CURT 13328 Class 3 Trailer Hitch, 2-Inch Receiver, Fits Select Acura MDX, Honda Pilot

This hitch is of a nice professional quality! Even the paint is glossy with a rugged finish. I was very happy with how well it fits under the car. It barely sticks out under the bumper. The installation was not that bad of a project. If you go to the Curt main website they have a quick but helpful video on how to install this particular hitch. I backed the Pilot up on car ramps to make it easier to get to, but not really necessary. I lowered the spare tire with the jack wrench and took it off the cable and sat it out of the way. I removed the tow hook and bolts on the driver's side of the frame. There was no rust in any of my existing bolt holes in the frame. I just ran a little pipe brush inside each hole to clean out the dirt and then sprayed some lubricant inside them. I removed the 3 rubber exhaust pipe and muffler hangers using spray lubricant and then just popped them off using a wooden dowel rod and hammer. Not a big deal once I figured that out! I supported the exhaust pipe with wooden blocks once the hangers where removed. The "half moon spoiler" my instructions referred to must have been the heat shield above the muffler? I removed that to make installation easier. That was no big deal just three 10mm bolts. That was the prep work! To actually install the hitch I kind of did a bench press action and laid one side of the hitch on top of the loose muffler. I raised the driver's side of the hitch and started a couple of bolts to hold it in place. Then went to the passenger side and started the bolts above the muffler. Then put the bolts in the middle by hand. I tightened the middle bolts first then the driver's side and finally the passenger side. Then put the heat shield back on, and popped the 3 rubber muffler clamps back on, and raised the spare tire back in place. The heat shield barely touched the hitch after the installation. So I just slightly bent the shield with pliers so it wouldn't touch the hitch and cause any vibration or rust problems. Not a big issue really. I was done in about 45 minutes and I am in no way a professional! As soon as I finished the installation I attached a 20" x 60" cargo hauler to the hitch. This is my wife's car but she let me take it hunting to the Texas hill country providing I didn't put any dead deer inside her car! LOL! So, I bought the cargo carrier to haul any animals we killed back to camp. It turns out the only thing we killed was time!! LOL! I did use the cargo hauler to put mesquite limbs and other firewood back to camp so we could keep the fire going! The hitch and cargo carrier worked great!! I think it looks like an expensive high quality hitch but at a blue collar worker's price! LOL! The dealer wanted $800 to put a hitch on our Pilot, and local Uhaul wanted about $270. So you can save some decen't money by doing it yourself!

The hitch fit my 2004 Honda Pilot perfectly and was an easy to do Sunday afternoon project. The Hitch shipped quickly and arrived in good shape. It seems well built and has a thick coating on it and I would suspect will last a long time. Before you start make sure to gather all the materials you will need. Because I have a 2004 there was some serious rust and junk on the underside of the care. I would suggest the following extra tools: LONG handle ratchet (I used my torque wrench) Deep Sockets (otherwise you will be banging your knuckles a lot) Some Loctite A small wire brush (get the cylindrical ones they sell in the pipe department at your local home store. Stainless bristles are best). LOTS of WD-40! In my case I lowered the spare, but did not drop the muffler (I don't think it is necessary). I spend a good 50-60 minutes just cleaning out the bolt holes. I kept spraying them and working the brush into the holes. I would then check the threads with one of the bolts I took off when I remo ved the tow hook. At first the bolts would not even go in the holes, but with some patience and lots of WD-40 and elbow grease they came very clean. CHECK all of the bolts (8 in total) BEFORE you hoist the hitch into place if you want to save a lot of aggravation. Once it was all clean I hoisted it into place and with the help of my 11 year old son it went fairly quickly. He held the one side while I started the other bolts. It's all done, looks great, and you can't beat the price for the quality!

A fantastic buy for $130, this hitch American made hitch appears to be VERY high quality! The fit and finish are top notch, as the powdercoating is THICK and very evenly applied. I imagine this hitch will last forever! Install was a breeze, but DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and spray the mounting holes with WD40 or PB Blaster and then dab a little anti-seize on the threads. Next, using an impact (if you have one) work a mounting bolt in and out of each hole BEFORE you try to hold the hitch, line up the holes and finger start some threads. I ran a bolt about halfway in, pulled it back out, sprayed some more oil in the hole and then ran it all the way in. Do this to each of the 8 mounting holes first. Side mounting bolts are 19mm; the bumper mounting bolts are 17mm. Once you've done the above, use a floor jack (or a pair fo friends) to lift and hold the hitch up on the frame. Start a bolt on one side, using a rachet to run bolt about 90% of the way in. Only inserting the bolt 90% allows you to easily wiggle the hitch around and line things up just right. Now switch sides and run another bolt in the other side, again only running it in about 90%. As the hitch will now just hang from the vehicle, you can remove the jack and send your friends to get you a beer. Using a rachet, install the remaining 4 mounting bolts about 90% of the way. Next, install the smaller middle bolts located on the back of the bumper. These you will tighten down all the way. Using an impact or rachet, you finish tightening the 3 frame bolts on each side of the hitch. Gently bend the muffler shield away from the passenger side of the hitch if you find they are touching each other. I had to bend mine inward about 1/4" That's it; you're done! Send your friends for another beer and move onto the plug install, which literally takes less than 5 minutes! :) INSTALL NOTES: For Honda Pilot (2008) you DO NOT need to jack the vehicle up or loosen the muffler hanger. Though dropping the spare tire will make it easier for you to tighten the bumper bolts, if you have a 17mm rachet wrench you can leave the spare tire mounted to the car

