The weather was a bit warmer last night so rather than sitting around watching TV I decided to tackle the hitch installation. I pulled the hitch out of the box & here's all the parts & pieces:

Close-up of the parts:

The steel is heavy-duty. You can see the hole (slot) for the bolts to be installed later:

Moving the hitch around to the back of the car I noticed it was kinda heavy! Curious, I got out the bathroom scale & the hitch & tounge assy weigh approx 47 pounds.
I set the parking brake & used my floor jack to lift up the driver's side of the car.
There are rubber muffler hangers (isolators) that need to be removed so the muffler can hang down. You need to drop the muffler to gain clearance to mount the hitch.
They suggest spraying a lubricant on the rubber to help them slide off. I didn't have any WD-40 so I used motocross chain lube
Here is the hanger in front of the muffler. There is one more hanger forward of this location:

Here is the hanger at the back of the muffler:

I had three isolators loose & the muffler still wasn't hanging down very much. Hmmm, maybe my muffler can't hang? I started looking for one more hanger & I found it here on the left of the muffler:

Finally the muffler is free to hang:

On the HHR frame, there is one hole that needs to be drilled out to 1/2". It is the rearmost hole on the passenger side rail. This picture shows me drilling out the wrong hole! I realized my mistake later only after I had everything installed Arggggg

Here is the wire (snake) that you use to fish the bolt & plate up into the frame rail. It is a simple device that works deceptively well!

Feed the wire up through the front hole in the frame rail & back out the rearmost hole:

Here we see the wire poking out of my freshly reamed out (incorrect) hole:

I then went to mount the hitch & realised that I had the bolts in the wrong holes. I decided to use a rat tail file to ream out the correct (back) hole. It only needed a little cleaning up to fit the bolt. I had to remove all the bolts & re-feed them back through the correct holes. Lots of cursing & beating myself up because I wasted so much time:

Image restrictions mean I need to carry this thread on to Part 2....

 

Good write up & pics..

How does the additional 47 lbs on the tail, affect the stance of yer Panel ??

I know you have the GF rear springs on it.

 

I'm glad you asked that question. I believe that attaching this thick steel plate to the rear frame rails with 1/2" bolts at 4 corners would stiffen up the whole rear end. Maybe even make it handle better.. and I believe it does (to some extent). But to answer your question, I don't feel the extra weight & the ride height appears to be the same (it doesn't seem to sag any more than before). Check it:

 

Yes, it looks fine.. Nice set-up

And Agree, hitch probably does stiffen up the rear sub-frame..

I know I've read some members jack up the rear off the hitch framework....

 

Installed the hitch in my driveway on jackstands. Super easy even though the hardware bag was open and missing the wire. It took me a little longer not having a wire to help fish the bolts but in total it took an hour. I paid 180 tax in and save on the install. Happy DIY-er.

 

Awesome how to

 

Bought a used U-Haul hitch with all the hardware for $100.00 and had U-Haul install it for $35.00. Use mainly for my bike rack.

 

When I put the SS bumper on I had to notch it for the hitch then trimmed the cut with door edge molding.You really don't notice that I have a hitch till I put on the draw bar.