Installing a Trailer Hitch?

General Question: Are there any current BEVs out there that come with or have an official rating for a hitch?


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Chris Alemany said:
General Question: Are there any current BEVs out there that come with or have an official rating for a hitch?
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Yes - my ID.4 first edition came with a 1-1/4" receiver, and is rated to tow up to 2000 pounds. Not a huge amount, but enough for a small utility trailer. Not all trim levels have the receiver.
 
I'm looks to carry a sur ron x (e dirt bike) with the battery out - it's still about 90lbs - not seeing a lot of 1.25" hitch that say they with hold a bike like that -- what do you guys think best option would be?
 
C02less said:
With or without the bikes and rack on and there doesn't seem to be much difference in range.
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I have seen a significant impact on range with bikes on my hitch rack, reduced by up to 30% when traveling on the Interstate at 65-70 mph. "Fully" charged to 80% I drove about 50 miles (all interstate) to a nearby rail-trail, and back again, and was down to 29 miles range.
 
EricP said:
I have seen a significant impact on range with bikes on my hitch rack, reduced by up to 30% when traveling on the Interstate at 65-70 mph. "Fully" charged to 80% I drove about 50 miles (all interstate) to a nearby rail-trail, and back again, and was down to 29 miles range.
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Can confirm.
Drove 200 kilometres, almost exclusively highway last week. At a speed not in excess of 115 km/h. Had 405 km SOC when leaving the house, arrived with 117 km SOC.

That was with a Thule hitch-mounted bike rack and 2 mountain bikes attached.

There’s an 88km delta, or roughly 22% reduction in range facilitated by the bike rack, and two bikes.

I was planning to eventually get an ultra lite camping trailer. But that’s gone out the window. I could easily see a reduction of 50% with something that large on the back.

Also, in case anyone’s wondering - a 10’ kayak with roof mounts on cross bars equates to an even larger loss in range. Around 30-35%

An empty Thule cargo roof cage has about a 10-15% reduction. I never put anything into it after seeing a reduction with it empty.

Ev’s depend VERY heavily on aerodynamics. The second anything disrupts that, it’s game over for your range lol.


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Brennan Raposo said:
Also, in case anyone’s wondering - a 10’ kayak with roof mounts on cross bars equates to an even larger loss in range. Around 30-35%
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Saw one today on the highway coming home from the beach, 2 Kayaks on the roof racks, and two bikes in the rear carrier.
Must be quite a range hit at ~ 110kph. Oh well, lots of nice places to re-charge (the pack and the driver/passengers) :)
 
Holy moly - didn’t think the drag on bikes would cause that big a reduction in efficiency- luckily I got some places I can drive surface streets to get too so shouldn’t be as bad.
I know how I’ll be using my free 250 kwh on Electrify America network …
 
Yes, if you drive slower it should help a lot, since drag is proportional to speed squared. I notice a rise in average miles/kwh if I drive home from shopping on the state road at 55 instead of the interstate at 68.
 
OK, I'm going in! Have had my Curt ordered at my local U-Haul since April and it still is not in and they just now told me it will be in at end of July at the earliest. Tried to order it myself and same delay, so I ordered the suggested replacement, the Draw-Tite 2497, which several people on here have used with success. It arrived yesterday. Will do the install as soon as I get a free day with good weather. Already many great posts on here that provide instructions and pics, but any additional tips are welcomed, and if anyone wants pics of anything while I have it opened up let me know. Wish me luck!
 
Moorerp said:
  1. When fishing the bolts through the frame rail, do it the way the Curt help video tells you to do it:


cheers,
Randy
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Thanks for all of the detailed descriptions, photos, tips, etc. Looks like the weather tomorrow may provide a good opportunity for me to do my Draw-Tite install. Quick question about the fishwire: will I be doing the regular fishwire or reverse fishwire? The video shows both. I'm guessing it will be the regular but I like to know what to expect before I open the patient up...

Thanks.

Mark
 
Ok, so I wimped out (sort of). Got the car up on the ramps, got down underneath, removed the clips and started moving towards the bolts, when I suddenly started having what felt like motion sickness. Long story short, apparently it's not all that uncommon for working on your back under a car to cause inner ear imbalance and it happened to me. Been working on cars for 40 years and never had this happen. Anyway, on a long shot I called the U-Haul shop and the guy there said he would do the install for me (very nice of him given I was not buying the part from them) and he did it today. So I'm hitched.
Of course there's a question though. So the notch he put in the splash guard around the hitch receiver was nice and neat and pretty tight. Really good job. However, rather than notching the two sides, its looks like he just went in there with a sawzall (exaggerating) and chopped out a large section on either end of the splash guard. Got the job done and I'm guessing it will be fine, but does anyone have thoughts/opinions on whether having such a large opening on either side will be problematic in any way?
 
