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This fully welded trailer hitch receiver bolts onto your Subaru Forester's frame with no welding required. Powder coated steel is sturdy and corrosion resistant.
Features:
Specs:
At etrailer.com we're committed to the products we sell, and to our customers. Our experienced and knowledgeable staff are available via both phone and email to address your questions and concerns for the lifetime of your hitch. The technicians at etrailer perform hitch installations on a daily basis, making them a valuable resource for do-it-yourselfers. The one-on-one, personal service you'll receive comes straight from an expert in the towing and automotive field. We've installed it, we've wired it and we've towed with it, so whatever your question, we can answer it.
Tech Tip
We recommend that all non-trailer loads (bike racks, cargo carriers, etc) should be supported by stabilizing straps, such as 18050, sold separately. No drilling required for installation , Access holes may need to be enlarged by drilling, filing, or rotary tool , Exhaust must be temporarily lowered for installation , Heat shield must be permanently removed for hitch installation
Complete Towing Package for 2016 Subaru Forester
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Average Customer Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars (539 Customer Reviews)
This fully welded trailer hitch receiver bolts onto your vehicle's frame with no welding required. Powder coated steel is sturdy and corrosion resistant.Good solid hitch. Paint/coating feels like it should last. Install kit and etrailer Install videos are a time saver! Start to finish was about an hour. I opted to notch and replace the heat shield vs. delete it. Also opted to grind the center frame hole vs. the one close to the suspension as seen in one of the videos.
etrailer customer service is great. Will definitely buy from again.
Hitch was easy to install on our 2018 Forester, works well for bike racks and small trailers. Customer service excellent as usual. Very happy 1 year after install.
This is the third hitch I have purchased from etrailer and each purchase has gone smoothly. I will say the two Curt Hitches did install and line up better than another brand I purchased from them but don't recall the brand on that one.
Great hitch! Using to hold heavy weight e-bikes on my Subaru Outback
Nice hitch receiver! I ended up drilling holes to make them bigger. You will need a die grinder or a dremel (which I have but I didn’t have it close by).
etrailer was extremely fast at processing and shipping my order. The hitch was installed on a 2014 Subaru Forester and was very easy to install. It fits perfectly snug underneath the vehicle and there is no wasted space. Hitch seems to be well made and very strong with good welds. I'm sure it would pull a trailer much too big for the Forester. You can also use tin snips to cut a notch out of the heat shield in the area where the hitch bolts are and reattach it with 3 screws. So you won't have to discard the heat shield. I did the installation without help and used a couple of cheap jack stands to hold the hitch up in place. I didn't even need to jack the vehicle up. To enlarge the center hole, I used a cheap ($18) step bit from Harbor Freight. It's a little easier and quicker than filing or routing.
The only warning I would give is NOT to buy the hitch pin - it is secured only with a weak spring clip and there is no hole for a cotter pin. This is unacceptable and I certainly would not trust it even across the driveway. Do yourself a favor and purchase one at a hardware store and you can secure it with a proper pin or through-hole clip.
I also ordered the wiring kit and it was easy to install with good instructions and works great.
Huide
12/27/2013
nice done. thank you for sharing
Jd
11/22/2014
still going strong. Good hitch, well made. Your request for a review after a year of owning it is the mark of a well-managed company. Thanks!
I was originally just looking for a bike rack for my wife's 2014 Subaru Forrester. After viewing the website and watching the instructional video I decided installing a trailer hitch would be the way to go. Living in Missouri I received the hitch the next day. The hitch is top quality and installed with ease. I did decide to fish the bolts through the top inside of the vehicle because I didn't like the idea of enlarging the hole that was an attachment point. Simply pop up the two black buttons on each side to remove the foam, they pop back in when your finished for access. Enlarging the hole shown puts you directly above the center attachment hole. As shown in the pictures I enlarged the hole inside the vehicle and then sealed with butyl tape, Fishing from the top was very easy. I also only removed the minimum amount of heat shield to allow for the bolts and flattened/sandwiched the shield between frame and hitch to eliminate any chance of a rattle.
Now I only have to pick out a bicycle rack which I will definitely be ordering from etrailer.com
Wally
4/5/2018
Still rock solid. Couldn’t be happier.
I just purchased a 2015 Subaru Forester and needed a hitch for it. To have the dealer install would have been $700 and would have only been the 1 1/4" hitch. I wanted a 2" and have seen good reviews on the Curt hitch. I got confirmation from Curt that this did indeed fit the newest forester and so made the purchase. I thought about doing the install myself, but for $80, the local trailer dealership around here would do the install in an hour and be held liable for any damage done. And since I have no experience with car stuff and did not want to take a chance with doing any sort of damage to the vehicle, I brought it in.
