Trailer Hitch Fits for 2002 Jeep Liberty Sport

Question:

Im shopping for my second purchase of a hitch for this vehicle. The first hitch, manufactured by Draw Tite did not fit. In fact the bolt holes were 1/2inch off and the measurement between the bolt flanges was a full 1inch out of square. In qualifying your products, please reply and tell me what size thread are the bolts supplied with the CURT hitch for this vehicle ?

asked by: Mitch W

Expert Reply:

There are two primary causes for a hitch fit to appear incorrect when you go to install it. If the shipping carrier subjected the hitch to rough handling - one good drop from a truck will do it - the alignment of the mounting flange holes can be off, making it all but impossible to install it without first re-bending it back to its original dimensions. This kind of shipping damage can be hard to detect until you go to mount the hitch. The hitch can look perfect but still be bent.

The other common issue, especially on vehicles that are a few years old, is corrosion inside the weld nuts on the frame which are the hitch mounting points. Into these weld nuts the supplied hitch hardware is installed. I have seen this myself - I was sure, absolutely sure - that the hardware was too big for the weld nuts. In fact the problem was that corrosion in the weld nuts made them unable to accept the correct-size hardware. A brisk cleaning with a wire brush like # DW00254 along with generous applications of a spray-on lubricant (like PB Blaster or WD40) will remove that rust and let the hardware thread in properly.

All trailer hitch fits for your 2002 Jeep Liberty are shown on the linked page. We offer the 2" Class III hitche by Draw-Tite # 75128 and a 2-inch Class III hitches by Curt # 13044. These are confirmed to fit on the 2001 through 2007 Jeep Liberty. We generally always recommend the higher-capacity 2-inch Class III hitches since they do not cost much more, if any, but give you more flexibility with popular hitch accessories, more of which are made for 2-inch hitches than for the smaller size.

The included installation hardware for Curt hitch # 13044 is metric, M12-1.75 x 35mm, as noted in the linked instructions. An installation video is linked for you as well.