Well darn it. I ordered a Draw-Tite #24976 hitch assembly, it arrived last week, and today I finally had some time to work on the install.

I was able to remove all the plastic trim bits underneath, and hoist the bar into its approximate location, but sadly, the inside width of the 2 mounting brackets is (approx) 3/8" too NARROW (I couldn't accurately measure with 1 hand holding the bar at an angle). The inside width dimension of the Draw-Tite I have is 43-1/4", and the outside dimensions of the Kona frame in that area is wider. I couldn't measure since the rear storage pan dips below the frame rails. There also seems to be some interference with a weld to the rear of the car.

My vehicle was built IMG_20201019_2048492.webp in August 2020, and is a 2021 model year.

So, I don't know if returning my existing, and trying to order a Curt #11529 will result is one that actually fits.

The nearest UHaul place that installs hitches is in Moncton about 2 hours away, so I don't know how effective it will be to try and get them to supply and install one.

Can anyone confirm that their 2021 model year accepted a Draw-Tite 24976 or Curt 11529?
 
Put a Curt 11529 on my 2019 Ultimate

There is another Kona in town, on the NB EV owners group Drew said he put this on his successfully, also a 2019 (but the Amazon link says 2018-2022
Draw-Tite 24976 Class 1 Trailer Hitch, 1.25 Inch Receiver, Black, Compatible with 2018-2022 Hyundai Kona
 
DaveO said:
I was able to remove all the plastic trim bits underneath, and hoist the bar into its approximate location, but sadly, the inside width of the 2 mounting brackets is (approx) 3/8" too NARROW (I couldn't accurately measure with 1 hand holding the bar at an angle). The inside width dimension of the Draw-Tite I have is 43-1/4", and the outside dimensions of the Kona frame in that area is wider. I couldn't measure since the rear storage pan dips below the frame rails. There also seems to be some interference with a weld to the rear of the car.
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I was preparing to return my Draw-Tite 24976 Hitch because it was too narrow (see previous posting), when I noticed that the mounting brackets were not flat nor parallel. When I originally unpacked the box, I noticed that the foam blocks used to keep the hitch steady were loose and flopping around, so I believe that the hitch was damaged in transit as the 34 lbs was tossed around by the delivery guy.

So, I took the hitch to a local welding shop, where they were able to straighten the bent flanges so they were in a flat plane, based upon where the cross bar was welded on. I returned home, and test fit the hitch assembly. Lo-and behold, the hitch fit like it should have!

So to retract my earlier statement, the August 2020 build, 2021 Model Kona EV DOES ACCEPT a Draw-Tite #24976 Hitch…. This assumes that the flanges are not bent!!!!

So, I thought I’d share my experience of both adding trailer wiring and the hitch, to add some additional info or tips to that which is already on the web.

The first thing I started with was installing a trailer wiring harness. I didn’t want to cut any factory wires, so I ordered the “Curt T-Connector Vehicle Wiring Harness with 4-Pole Flat Trailer Connector” Item # C99KR, from etrailer.com. $77.31 shipped. It has OEM harness adapter plugs that connect to the original Hyundai plugs.

To install the wiring harness, I followed much of the “Curt T-Connector Vehicle Wiring Harness Installation - 2020 Hyundai Kona” video.

A few differences:

At 5:25, I chose to cut a slit inside the ring of the rubber grommet, and push the lower connectors through rather than cutting the grommet from the outside in, so that the outer ring remained unbroken. A little difficult, but the grommet ring remains unbroken. I also chose to keep the 4-pin trailer ribbon cable inside the vehicle, and will simply bring it out the hatch when towing.

I didn’t hook up power as described from 5:44 – 7:58.

