Experience with Curt 12234 Trailer Hitch

[striker1211]

I bought the Curt 12234 trailer hitch off Amazon because I read that it was a bolt-on application for my 2008 Pontiac (Non-GT) and the hitch would be tucked nice and close to the bumper. After much cleaning of the weld-nuts on the frame of the car the unit bolted on perfectly to all but 1 of the bolt holes. It was a rearmost bolt hole. I loosened all 3 other bolts and even with the hitch moving freely left to right there was not enough clearance to install the bolt into the rearmost hole. To get the thing to install i had to use a drill to lengthen the bolt hole long ways (so basically on the most driver side side) with a drill bit. Even doing so I felt a lot of resistance when bolting the unit in as the threads bit into the part of the hitch that I had drilled just wide enough to get it threading. Once installed the unit does look perfect and barely makes contact with the lowest point of the bumper (non-gt version). My experience could just be freak occurance but my recommendation is that everybody start all four bolt before cranking any bolts down past 2 or 3 turns. I am just posting this on here so that anyone in my situation does not think they are crazy and spend a half hour wiggling the hitch left and right (with a hammer) like i did.

[bringjustn]

I just put the same hitch on my '07. The holes all matched, but the welded in nuts were past rusted. Since I am a machinist at heart I grabbed a tap and chased the threads (the new tap since I couldn't find mine was about $7, well worth the price for the time savings). I would recommend this to anyone that is running into this problem; just make sure you get the right tap. Took me about 25 min for the whole job.

[DennisLee]

bringjustn, What size tap is it? I've got that same hitch sitting in my garage now waiting for this weekend.

Also, any tips on where to run the primary power wire for the trailer lights?

I'm also thinking of mounting a 12v socket in the driver side molding, a few inches ahead of the driver side access port in the back, what do you think? I figured as long as I was running a 10 amp fused wire to the back I could add the power port, I had one in the back of my Tribute and found it useful from time to time.