mount our mountain bikes on it.

 

Works well when on a flat bed too


NP.... I do weird **** like this sometimes just for the sake of doing it (I don't need to tow anything). I'm usually just glad someone can use the information in the future.