Hidden Hitch 60263 on Magnetic Grey Prius v

I got a Hidden Hitch 60263 from ecustomhitch (via Amazon) for $123.32 with free shipping. That link to the Amazon product page works as of September 23, 2012, but if you're reading this in the distant future it may well be a broken link. Anway, I just finished installing it on my magnetic grey v. Here are a few notes and pictures that might help someone else know what to expect.

Note that Toyota does not recommend towing, nor even carrying bicycles on a hitch-mounted rack. The pros and cons of ignoring Toyota's advice on these matters have been extensively debated on other threads. I suggest that we not rehash that debate in this thread--do a search and you'll find that it's been pretty thoroughly discussed already.

For $123.32 this kit included the hitch, mounting hardware and a drawbar. The same hitch is also for sale from various sources without the drawbar.

Appearance

Despite the brand name, it is not really a "hidden hitch". ​

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I don't think it's going to bother me much. I may peel off the white stickers so only black is showing under the car. I can see where some Prius owners might not like the look of it. There's another hitch option that seems to be less noticeable, but costs more and requires a little bit of metal cutting for the installation. ​

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Hidden Hitch vs. Draw-tite, etc.

There are fewer truly distinct manufacturers of hitches out there than there are brands. I think one company makes these hitches and then sells them with the only difference being the labeling. In this case, they didn't even bother to make all of the labels on the hitch match the "Hidden Hitch" brand it was sold as--it's got a "Draw-Tite" sticker on it. The instruction sheet mentions part numbers "24847, 60263, 77220, 24796 (U-Haul)." One of those is the Hidden Hitch part number I bought it as, another can be recognized as the part number Draw-Tite sells it as. From that I surmise that this same hitch is sold as Hidden Hitch, Draw-Tite, U-Haul, and maybe one other brand. Ya pays yur money and ya makes yer choice.​

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Weight

Hitch & Fasteners 18.45 lb.​

Drawbar and pins 4.58 lb. ​

Driver's side rear tie-down hook and bolts (removed) 2.24 lb. ​

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So the net increase in weight is 20.79 lbs added to my car. You'd also have to add a tow ball to do any actual towing. And of course, if you're not towing you could leave the draw bar behind.​

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Installation

This installation does not require any drilling, cutting or trimming. It is a simple bolt-on. ​

You have to temporarily take the rear of the exhaust loose from its hanger for too reasons: 1) to give you a little room to get at the bolts, and 2) to put the hitch between the exhaust hanger mounting bracket and the frame on the passenger side before bolting the exhaust hanger mounting bracket and the hitch together to the frame on the passenger side. The exhaust is attached to a rubber "isolator" which hangs from a peg on the exhaust hanger mounting bracket. Here's one view showing the exhaust and hanger with the isolator off the peg, and another view that shows how it looks when back in place.​

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The only troublesome part of the installation (for me) was holding the hitch and exhaust hanger bracket in place, lined up with the bolt holes, while getting the bolts started in their threads. Working upside-down and backwards, doing a three-hand task with two hands, it took me lots longer than it should to get the bolts started. Probably if I was smarter, I would have used two or three jack stands to hold the hitch in place for this step.​

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Tools I used for this

Half-inch drive ratchet​

Half-inch drive x 17mm socket​

Half-inch drive x 19mm socket​

Half-inch drive x 3" extension​

Half-inch drive x 6" extension​

Flashlight​

3/8 inch drive torque wrench capable of 65 ft-lbs.​

3/8 inch x 19mm socket​

3/8 inch x 6" extension​

Some random cardboard boxes to hold things up​

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That's what I used, not necessarily the minimal set that's needed. I started with the half-inch tools because I thought the bigger handle would be nice for breaking the bolts loose at the start, but had to switch to 3/8 later because that's what my torque wrench uses. And you could do without the torque wrench if you're comfortable tightening it by feel. 65 ft. lb. = "danged tight."​

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Tools I should have used but didn't

Two or three jack stands instead of the cardboard boxes.​

 

Yes, planning to use it to carry bikes ocassionally, also sometimes for light towing. We previously did this with our Gen II Prius (a 2006). We didn't don't do either of those things all that often, but when the situation called for one or the other of those capabilities, it was very convenient to have the car set up for it. We never had any problems with that setup. Most of the time we stored the bike rack in the garage (not mounted on the car all the time.)

The bike rack is a Thule Hitching Post Pro, a model 936 I think. It holds up to two bikes. I think the rack itself weighs about 28 pounds. I don't know if the same model is still sold or not.

We haven't actually used it on the Prius v yet, but here are a few pictures from the garage:

• The rack by itself lying on the driveway (makes a somewhat unwieldy thing to handle and store, but we found room for it in our garage)
• The rack mounted on the Prius v hitch.
• The rack on the hitch with one bike on it.
• The rack on the hitch, in the lowered position. With this particular rack/hitch setup you have to do this in order to open the gate on the Prius v. This rack was a bit more convenient on the 2006 Prius because the gate could open and close without lowering the rack--if you were careful about how you adjusted the bike mounting position you could even open and close the gate with the bike in place. But at least the rack is designed to lower like this so you can get into the back without removing the rack all the way. You're supposed to take the bikes off, then have to pull a pin to lower the rack. Probably possible to do it without dismounting the bikes, at the cost of a little extra scratching of the bike's top tube paint.