This receiver looks great! I'd like to say it was easy to install, but I'm older (and have muscle and joint pain), so it was more difficult than I anticipated. If you are younger and strong, this is probably not a problem. To install my receiver, I had to remove the spare tire under my 08 Honda Pilot. I wish I'd have removed the spare tire before I got started. I was working alone, so getting the receiver into place was difficult for me. Holding 50+ lbs with one arm while putting bolts in with the other is a lot of work. I'd recommend either using 2 people for the install or using rope and tying up one end of the receiver. I also made the mistake of putting in bolts on the side to hold the receiver in place. This resulted in the receiver sitting at an angle when I installed the two bolts in the middle. One of the bolts went in slightly sideways--I was so tired by this point that I couldn't thread the bolt in by hand; I used a socket, and cross-threaded the top middle bolt. I had done some off-roading last year, and my undercarriage was covered in mud. In retrospect, I wish I would have first removed my spare tire and then cleaned out the bolt holes with a brush and some lube. Then I wish I would have tried threading the bolts into the holes to make sure they would go without force. If you have a Honda Pilot, you will need to uninstall (remove 3 bolts) your tow bar (not sure of the name) under the Pilot first. This is easy, although breaking the bolts free might require a torque wrench or something with a long arm for leverage. One side of this receiver hitch goes where that tow bar was located. I torqued the provided hardened bolts to 86 pounds. From start to finish, this took me about 1 hr. Other than the cross-threading on the one bolt--which still went in and tightened fine--the install went well. I recommend this product. To me, it looks better than the factory receiver hitch. It is MUCH cheaper than buying the factory hitch and having Honda install it. My only regret is that I waited this long to buy a receiver hitch. My next purchase will be a hitch-mounted bike rack. NOTE: There are YouTube videos that step you through the install. Again, in retrospect, I wish I would have watched the videos first! In other words, prepare for this install and you will be fine.

*** Update 10/20/19 I changed rating from 1 to 4 star. All of my negative comments stand. But the rating was in the heat of the moment. After watching some yootoob videos I saw that contrary to previous videos, all 3 rear bumper fascia supports need to be removed (not just the middle one). Also I was being much to careful with the mufflers. If yours don't drop down enough to get the hitch in, and you have removed all 4 rubber isolaters around the mufflers, push them down up to 1 foot from the bottom of the car, just enough to get the hitch between the muffler hangar and the bumper fascia. After that the rest of the install was easy*** This review is specific to installation on a 2006 Acura MDX. Installation on other vehicles, or even years of this vehicle if they have slightly different configurations may be much easier. My review does not reflect the build quality of the unit, which is high. I thought the center bracket would be important in comparison to the Hidden Hitch brand that doesn't have it. After seeing the vehicle center mount point, I don't think the vehicle can carry any significant weight at that point anyway, and the bracket Curt put on at that point just makes the hitch even more awkward to jigsaw into position. The Curt center bracket is so ridiculously overbuilt it could probably support a 50 ton load. This review is about the totally inaccurate Curt installation estimates (at least for this vehicle) of Pro 30 min and DIY 60 min, the installation instructions from Curt that are incomplete, the lack of customer support staffing from Curt on the weekends when most people have time to install their products, and the installation videos created by a certain other partner retailer that show only the easy steps, and does a cut-away not showing the most difficult and seemingly impossible step of lifting the unit into place if their other steps are strictly followed. This hitch could have been built differently like my Pathfinder hitch (in 3 bolt together pieces) that would make this dead simple to install. Instead the only way to install it seems to be to either remove the entire plastic rear bumper cover, or to cut off and re-weld on the rear muffler hangars. Installation is simple until you get to the most critical part, where you lift the hitch into position. On this vehicle at least, there is no way to get the hitch between the 2 rear exhaust muffler hangers and the 2 outboard brackets that support the bumper fascia. I'm going to see how hard it is to remove the plastic bumper fascia and brackets, but if it gets out of hand, I'm just going to return it. I am afraid trying to wrestle it into place around the loose mufflers, I may have bent my exhaust system. There is no other support going all the way up to the engine. I was supporting the pipes before the mufflers with bricks, but with all the bouncing and wrestling they weren't really doing anything.

