Finally! Some progress!
Mr P & I have been struggling all week with the trailer hitch receiver, and I've been a little too despondent to want to post about it. But we persevered, and I woke up in the middle of the night with a eureka moment, and today we finally got the thing installed.
The issues were two-fold:
(1) While the photo showed
two holes in the frame, my car had three, and we were trying to use the wrong ones.
(2) My car's frame is actually divided horizontally into an
upper and a lower chamber (why? Seriously, Honda: why??) and threading the bolt and washer through to the correct chamber was... difficult. Especially since we didn't know the upper chamber existed for quite a while.
In the course of these problems, I managed to get my bolt and washer
stuck inside the frame, and later, so did Mr P. Fishing them out again is possible, but it is by no means fun. Probably 1/3 of our install time was spent trying to extract bolts and washers from inside the frame.
So,
Ned, to answer your question, Yes I would do it again. In fact, Mr P is planning to buy and install a Curt hitch on his new vehicle--
now that we know how to do it. I'm happy with the quality of the item, and I'm happy we didn't pay someone else $100+ to install it, but I do not feel that this level of effort warrants a dancing banana. Consider the banana revoked.
TIPS:
One thing I will do without fail in future is
tie a piece of stout thread each around the bolt and the washer and tie the other ends off so the pieces can always be fished back out. This is especially handy when you're trying to lift the very heavy bar up into position, which is when Mr P accidentally popped his bolt up into the frame. (At this point, he ventured an unfavorable opinion or two on the sexual habits of the bolt and its mother.)
Working in your favor is the fact that the bolt and washer are
magnetic, so have a strong magnet handy. Needlenose pliers are also helpful, and are not listed in the instruction manual.
Give yourself plenty of time--on the first night we were racing the sunset, which is what made me impatient and caused the first fugitive bolt event.
Anyway, we kept at it, and we now have a cute little 2-in "Euro-ball" hitch on my car. Huzzah!
This extremely productive afternoon I also temporarily bolted the manky, hideous plywood to the trailer frame to use for hauling; painted the fenders; and installed a much-needed shelf support on my workbench. Now I just need to get a license plate for my trailer and I'll be able to buy that last piece of plywood to complete the passenger side wall! So close I can taste it!
Closeup of the reject plywood--the fault runs almost the entire length of the sheet:
Shame on you, Lowes! (And, also, shame on us for not catching this at the store--how the heck did we miss it?? Note to self: DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN.)