It turned out nice. I needed a 4" lift for the ball mount so that my trailer would be nice and level. Also needed to pick up the extended version of it so that it would clear the back bumper of the car. Haven't towed anything yet, but over the next few days, I'll test out the 1500lb towing capacity and see how it works.
Dan
8/20/2014
How did your testing go?When you said you would test the capacity, do you mean your trailer is exactly 1500?How heavy is your trailer?
Ive put on serveral hitches, just follow the directions. Much easier now that a fish wire for each bolt is included. Widened holes with step bit this time and made it much easier. Reinstalled heat shield by drilling holes in it for bolts to pass through. Installed it by myself without raising vehicle.
Troy
7/19/2023
No issues, use for towing small trailer but mainly for Kuat bike rack.
The trailer hitch was delivered timely. My son was able to install it relatively easily. And it has performed perfectly ever since.
We are very happy with our Curt trailer hitch and with etrailer's service.
Tom M.
8/20/2018
Hitch is working fine. Thanks for asking.
Amazing product and service from etrailer as usual. This is the 4th hitch I've purchased and installed over the past 10 years from them, I always recommend them to my friends looking to install a bike rack. Allocate another $[XX] to buy a step drill bit (or ask your friends to borrow one) to fit this on your Forester. I figured I could just widen the "feed hole" with a file, but using a step bit will save SO much time and make a much cleaner job of it. The fishing line things that help with install are great, I think I enjoyed using them more than a normal person should. Great solid hitch, no complaints and highly recommend.
I chose the Curt class II trailer hitch & Curt wiring harness. The videos along with the customer comments and reviews were very helpful making the installation go smoothly. I backed the car up on ramps to get working room. The hardware provided had much larger heads than shown in the video so I enlarged the 4th hole in order to pull the blocks and bolts thru. The rest of the installation went smoothly.
The tube cover with American Flag made a nice finish to the installation. Just an FYI, I have see the same tube cover on several other vehicles in the area. It looks good.
I just installed this hitch on a 2016 Forester. First, the hitch and hardware were all in perfect condition.
The instructions were detailed and very helpful.
Now that it's installed, it looks great and feels solid.
I'm glad I had a nice bit on a my die grinder for the step of widening the two holes, I'm sure a step drill would make easy work of that too.
I had never used the fishwire procedure before, but it was very easy and worked great.
After plenty of searching, etrailer had the best price for this hitch and followed it up with free and fast shipping, awesome customer service, and most importantly a great product from a great selection.
By the way, this is my third hitch from etrailer, the other two are on my WRXs :) Still strong, years long
Fast shipping and helpful customer service, in that the original hitch i ordered was going to be delayed, due to out of stock. so i ordered the Curt. The instructions that came with the hitch were clear and easy to follow, but I watched the video, which suggests widening the furthest forward hole, which is already a bit bigger than the three that you put the bolts through. I drilled two holes next to the big hole (so it looked like mickey mouse - sorry i did not take a picture), then just bent the "tab" of metal between my two holes out of the way to fish through the bolts and the flat pieces of metal which prevent the bolts from turning. once i fished everything through (very easy and fun, even), i bent the tabs back into place and replaced the rubber stopper.
I also followed the comments from others on the website and trimmed the muffler heat shield so as to leave the bolt holes for the hitch exposed, then reinstalled it with three of the four screws. I lowered the muffler, and held it in place with a strap, like the video suggests. The install went easily, but did take me about three hours.
The receiver end of the hitch ends up a couple inches shorter than the end of the bumper, so there is no chance of smashing your shins against it, and it is very tight up to the bottom of the bumper as well. It does not appear that it will impede any type of 4 wheeling in the Forester, which was also a concern, as I see some hitches on cars are so big, that it would impact clearance.
I took a star off because the hitch is too narrow and contacts the spare tire well on both sides with no side to side adjustability. It would not sit flush on the frame rails until drawn to the full 110 ft-lbs. Installation took 2.5 hours without enlarging any holes in the frame rails and besides the holes in the heatshields is reversible. I have arthritic hands and worked alone when it was 91 degrees and I stopped multiple times to get tools/refreshments/wash my hands and tools. Knowing what I needed beforehand I doubt it would take more than 1.5 to do it again. The bumper cover/mud flap (green) required 8mm, 10mm, and a small screw driver. The bumper support (blue) used 14mm. The Curt hardware is marked in yellow. The disassembly is straightforward and once the bumper support is removed you can easily place the carriage bolts within the frame rails using the fishwires. I used a section of 2x10, two 2x4 cutoffs, and four 3 inch deck screws to create a balanced platform to raise the hitch into place. Once the nuts are on lower the jack and unscrew from the bottom. Reassembly took maybe twenty minutes. Note: My Forester XT has an aftermarket cat-back exhaust system with mufflers 1/3 the size of the OE units so I was able to complete the install with it in place. The Magnaflows are narrow enough that they don’t block access to any of the heatshield bolts or frame rails.