Curt Manufacturing 13328 Class III Receiver This hitch was ordered for our 2006 Honda Pilot. It arrived quickly in the Manufacturers original packaging. Only issue is the receiver is heavy, tore a hole in the box, and was sticking out upon arrival. No damage, but Curt Mfg should either make the box a tighter fit so the receiver does not move around, or wrap the ends of the receiver in something so it will not push through the box. With that said, the product quality and fit is excellent. The black powder coat is very glossy, and tough enough it was not even scratched even though part of the receiver obviously made the trip outside of the box. The receiver is well designed with longitudinal slots for the main six bolts tying it to the frame, and vertical slots for the two bolts tying it to the rear bumper. Installation was a breeze. Just put in the six bolts loosely that attach it to the frame, install the two bolts into the bumper and slide the receiver back until it contacts the bumper... then tighten the two bumper bolts followed by the six frame rail bolts. Easy. It took less than 20 minutes, and I did not need to even remove the spare tire, or remove the muffler from its hanger, we just removed the Honda installed rear tow hook, tucked it up in place over the mufflers tail pipe and installed the bolts. My wife bolted up one side, while I did the other. It is possible to install by yourself if you just lay on your back, and hold it up with your knees....or if you have a few C-clamps, that would likely work too. Installation was pure simple with two people, so invite a buddy over. It looks very nice all tucked behind the bumper, the only part visible is the 2" receiver box which shows below the bumper, all the receivers frame is fully hidden behind the bumper. I'm very happy with this product.

I just installed this myself on a 2006 honda pilot. The bolts holding down the tow hook you have to remove weren’t coming Out with A simple socket wrench so I had to borrow an impact drill to get them out. Next I spent a lot of time cleaning out the 8 bolts holes with metal bristle tube brushes and pb blaster/wd40. Then I took one of the bolts the hitch comes with and tried to thread it through. This is what they refer to as chasing. The hitch bolts went thru easily in the tow hook oneS and the center ones next to the spare tire. The exposed ones near the muffler were a pain and took a lot of scrubbing and lube to even get the bolts beginning to thread. I thought of buying a tap as others have said but was worried i wouldn’t get the grooves to match the bolts exactly. In the end i realized that the old tow hook bolts would work i used those with the washers that came with the hitch. Next i used the tire jack to lift one side of the hitch Up near to the bolt holes and a few bricks to hold it up in the middle. I had to lower the spare by the way. I had to slightly pull down the muffler to slot the hitch into place on the passenger side. Then i was able to bolt everything on. Used a very small drop of loctite on the driver and passenger side bolts but that was personal preference. The video on the etrailer site for this curt hitch for The 2006 honda pilot install was helpful. Hitch looks very well made with nice welding. Subsequently bought a Bike rack, locking pin, rear light Harness and magnetic rear lights.

I ordered this for my '07 Honda Pilot. I intend to use it for a bicycle rack and luggage rack but probably not any towing. I attempted to install this myself but needed to remove the factory installed tow hook that is under the drivers side back corner of the car. I had the right size sockets (17mm & 19mm) and a regular socket wrench. I could not get enough torque to remove this hook. So . . . I drove to a couple of shops and asked if someone would remove that for me - surely I could then attach the rack by myself. The dealer refused to remove the hook because then my car could not be towed if I got it stuck somewhere. I am not sure about this since the online Honda E-store hitch installation directions require removing this hook as well. So, onto another shop which said they could do it if I came back another day . . . blah, blah. Well, being of the impatient type (and a bit concerned with paying a mechanic to unscrew 3 bolts), I decided to give it another go by myself. SUCCESS!! I went to the local home improvement store and bought a torque wrench (20-100psi) for about $75. With this, removing the tow hook was no problem. I was also able to install the hitch with the proper amount of torque - I wouldn't have been able to this with a plain socket wrench. I did not lower the exhaust, nor did I remove the spare tire. It caused things to take a bit longer but would have added time to remove and replace all these things anyway. So, for me it was a wash. I lifted the hitch up on the passenger side - over the tail pipe and then wedged 2 paint cans under it to hold up (I would have picked something more stable but these were close by). On the driver's side, I put in one of the bolts and hand tightened just enough to hold it, then back to passenger's side, same thing - removed paint cans. Did the center bolts. Then the other 4 end bolts (2 on each side). Once everything was as hand tightened as I could get it. I tightened the center bolts to the proper torque and then same with the bolts on each side. You will need a 17mm, 19mm socket, torque wrench and socket extension (directions call for a 4" but I used a 3" - because that is what I had and it worked ok). Hitch looks great - all that is visible is the hitch post opening. Paint is high gloss black. I am a 30-something mom of two. I would consider myself very handy but have no experience working on cars. It took me about an hour without any assistance (except a 4 year old jumping in and out of the car while I tied to keep the dust from falling in my eyes).