Because of issues with 12V batteries and EVs, (I’m already on my second battery), I wanted to power the trailer harness from a circuit that is only powered when the car is on. I previously had installed a switched 12V outlet in the rear cargo compartment (described here in #252), so I tapped the positive lead into this wire, and connected the negative lead to the existing grounding screw by the stereo amp. This also was a convenient place to mount the trailer converter box using the supplied 2-sided tape and zip ties. No self-tapping screws needed! (01_Mounted.jpg)

At 9:00, I again chose to cut a slit inside the ring of the passenger side rubber grommet, and push the lower connectors through. (02_Pass_Side_Grommet.jpg)

From 9:09-10:44, the video explains how to attach the harness to the rear lights. There was no way on God’s green earth for me to contort my arm and hand to reach the plugs, so I used the steps described from 3:25 to 4:34 in the “2019 Hyundai Kona Trailer Wiring Harness Installation” video. This involved removing some Phillips screws from the wheel well, pulling back the plastic, and attaching the harness ends. This was WAY EASIER!

Other than testing the completed wiring, and sealing the grommet cuts with the black silicone in the wire harness kit, I skipped the rest of the video, which only explained how to wire to the battery.

Now, following my visit to the welding shop that un-bent my Draw-Tite hitch so that actually fits on the car, I continued……..

I referenced the video “Installing a etrailer.com Draw-Tite trailer hitch ona Hyundai Kona EV (2021)” which followed the hitch install on a Kona EV.

However, when it came to fishing the bolts and installing the hitch, I reversed his order because I felt it was too hard to hoist and exactly position 35 lbs of steel while delicately fishing 4 wires and bolts through the car’s frame rails.

Instead, I positioned the hitch into its correct position, and used some spare large machine bolts I had, inserting them temporarily in from the outside, through the hitch, into the frame rail. This held the hitch in place. I then removed one bolt at a time, and fished through the hitch and frame rail to pull out the actual mounting bolts. This worked well, and only a little jiggling was needed to pull through the bolts, and install the washers and nuts.

After getting all four nuts on loosely, I wedged the hitch up as high as possible to provide panel clearance, and torqued to 50 ft-lbs as directed.

Reinstalling the bottom plastic panels went the same, except at 9:30, I used a grease pencil to coat the bottom corners of the hitch mounting plates, and pushed the plastic onto them so that I could easily tell where to scribe out a notch. As such, I was able to make the notches quite narrow and close to the mounting plate, and also didn’t need to cut through the complete top edge of the plastic, keeping some of its rigidity. (It ended up the same as Dag Lindquist posted at #21 in this thread.)

Overall, I’m glad the Draw-Tite hitch did eventually fit, and I’m happy I didn’t need to cut any wires and could power the kit from a switched 12V circuit. Good luck to anyone deciding to do the same project!
 

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doggyworld said:
I wonder if anyone knows of a 2" hitch that's compatible.
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You could consider one of these:
https://www.princessauto.com/en/class-ii-1-1-4-to-2-in-hitch-receiver-adapter/product/PA0008648206 or
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-1-4-quarter-inch-to-2-inch-hitch-adapter-65023.html

But, like it says in the item description, "Adapts 1-1/4 in. hitches to 2 in. hitches. It’s only intended for accessory applications, not towing."

I would only pull a light trailer with a Class 1 in any case. A good description of the rationale for appropriate Kona capacities is here:
https://thedriven.io/2020/03/25/tow-story-hauling-a-camper-trailer-with-an-electric-kona/
 
for those that have the hitch installed, how much ground clearance do you have? I just got mine installed at Uhaul and its only about 9" from the ground. Seems kind of low to me and I'm worried about scraping the ground in steep areas like San Francisco.
 
Soona said:
I am considering installing a hitch although of course don't want to do anything to limit range. The guy at the shop told me they weigh about 70-80 lbs, and I can't imagine there is any wind resistance being bolted underneath at the rear.

I will use it for a (removable) bike rack for local trips to the mountain bike trails, when range isn't an issue. I am used to having the rack on my Subaru and it's a lot handier than the hang-off-the-back rack that I used for my VW eGolf (when I really couldn't afford loss of range from a hitch).

Has anybody installed a hitch, or thinking about it, or have opinions? After having an 80-mile range eGolf for 3.5 years, I feel that I have plenty of range to work with.

Kona EV Limited
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We have a 2020 Ultimate. We had U-haul put a trailer hitch on within 3 months of owning the vehicle when we lived in Sonoma CA. No range lost whatsoever. Only use it to transport 2 bikes on a rack that is about 10 years old and kinda heavy. We do take it off when not using. Our range when fully charged summer months is 304! Do not regret at all. Also had one installed on our prior ev the Chevy bolt.
 
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