New Tow Vehicle

[Shadow Catcher]

towing Compass Rose to California last summer was some what nervous making because our 2001 3L H6 Subaru was, well 11 years old. This year Nancy said it is time to replace it and like I'm going to argue? This was also driven (pun intended) by the death of its predecessor which was owned by my son (we gave it to him). It had reached 300,000 miles and had not been taken care of all that well.
I wanted another Subaru and a 3.6R which uses regular gas (the 3L used premium). The search with in a 300 mile radius for a lightly used that was not black or dark gray found one in Dayton that was a 2012 white and with white interior with 35,000 miles. I wanted a class 3 trailer hitch (more things will fit) and ordered one from E trailer along with the wiring harnesses. I have to say I ordered last Monday and had the hitch and harnesses by Thursday. I had the Curt hitch and wiring installed today (I did not want to risk the wiring) and the weight and difficulty of installing the hitch...
There are in my not so humble opinion three was of installing a hitch, The Uhaul quick and dirty slap it together tap off the existing lights using scotch lock... The Camping World put it together run the wires under the car ok it works sor of most of the item... and the BEST install I have ever seen.
The hitch had to be shoe horned in about two hours to install, the wring three lines from the battery one for the brake controller one for power to the plug and the third a 30A line to the back of the car for the refrigerator were routed through the fire wall and inside to the back where the brake and trailer power lines exit through a rubber plug to the seven prong plug.
Now I have to find the correct draw bar offset/height and a SS 2" ball.

[Greg M]

Sounds good! A build like the Compass Rose should have nothing but the best.

[rmef27]

I am a manager of an automotive repair shop/tire store and I love the subaru product.Im new here but you should definitely post some pics.

[TimJones]

so right away everyone that used Uhaul or works for them is subpar in your not so humble opinion,and Campworld is a little better.

[Shadow Catcher]

My experience with Uhaul is based on three installs on three different Subaru's and others I have seen all done essentially the same way which implies a corporate, this is how we do it. This included using scotch lok connectors even when a plug on the wring harness was available. I did not know they were there, but they should have.
All of the information on line on how to do an install, including that from Etrailer, takes an exterior approach for the wire and that was what both Uhaul and Camping world did on the previous install. Because of the way the exhaust, frame members and suspension components are set up on the new H6 this would be difficult to do with out toasting the wires. What was done yesterday has only the ring terminals 6 feeding 6 10 ga wires and the sealed 30A inline fuse for the 10ga line to the refrigerator exposed under the hood to the firewall. The wire, circuit breakers for the brakes controller/brakes and the trailer charge line to the seven blade plug are all internal until they exit just before the trailer hitch, this took the mechanic 8 hours. I know and trust him and he is meticulous.
One thing to remember, the 2001 had only had a trailer hitch for five years and brake controller for two and I wanted this to be trouble free for the next ten + years.
I will try and get some pictures once I do the check for what offset/drop I need for the hitch.
One thing I love about the new car, it gets 4 mpg better around town on gas that is 20 cents less per gallon

[rmef27]

how any "good" mechanic could possibley take 8 hours to do what you just described is beyond me.I do this for a living and would be much more scared of someone who takes that long than someone who can do it in the appropriate amount of time.Which in this case should've taken about 2 hours and on a bad day 2 and a half.