I am very happy with the service provided by e trailer.com, They truly have the lowest prices and if you find a lower price they'll match and give you an additional 10% discount!!!!
This hitch is very sturdy and for the price I think it is the best bang for your buck...
I followed your install video completely however I don't understand why Curt recommends that the heat shield be removed. I installed the hitch with the heat shield and all i needed to do was to drill two 1/2 inch holes where the R and M are located in the heat shield (there is a pilot indentation there) this area of the heat shield is where the hitch will attach to the car and then I reattached the shield back into the car before attaching the hitch.
I don't have a lot of mechanical skills and it took me about 3 hrs to install this hitch by myself and taking breaks in between to wait for paint to dry. I painted with rust resistant paint and undercoating the areas that I enlarged/drilled. Enlarging the holes was the most time consuming part in my opinion but it didn't took that much either I used a Titanium Nitride Coated High Speed Steel Step Drill Bit and enlarged the hole up to 1 3/8.
getting it on the car by myself was difficult but I used 2 floor jack towers to hold the hitch in place and that helped but it would have been easier having an extra set of hands to hold it while screwing the bolts
I also painted the hitch 3 days prior with 3M rubberized undercoating to give an additional layer of rust proofing
I am very pleased with the way it looks on my 2015 Forester. Thanks etrailer.com, I highly recommend, and will definitely buy from you guys again!!!
I have bought Curt trailer hitch to attach bike racks for 2 or 3 bikes to my Subaru Forester 2015. I am using the hitch about a year and it meets all my expectations. No problems so far.
I received my Curt Hitch for my 2014 Subaru Forester about 3 weeks ago, didn't have a chance to install it until this weekend. This is the third hitch I've gotten from etrailer.com, I've been very pleased and this hitch was no exception. Like a few other reviewers, I completely removed the muffler, I think that made for a much cleaner install. I also modified the heat shield under the muffler, may not have been necessary, but as long as Subaru put it there. I used a Dremel with a carbon tipped bit to enlarge the middle hole, that and the included fish wire worked very well. The finished look is very unobtrusive, I am very pleased.
Very great product. I went to the dealership to ask them about a hitch and they wanted over $800 to install one, and that did not include a wire harness. So I shopped around, and found this site. I ordered the hitch and wire harness for a fraction of what the dealer was asking. I received everything within 4 days, got a conformation email within minutes of ordering saying my shipment was being prepared. Then received an email a few hours later saying it was shipped. Very good customer service. The install was very simple also. Came with all the instructions and hardware to complete very easy. Instructions said install would take about an hour, I had it installed in about 30 minutes. Looks very clean on the vehicle. I would recommend this site and product to anyone. Since putting it on I have hauled a piano, dirt, and other stuff in the trailer with no problems. Thank you so much!
Overall the installation was very easy. To make it easier for myself (no help) I removed both exhaust mufflers.
In your web page it doesn’t show a 2018 Forester with dual exhaust.
Some hardware stores didn’t have a deburring bit to widen the hole so instead i used a pointed grinding stone and notched 2 sides of the hole (as you may see in one of the pics). This provided enough space for pc#1 & 2 to be dropped in place.
Next was to raise hitch into place (luckily i have a motorcycle floor jack). The fit was VERY TIGHT due to the spare tire compartment and possibly the angle of the hitch otherwise you just need to press hitch into place. No harm No foul...
Minor blemishes. No problem. Reinstall heat shielding (some cutting needed). Reinstall mufflers and I’m done!
Next...Trailer hitch wiring.
Thanks for the great products and videos associated with those products.
First the positive: Product is excellent, everything was there in the box and it fits perfectly under my 2015 Forester.
Now the less positive: I read the instructions that came with the hitch receiver and they made little sense to me. Enlarge the middle hole and pass the bolts through there? I didn't make sense, especially to install the bolt/spacer in that hole. Luckily, I watched the video and they say in it to not follow the instructions and use the rear access hole. My question is then: Why not correct the instructions?
