Veloster N Tow Hitch

I’ve had a tow hitch on just about every car I’ve owned, even my Mini and Miata. I’ve never towed anything with my Miata, but I have a cargo carrier I use for taking an extra set of tires to the race track.

The tow hitch also makes a convenient jacking point for the rear of the car, and I thought I might one day use it as the base for a quick-release diffuser.

So naturally I ordered a tow hitch for my Veloster. I got the Curt model from eTrailer, and in my stupidity, didn’t realize it was for the non-N versions of the car. FML.

The tow hitch sat on the shelf for a couple months while I pondered whether to return it or modify it. I saw a post on the Veloster N forum, where someone modified the Curt hitch to fit, and so I thought I might try to do that.

Yesterday was Father’s Day, and I had the day to myself to mess around, so I went after it. The first thing I did was remove the faux rear diffuser. I thought this would make access a lot easier, and it did, but it wasn’t the easiest thing to remove. Then I dropped the exhaust off the three rubber connectors, and test fit the hitch.

Fitting the tow hitch is easy by using a floor jack to raise it in position, then attaching the four supplied bolts. There was some body putty on my frame, which I had to scrape off before the ends would go into place.

Bolted up as intended, the hitch sits quite low. When hitches are this low, they can ground out going up a driveway, and the height is generally too low most trailers with tongue jacks, and even some bike racks. More significantly, the hitch is also directly in the way of the muffler.

I had a few different ideas on how to modify the hitch, including making a new one using the existing side plates. But after measuring some more, I reasoned it might actually fit if the hitch went above the exhaust.

I cut 3.5” out of the side mounting plates and tack welded it together, and then test fitted it. So close! The muffler just barely made contact with the hitch.

I cut off the tack welds with an angle grinder and moved the entire hitch portion half an inch rearward. Then I test fit it again and found it fit quite nicely. But I had mis-aligned the plates a couple degrees and the bolt holes were not lined up perfectly.

I could have widened the mounting holes, but instead cut the tack welds off one side, re-angled the end plate, and tacked it together again. Third time is the charm, right? Right. This time it fit like a glove, and so I removed it one last time, welded it all up, and spray painted the grinds and welds.

This sounds like a lot of work, but cutting and welding the mounting plates is a 20-30 minute job. The most time consuming part is removing the diffuser.

It would have been pretty easy to cut a square hole so that the trailer hitch protrudes through the bodywork. But I decided not to put the faux diffuser back on. I don’t like fake aero to begin with, and I actually think it looks way better this way. (Please don’t ask me what a cut bumper is worth for drag reduction!)

I’m not sure I’ll tow anything with the VN (the manual says not to), but now I can use my cargo carrier for race tires. I also got a hitch mounted bike rack.

Side note, the Harbor Freight hitch-mounted two-bike rack is a very well thought out design and a bargain at double the price. If you get a short hitch extender, you won’t need to pull the pin and swing the rack down; it’ll clear the hatch lid easily, so you can get to things in the trunk.