Trailer hitch advice

Good afternoon oppo. The time has come to install a trailer hitch on my wife’s civic hatch. There are two different styles offered, each with their own tradeoffs.

Curt Hitch

To install this one, you need to:

• Drop the exhaust
• remove and trim heat shields
• Drill a hole into the frame rail and enlarge an existing hole.

Pros:

• seems really beefy and well made
• no modification to the exterior of the car

Cons:

• install will be more difficult/awkward
• !!!drilling into frame required!!!
• slightly less clean look (not really an issue)

Draw-tite Hitch

To install this one, you need to:

• Remove bumper cover and impact bar
• sandwich hitch between impact bar and frame
• trim the corners of the impact bar
• trim the underside of the bumper cover to allow room for the receiver to poke out

Pros:

• no drilling holes in the frame
• slightly cleaner look

Cons:

• modification to the impact bar
• modifying exterior plastic
• unsure of the strength of its design. I’m sure the hitch is good for it, but I’m not really jazzed about the thought of putting ~100lbs + the extra forces from the movement of the bikes on the rack while driving on the highway through an area that is really only supposed to keep the impact bar on.

They both have the same capacity, so it really comes down to preferences in the install method & manner of fitment. So I’m turning to you, oh wise denizens of oppo...which would you choose and why?

Quick note: no roof rack suggestions please. my wife is 5'-0" tall and I seriously doubt she’d be able to reach anything on the roof, not to mention the added cost...