Mark42
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2003
- Messages
- 9,334
UPS brought the Hidden Hitch class 2 receiver hitch for my '98 Town Car and I installed it tonight. I have both good and bad comments about the experience. <br /><br />First, the hitch was drop shipped direct from the Hidden Hitch factory. It weighs about 30-35 lbs and looks beefy enough and solidly made. They put this big hunk of steel in a box with 3 pieces of filament tape over the flap to keep it closed and no packing inside. Nothing to keep the hitch from flopping around and punching holes in the box. Which is exactly what it did, as well as completely rip open the flap of the box. In the box with the hitch was a smaller box with the ball for the draw bar. Amazing that it made it to my house considering that there was a 8" x 30" hole in the side of the box. For that matter I am amazed that the hitch was inside the box. Whoever packed it also chose to tape the draw bar, instructions and mounting hardware bag to the hitch. Good and bad. Good because the pieces made it here with the hitch. Bad because the draw bar rubbed and banged on the hitch and wore the paint off in a number of places. Of course, every "corner" of the hitch is missing its paint because of crappy packing. <br /><br />Second is the instructions. They are wrong. They list pieces that don't exist, and don't list pieces that do. The diagram shows the wrong screws in the wrong place. The text is correct, but so vague as to apply to any hitch. This model hitch is for Fords Panther platform cars (Crown Vic, Mercury Marquis and Lincoln Town Car). Instructions say to use the 1/2" spacer for Town Car, but I used the 1/4" spacer because it fit well with no clearance problems. <br /><br />Third is the quality of fit and finish. There are little pieces of weld wire left all over it. Can't these guys weld without leaving 3/4" pieces of wire sticking out? The paint they used looks like satin Rustolium. Nothing fancy. I guess that is good, because I have a lot of touch up to do on it.<br /><br />And last, it is not centered. Its off to the drivers side an inch or more. Much more than any side to side adjustment that can be made. It fits exactly where it should, and MAYBE there is 3/8 to 1/2 side to side play. I didn't measure to find out what is causing it to be off center, but the receiver does not line up with the Lincoln badge in the center of the trunk license plate mount. I doubt this amout of "offcenterness" will affect handling. We'll see. <br /><br />On the up side, it was easy to mount. The hard part is drilling 1/2" holes in the frame rails from under the car. But that is true for any brand hitch. It's very hard to bear down on the drill. So I got Jamie (15 yrs old) to help me. I laid under the car holding the variable speed drill in place. Drill was about 3" above the garage floor. I placed a short length of 2x4 under the drill, and Jamie lifted up on the 2x4 forcing the bit up into the frame. All I did was run the trigger and hold it straight. Worked like a charm. Nothing like a little leverage to make things easier. <br /><br />Hidden Hitch put nice slot holes in the hitch so it was easier to get mounted and aligned before tightening up. And they did give these nifty wire devices for threading the bolts and plates through the frame. The device is a 20" length of stiff wire with one end coiled so the bolt can be tightly screwed into it (kind of like a helicoil). Then when the wire is fished through the frame, the bolt is securly attached to the end and won't fall off inside by accident. Great idea that worked well. It was also a really tight fit, with as little as 3/8" inch clearance between the frame mounts and the trunk floor (gas tank is under the rear seats in front of the axle). <br /><br />So they get a thumbs up for making it fit right, drilling the holes right and giving neat threading devices. They get thumbs down for crappy packing, crappy instructions, poor paint and welding finish and claiming it can be installed in 50 minutes. It took me two hours and that did not involve standing around drinking beer. It also did not require modification of the dual exhaust setup I have like some other brands of hitch do. That is nice. Especially seeing as most Panther cars do not come with dual exhaust, it's nice to see they accomodate all models and configurations. <br /><br />I could have bought a less expensive hitch. I went with Hidden Hitch because it would be hidden from view, and it mostly is (you only see the draw bar mount poking down below the bumper skirt). And it does have this nifty plastic cover to hide the draw bar mount when not in use. But I expected better packing and instructions. All in all, I have to recomend them because they did one thing very, very well: it fits right (although slightly off center) and that is a hard to beat feature.<br /><br />UPDATE: Hitch was off center because I was rushing and had it cocked. I have since loosened the bolts and straightened it out.
<br /><br />Did you try it yet? Hurry up!!!
