Ditto. I doubt the engineers at Curt spent the time in design and development that Ford engineers did through the years. I haven't seen any numbers that can support that Curt is better than OEM, so OEM is what I'd personally go with.

I'm all for improvements over OEM, but I'm just not seeing it with the Curt. What's that old saying - you get what you pay for?

 

I hate to say it but I would go OEM on a hitch in a heartbeat. $130 isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

 

Well, I am impressed with the instruction sheet that Curt has made. It sure will make it easy to answer those questions on the board about how to remove a hitch. Check it out:

https://www.curtmfg.com/masterlibrar..._14011_INS.PDF

 

The specs also list the Curt hitch at 64 lbs. I have a new Ford hitch (a spare) in the garage and weighed it. 52.5 lbs. I don't think it has 11.5 lbs of packaging. The curt may have thicker steel.

Wish I could get some measurements of the Curt steel.

 

I will get some for you over the weekend! I wounder if I can get someone to sonic test the tube wall thickness....

 

I'm sure the Curt one would work just fine, it's not like either one is going to come apart at the seams.

 

That's not always true, just stepping into the dealership is an expensive move. Some things have a big name but the quality isn't always there for a lot of reasons, and I have seen it many times.

 

http://bit.ly/1rJBb7F

If you're towing little things the Curt is probably fine. I wouldn't trust it to pull any kind of serious weight.

 

The mounting side plates look to be 1/4" thick. I have not put a set of calipers on them. I would assume the cross tube is also 1/4 wall.

The only difference I see is that it does not sit as close to the bumper as the OEM hitch. From my search on the net and a few quick calls, the OEM is damn near impossible to find. The Insurance company also said the same thing.

I will be towing 9k with it next week and will see what it feels like. If I am not happy with it, I will start looking for an OEM.

The biggest factor was I wanted a quick turn around time....I missed my EX and hated the rental car!

 

But they must have a weight spec for each one, and I'm not convinced just because a couple people complained. The true quality test is surviving for many years and they have grown very big and were named Manufacturer of the year twice in Wisconsin (I don't know by who). The more you have out there the more chance of failures and complaints. Not convinced at all.

 

Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Program...Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year > Home

...so in other words, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is a group sponsored in part by a lobbying group (https://www.wmc.org/) who's sole purpose is to promote commerce in Wisconsin. The award they won was one of nine issued this past year to businesses in Wisconsin.

The award simply means they were the best in Wisconsin - judged by what amounts to a chamber of commerce/lobbying group.

I'm sure they have a nice product (I have never owned a Curt hitch so I can't say if they are great or terrible), but I would also venture to say that the average Joe out there should not just consider an award such as this as meaning much. It's easy to get a lobbying group to give it's members an award...doesn't mean the product is somehow better than any other product out there.

I would agree with your statement:
...but I wouldn't pair that with
...and expect the award to bolster the argument. Now, if an independent group (oh, I don't know, maybe JD Powers or similar?) that had no stake in commerce in Wisconsin or better yet, evaluated companies OUTSIDE of Wisconsin (oh, I don't know, maybe the entire US?) was to issue an award, then maybe I'd put some weight to that statement.

 

I would never spend money on anything that said Ford on it unless I had to. Names get bigger and bigger to the point where they raise their prices just because they can. I'm an aftermarket kind of guy. Even big names screw up, my new Microsoft ergonomic keyboard has such a big design flaw they told me to just keep it and my money when I went to ship it back............but I fixed it. (Free expensive keyboard).

 

That's why you love Warn hubs and Redhead steering boxes so much, right Brent..

 

Both of mine are stock and working fine but Warn is useless and Redhead charges extra to pay for more Hype...........no to both.

 

Got my RedHead steering box today