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This bolt leader helps you easily pull 1/2" bolts or other hardware through hard-to-access holes in your vehicle's frame. The fish wire tool helps you install a trailer hitch receiver, fifth-wheel rails, gooseneck hitch, or other items.
Features:
Specs:
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey, everybody, how's it going Today, we're gonna be showing you how to use the Curt Fish Wire Bolt Leader. So you wanna make sure that you get the correct fish wire depending on what size bolt you have, and thankfully, Curt makes these in a few different sizes. For starters, you're gonna have a 3/8 inch, a 7/16 inch, a 1/2 inch and a 5/8 inch. So the first thing we need to do is we need to determine what size fish wire we need because there's several different ones. Now, when I talk about size, I'm not talking about the length of it. I'm talking about the size of this coiled portion here.
So there's gonna be all different kinds of sizes that are gonna match up with the common sizes used for hitch bolts. So this one here is a carriage bolt with a 7/16 inch diameter. So we're gonna be using the corresponding fish wire here, which is gonna be the 7/16-inch fish wire. So once we determine that we have the correct size fish wire, what I like to do is I like the bend the end here, the pointy end, that way when we stick our hitch up into position and you stick this through the hole in your hitch, it doesn't slide back out. This is gonna serve as a little stopper.
Now, I think it's another good point to make is that while we're using fish wire, I always like to make sure I have safety glasses on because these things are very sharp and they're springy so they could potentially put out your eye. So we've got our safety glasses here. I'm gonna go make sure I put these on. Now, the coiled end is gonna go through the hole that we want our bolt to go through and then we're gonna be fishing it out our access hole. So a lot of this is gonna vary depending on your particular vehicle or what you're installing it on, but for our Subaru Outback here, the hole that we're gonna be using is in the bottom of the frame.
So we'll jump under there in a second and show you that, but we're gonna be placing our coiled end through that hole that we want the bolt to come out of, and then we're gonna be fishing it out our access hole. So now, I'm gonna take the coiled end of our fish wire and I'm gonna be placing it through the hole that we want our bolt to come through, and now, here's our access hole. So I'm gonna take the fish wire here, the coiled end, and I'm gonna pull it out through the access hole. Now you wanna make sure you don't pull it too far, 'cause we obviously don't wanna pull through our other side of our fish wire and then I'm gonna hold onto the fish wire and I'm going to carefully thread on our carriage bolt. So we're gonna thread that all the way on.
Now, if your particular one uses a spacer block, you wanna go ahead and place that over the coiled end before you put on the carriage bolt. A lotta times, when you're fish wiring into the frame, there's both a spacer block and a carriage bolt, but this particular one here has the bosses already drilled into the hitch there, so you don't need a spacer block, but now, we're just gonna grab the other side of our fish wire there, feed our hardware through the access hole, and now, we'll just pull the other side of our fish wire down through the hole there, bring our bolt along with it. Now, if you have more than one hole that you need to do this to, chances are you are, and you only have one fish wire, you wanna make sure that you unthread it as opposed to just pulling it straight off. So once we have our fish wire off, we'll take our flange nut here and we'll go ahead and thread it onto the carriage bolt. Now, you wanna be careful when you're threading this on because you don't wanna push the bolt back up into the frame. So a lot of the times, I like to take a finger or if you have a conical tooth washer you're installing along with the nut. You'll use that to put pressure on the side of the bolt, so you're not pushing it back up into the frame. So another common fish wire technique that's used a lot, it's sort of similar to the one we just showed you, but it's called reverse fish wire. So with reverse fish wire, there's only one hole and that's your attachment hole. What you're going to do is you're gonna first take your fish wire here, the coiled end, and you're gonna place your spacer block over the fish wire like so, and then you're actually going to thread on your carriage bolt. So you're actually gonna be doing all this outside of the hole, and then what you're gonna do is you're gonna take the head of the carriage bolt. You're gonna stick that up through your attachment hole, shove that into the frame, follow that up with your carriage bolt, and then you're just gonna pull both of them down through the hole like so, and this is how it should sit inside the frame of the vehicle, and you'll just simply unscrew your fish wire, and that's gonna do it for our look at the Curt Fish Wire Bolt Leader..
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (167 Customer Reviews)
This bolt leader helps you easily pull 1/2" bolts or other hardware through hard-to-access holes in your vehicle's frame. The fish wire tool helps you install a trailer hitch receiver, fifth-wheel rails, gooseneck hitch, or other items.
This system worked perfectly from experience. They help from trailers e trailer agents was crucial for guiding me through the process.
I purchased a tow kit from tow install kit from etrailer to install myself. the quality of the components were outstanding and the installation were great. I ran into very few issues and were resolved quickly by contacting etrailer. I would highly recommend the diy packages to anyone.
Received sooner than promised,fit perfectly,looks great. Would order again.
