I just installed a Da'Lan hitch with a 1.25-inch receiver (purchased from hitch-web) on my protege5. I bought it, not to tow, but to carry 3 bikes using a hitch-mounted carrier. I also have a "canoe caddy" (a T-shaped metal bar that swivels so one person can load a canoe by him/herself) that fits into the receiver. The hitch looks really good! The hitch is hidden behind the bumper fascia, except for the receiver. I wish I had a digital camera or a scanner to show you.

Originally I bought a Draw-Tite hitch, but whoever designed or built the hitch placed two of the four holes in the wrong position. I have a pre-midcycle protege5, but when I spoke with the technical staffperson at Draw-tite, she didn't say that was the problem. Anyways, Tony at hitch-web was great. After I talked with him, he ordered the Da'Lan hitch and arranged to have the Draw-tite hitch picked up and returned.

The Da'Lan hitch install went without a hitch (ha ha). You can actually view the installation instructions on the hitch-web website. It took me about 2 hours (fishwiring was new to me). The only thing missing from the instructions is that you have to partially remove the bumper fascia inorder to place the hitch cross-bar over the tail pipe. I installed it by myself using the box the hitch came in as pseudojack.

Sorry for the long post, but hey, it's my first!

 

Nice post How much did the hitch cost? Also, does the hitch work well with the bikes? Ive been wanting to get some sort of bike carrier, but I dont like the roof rack kit and im worried about the hitch because its not recommend by Mazda. Well, give me more info, I wish you could take a pic, have any friends with a digicam?

Thanks

 

I installed a Hidden Hitch on my P-5 two days ago. It took me 45 minutes to install. It looks very good. I got it from www.etrailer.com. It comes with the draw bar, pin and receiver cover for $119.00 total ( including shipping ). The instructions are very good. To get it over the tailpipe all you have to do is slide out the muffler hanger rubber. I'll post pics later.

 

Smiley...

I looked the hitch-web page over and it looks cool. Could you take some photo pics and just have them scanned or developed onto a floppy so that you can post the pics? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-P5freak