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This bolt leader helps you easily pull 7/16" 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 (101 Customer Reviews)
This bolt leader helps you easily pull 7/16" 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.
The hitch works great for my bike rack. I payed a garage to install during a oil change. At first they did not want to install it but when I gave them the installation kit and the color pictorial instructions they saw they did not have to do any modifications and installed it. My daughter bought a bike and bike rack and did the same with her purchased hitch.
thanks etrailer.
Made installing the hitch on my '23 Subaru Outback Wilderness so much easier. the hitch came with two, but I bought two extra. Glad I did, as i snapped one at the end of the coiled portion while fiddling one of the bolts into it's confined space. the spare made it a snap to redo without any delay.
The fish wire is just fine and very helpful, only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is that the hitch I ordered came with a fish wire so I did not really need this "extra" one.
Very necessary for swapping camper tie-downs to new truck
It works as designed
The tube cover enhances the look of the installed trailer hitch.
Hitch installed as depicted on etrailer video, no hidden problems encountered.
Handy little tool. Helps get the job done with ease.
Everything described in the instructional video was accurate. This is my 2nd vehicle that I've added the CURT. Works great. Highly recommended. People at ETrailer are just as awesome. great company.
Glad I got this. Made the installation MUCH easier.
Great product! I received the hitch today and installed it a couple of hours.Video was a big help,Thanks! It would have been nice to know it comes with the bolt fish line though. I could have saved a few bucks not buying one separately.
Helpful advice quick shipping.
Handy,but was included with hitch purch ase
Made maneuvering bolts into position a breeze
Great sturdy hitch and easy hitch install, but e-trailer should release a video or written instructions on the differences between a 22/23 Outback Wilderness bumper cover from a standard Outback bumper cover because the measurements and layout are a bit different on a Wilderness so be prepared to improvise.
made fishing the bolt thru a snap!
Worked well
Delivered on time. Package was destroyed but the product was not damaged. All is well.
Instruction/Video were very helpful. The hitch looks safe and perfect.
Well I haven’t them yet but they do fit the bolts for the hitch, I’m satisfied.
Good quality products
This is a good replacement for the pull wires supplied with the Draw Tite hitch. They're a heavier gauge wire. I was thankful that etrailer.com had them available after two of the Draw Tite wires were ruined when the hitch slipped off a jack while installing the hitch.
I wrapped the wires threaded onto the carriage bolts to help keep the wires from unraveling while pulling the carriage bolts through the holes in the frame and hitch.
Don't know if that helped, but the second installation try was successful.
By the way, getting the bolts and spacers back out of the frame was difficult but necessary since 7/16" bolts are no longer stocked at home centers or hardware stores. xxxxxx has them, of course.
I bought these to remove a trailer hitch that required fishing wires for installation. There were a little trick to use in reverse. But they did the trick. I then reused them to install the hitch on another car. So glad they are available!
Very pleased with my 2017 Ford Escape trailer hitch installation parts. Shipment was fast and parts correct. Installation videos were very helpful with full installation taking less than 2 hours.
Works great to remove and reinstall trailer hitch on a 2020 Cadillac.
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Neal
10/7/2023
Working just fine.