I'm very happy with the great customer service I received. My part came in 4 days faster than expected.
What I asked for and quick service
Items arrived well packaged and everything worked as expected. Installation instructions were very good.
Arrived promptly. worked great.
tried making these with stove wire. getting these was worth it job done. next time remember to install heat shield first.
good product. hard to install trailer hitch without these.
It did the job that it was intended for. Handy gadget.
Product worked like a charm pulling Trailer hitch bolts through the frame and down into the holes. Hitch was installed in 20 minutes.
great price and its a tool you will have for years, worked flawlessly, made getting bolts in for trailer hitch so much easier
Russell A.
10/30/2020
still have the tool, and have used it several times,it just keeps being needed when installing hitches
I ordered the Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch for a 2017 Equinox and it shipped quickly and
instructions were very clear for the installation. The Hitch also came with two
1/2 wire bolt leaders and I had ordered an additional one as well. The bolt leaders needed to be connected together to reach from the opening to the guide holes for the bolts. Once connected, that extended the length and it worked perfectly to pull the two center bolts into place. All bolts and nuts fit perfectly. The 1 1/4 hitch works great with my bike carrier and any small carts that I need to pull.
Make sure you order the right size one of these. I did not know there were different ones. And get 2 or 3 at a time because they will break.
I did not know that the hitch I had ordered had come with one of these. Its ok tho, because I needed this one after all. Turns out these things are essential to mounting the hitch. I needed to use (6) bolts. By the grace of God I was able to get 5 of the bolts thru. This thing broke off on the 5th one and I was able to use needle nose pliers to get the last bolt thru. Turns out I could NOT get this to un-thread off the bolt, so each time I had to tug on it to get it free from the bolt. I tried this one I bought for the last bolt, and turns out it was for a bigger bolt and would not fit thru the steel clips. I rigged it and was able to at least get the last bolt thru before this one broke also. I would strongly suggest re-engineering this to be more ductile and "flexible". I was hoping it would flex back to position but that was not the case, Instead it just snaps - sign of wrong material selection.
The Fish Wire Bolt Leader made putting my trailer hitch on much simpler than it would have been without it. I highly recommend this product. I sent back and bought other sizes in case I need them for similar jobs. This is too handy of a tool not to have.
The trailer hitch receiver kit came with one of these so I ended up not using this, but I tested it out anyways just to get some value out of it and it worked flawlessly. Two thumbs up!
Worked perfect after I got over the operator error (glad I ordered 2). Had to drag a bolt over a frame piece and then into a hole while under my car.
William
3/5/2019
Havent need it since, but glad to know I have it just in case.
These fish wires are amazing. If you did not have these you could not install the hitch on our Dodge Dart; there is no other way to fish those bolts and rectangular washers up inside the torque box to the holes they must be inserted through in order to then bolt the hitch in place. They are worth every penny and worked like a dream.
I have been very pleased with the hitches and service from etrailer. I bought from them more than once for each of my Subarus. I am definitely a return customer.
It is very handy, having some thing helping in getting a bolt TO & Through a hole in the frame to mount Hitch Receivers. Having an assortment of all the size bolts required is a neccesity.
What great service from this company, I've purchased 2 hitches from them and each time the transaction was perfect. My recent purchase was some extra parts to reattach my previous hitch to my new car (same model 3 years newer). During this global pandemic things aren't moving as fast as previous years and with a holiday weekend, my parts would take longer to get here. Paula went out of her way to get them to me in a few days...not weeks. I was so happy to get them early and excited to get it on my car......but the 108° weather put a halt to that. This weekend it's going on my car and all will be good in the neighborhood.
Thanks ETRAILER.COM for all your great associates and products..
This carriage bolt block was impossible to find locally. Couple this with the bolt leader wire and the how to video on this website and I had zero issues. I was actually amazed at how quickly I was able to fish the bolt/spacer combo into the frame of my car to fix the broken weld but issue. Now all I need is the bolt up the hitch. Thanks etrailer!
Installing A trailer hitch would be impossible without a bolt feeder! 18 inches of wire gave me enough to feed the bolt and flat washer through the slot in the frame and drop it down through the hole into the hitch. Fast turnaround from the time I ordered until I received in the mail thanks George and the crew at Etrailer.
Worked for what I needed, but flimsy and wouldn't last more than a couple uses
Mike L.
7/2/2019
The fishwire tool is typically used as a single-use tool.
Very handy when installing the hitch receiver bar to a 2004 Honda Civic 4-door. Once tightened the bolt a bit too tight - had to do some prying to get it off. Nice that the wire was a bit curved, as it guided itself through the out-hole. I also used a magnet to grab the wire end.
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Salvatore G.
5/5/2016
I only needed it for one installation trailer hitch. It worked great and made the job a lot easier. Great tool! Thank you!