Just installed a Draw-tite hitch on my 2016 today. Appears that the install is identical to all prior year models in case anyone else was wondering. Nothing has changed down there.

The hitches themselves seem to have changed a bit from prior years and what is shown on this thread. First, the Draw-tite (75888), Reese, and Hidden Hitch are all identical. It appears that they all have the same parent company Cequent, so essentially there are only 2 hitch brands now. The Curt is a slightly different design, and they are the other company making hitches for the Outlander. For all of the Cequent brands, the design is now tubular as opposed to the square-ish frame ones you see in the older posts. But the install procedure is no different. This has been an excellent resource btw, just wish the Outlander forum split up the model years more than just a single subforum. This would have taken out some of my guesswork and assumptions.

I opted for the aftermarket over the OEM because the price difference was just too great if you're willing to do the labor yourself. The benefit of the OEM is the little more symmetrical and tighter look. It doesn't sit quite as low, maybe an inch or less from eyeballing it. I measured the ground clearance on my Draw-tite and it's 10.5 inches. It's about in line with the muffler but it protrudes a few inches off the back. Launch angle is decreased, but I'm not planning on offroading this car.

Install took me almost 4 freakin hours. I'm on the meticulous side so I took my time. It isn't "hard", but there are some mini-puzzles you need to solve with whatever you have in your garage. I definitely got some good tips from the previous posts. Also, I didn't lift the car at all, so a lot of the maneuvering was awkward and difficult as a result. But again, not hard. There is plenty of pre-work and then just 6 bolts. Surprised me how challenging it was due to the factors I mentioned.

So the longer than expected puzzles I mentioned:
1) The muffler lowering. I have no idea how some people were able to install this without doing this, but they say it can be done. It is just so hard to maneuver back there, that I can't imagine doing this without all the stuff out of the way. The instructions also "recommends" removing the spare, but again, no idea how you can do this without. Maybe this is a lot easier with wheel ramps or raised on jack stands, but still, it's tight back there with that stuff in the way. The challenge with the muffler was getting leverage to pop out the rubber mounts from the posts. WD40 was a very good recommendation. But after that, you still need leverage to pop them out. In retrospect, I think a screwdriver and hands on each side to pull back would work best. My crowbars were not very helpful here do to space and lack of places to pry against. This step must have taken me an hour total of thinking, crawling under, getting different tools, crawling more, repositioning, etc. Not fun.

2) The next time consuming puzzle was the raising of the hitch to position. Maybe this is just intuitive to some guys, but it wasn't to me. The hitch is a bit awkward and weighted unevenly, so there really aren't good options for holding this thing up into position. My solution was my floor jack and jack stands. If you don't have these, the next best thing is 1 or 2 additional people. Remember, you have to crawl under there and at least place the bolts while 50 lbs of steel is pretty much sitting unsecured over your neck/face. Doing this solo, the jack was perfect. It took a lot of adjusting and raising lowering before the hitch was in reasonable position to mount bolts. So I used the floor jack on the side I was actually trying to mount the bolt on and the jack stand on the other side just to give a reasonable lift to allow the other sides bolts to go through. As you can imagine, I did a lot of trial and error and checking to see if the holes were lined up with the floor jack. Once the bolts are mounted, tightening was relatively simple. This is definitely a floor jack situation. An emergency jack would make this much more difficult.

The rest of the install is simple, just 6 bolts. So on paper, this should only take an hour give or take, like everyone claims. DIY on this thread is pretty spot on about everything else. I just wasted/used a lot of time trying to problem solve and repositioning myself or the jack and jack stands. Creeper would help too, but you kind of need all the space you can get down there, unless you lift the car a bit. Besides that, some optional tools I used are padded work gloves, a torque wrench and loctite. Torque wrench really shouldn't be optional here, but some feel good enough about their wrenching. Also make sure you have a light source down there.

I'm a little scraped up from the experience, but I am very glad I did this myself. As always, it taught me a little more about the car and what to look out for in similar DIY situations. And most important, I know that it was done absolutely correctly (i.e. torque specs) and without damage. Always a crap shoot with a shop you haven't worked with regularly. BUT, I can definitely see why someone would opt to pay a shop 2 hours labor to do this.

 

I've put a Witter hitch on my uk outlander - I believe they also make the oem ones. I used an oem harness but it was faulty, broken pin in the multiplug that plugs into the electronic control module. Mitsu are exchanging the harnesss! Hope the new one works!!

 

Nice detail.. thanks for sharing. Anyone know where a 2015 Outlander trailer harness connects?

 

2ndhalf try these wiring instructions - they work for a mitsu harness on 2016 uk model too.

http://www.ecs-electronicsuk.co.uk/d...s/MT115BHU.pdf

Should have added- no need to drill a new hole in your car to use the mitsu harness. I just routed the wire through the existing hole for the tailgate drain that you can see in routing diagrams 5&6. The rubber grommet that comes with the harness has two holes one for the hitch wiring and a spare one that you can squeeze the drain hose through - its a bit of a push but it will go through and it all looks neat and works properly.

 

Just finished installing hitch and harness on my 2010 Outlander.
Installing the hitch took around 2 hours with the most difficult part being to clean the dirt and rust from the holes before I can actually bolt the hitch in...! I wish Mitsubishi had some bolts or plastic cap installed in there so we can just remove them and install on clean tread.
Installing the T Connector is pretty straight forward. You will have to remove the battery for a better access. I'm still wondering why the the power cable is not factory connected in the fuse box so you would just have to buy and connect the module...

 

if you don't need it, don't energize it. one less thing to short out down the road and cause problems.

 

Can anyone here confirm if the reverse wire is purple or red with grey stripe?

2010 Outlander

I need to add 5th wire for reverse as my boat trailer has brakes. Already got the 5-pin plug.

 

I figured it out myself.

Used a multimeter to try and locate a reverse wire under the cargo holder over the passenger rear fender well, but I couldn't find it.

In looking at the reverse bulbs, the cables were routed to the driver side.

I pulled back the panels and found the reverse wire under the upper pilar - it was white with 2 grey stripes.

Tested with my multimeter to confirm. Hope this helps!

 

Folks, I fitted a hitch to a 07 AWD Outlander & was expecting to splice in the cables to the existing brake/turn/light wires when I spotted a few spare connectors. Lo & Behold I think I found the connector I need, only thing is I unintentionally managed to remove the wires from the connector on harness when checking it out. I've scoured the Net for a schematic but there is nothing for the tow harness connectors. Is there anyone one out there who could tell me the wiring pin out for the connector again so I can re-insert the wires into the correct pin locations on connector. Or if someone wouldn't mind taking a picture of their connector with wires inserted. Its the large white connector on back right well as you look from the back. I have ordered the oem harness & would like to put is as per designed.

I'd appreciate it big time if someone could help out. Hopefully I'll get a result. Take Care everyone.

 

Hi new owner and bought a curt hitch to pull a utility trailer for my 2019. Every instructions say that there are weldnuts in the frame for the back bolt, but I do not have any was this a change made in 19? I hope I don't have to take off the bumper to install some other bolts that came with it as well kinda what it looks like what they are for.