Also, I didn't like that they enlarge the access hole with pry bars in the video since I wanted to be able to put the plug back in place so here's what I did. I took a reciprocating saw and made four little notch, allowing me to bend two tabs (see pictures). After passing all bolts and spacers, I fold the tabs back and the plug fit perfectly
Finally, they don't re-install the heat shield in the video (2016 Forester installation video) but I knew better since I watched other videos for other products. I simply made cuts in mine to fit the bolt holes.
In summary, excellent product but some work needs to be done to correct the instructions. Luckily, the site has plenty of videos to help you find the perfect solution. This is why I still give it 5 stars.
So, I was concerned about the length of the Curt 13144 hitch for my 2015 Subaru Forrester. The pics on etrailer for the 2015 showed a short receiver (tucked in 3-4" under the bumper) and the 2016 pics showed a longer hitch receiver for the same part number, which extended almost even with the end of the bumper. I read some reviews online for this hitch for the Forrester and some people had issues with mounting things with the shorter hitch, so I was concerned about which one I'd be receiving (i wanted the longer one). I don't know if Curt changed the design some time in 2015 or what. I called and brought this up with Angela, she was very helpful and took the time to understand my concerns. I took the chance and ordered it with her, and it was the right part, perfect for the vehicle. Angela stayed with me (via email) through shipping, delivery and even post-purchase, making herself available via phone if I wanted. The customer service at etrailer is excellent! I wish every company could take a lesson from them.
Like many others have experienced, the box was torn in 3 places, but it didn't affect the integrity or finish of the part. This hitch is incredibly durable and well constructed.
My installation went without a hitch (pun intended!). I followed the Curt video. There are many helpful hints in people's comments that I won't repeat...I used them all, including trimming and keeping my heat shield. A few points. It wasn't clear if I should jack the car up or not. I ended up jacking with a floor jack and set the car on jack stands. It was a very good work height and I'd recommend it to others. My biggest trepidation based on reviews/feedback was dealing with the rubber exhaust hangers, but it was really easy as long as you lubricate them (i.e., WD40). I guess people who struggled didn't lubricate the rubber hangers. I mean, it was SO easy. Took me 1 minute to undo 3 hangers and 1 minute to re-attach at the end of the job. One little thing that might help...when removing the fish wires from the bolts, just pull them taught and start unscrewing. The tension from pulling on it keeps the carriage bolt from spinning and its much faster/easier than trying to hold the bolt and unscrew the fish wires. The only special tool I had to get was a step bit that went to 1 1/8" ($19 @ Harbor Freight). I believe it was a textbook install and from the time I took out my first tool to the time I put my last one away it was just under 2 hours...and I'm not a particularly efficient worker. I like to take my time and double-check things as I go. Your mileage may vary.
Bought for my 2015 X. Fitment is great, and I have a Curt hitch on my older forester that isn't rusting, so I expect the same from this one.
I installed it myself. Wasn't keen on drilling the frame, so I did a no-drill method by removing the bumper cover and beam. It was surprisingly easy for me and only took me about 2 hours. A second hand and a large platform jack was essential for me to get the hitch into position.
I ordered the hitch Sunday afternoon about 3:30. At 5:30 i had a confirmation of shipment, and a tracking number, on Sunday! Said the hitch should show up on Thursday, but it was here Wednesday.
This is the third hitch I have installed, and the second from etrailer. They all have installed exactly the same. First was a Mazda Protege 5 sport wagon, then an '11 Subaru Impreza wagon, and now an '18 Forester. It took right at an hour to install, just as the instructions said it would. The instructional video is right on for the installation. I would strongly suggest having a helper to hold it in place during the install. We deviated from the instructions in that we removed the muffler completely from the car. It is only 2 bolts, there is no gasket involved, and since the car only has 1000 miles on it, the bolts were easy to remove. The only issue we had, and it is a small one, is we found the passenger side had to be fitted first to fit under the muffler hanger. We fit the drivers side first, and the passenger side then interfered with the muffler hanger and would not fit. I used Dawn dish washing soap to lubricate the muffler hangers going back together, and it made slipping the hangers through the rubber mounts a breeze
I was bit nervous about installation which requires drilling but it went super easy. The package was shipped fast and arrived in just few days. Installation was easy after watching etrailer's video on YT. I did not cut the heat shield but drilled holes using a unibit and it worked very well (also used a unibit to enlarge hole in frame).
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Sparky
4/26/2023
Been mounted for a year now. Mount still solid and paint finish still looks new even after an Illinois winter.