josephvman
New member
Has anyone found a trailer hitch for the Mk8 yet? I need one for my bike rack.
Yeah, I had one on my Mk7 that just had carriage bolts that you mount into the underside of the frame rails. They changed to a design like all of the others that requires removing the rear bumper skin and bolting the hitch directly to the bumper structure. Fortunately I found the original design as NOS when I bought my Mk7.5. It is a terrible design though and I would never dream of towing with it, I only use it to carry bikes, and even then I check the bolts every few months. I don’t mind using it for a few months but would really prefer a proper design with a 2” receiver and a removable lower section to make it invisible when not being used.I had a Curt on my Mk7 and it worked fine and didn’t require any modifications to the car to mount it. Hopefully it won’t take them too long to come out with the new one. It seems like many GTI owners have hitches.
Let me share my experience.
When ordering my Mk8, I chose original hitch as extra. It is costly and will never pay back (I not not exactly, but there are also some differences in car, like bigger cooler), but I did not want to bother with non original ones as for few hundred cheaper, they are either uglier or impractical . In the past I was loading bikes on the roof rack, but with increasing age and weight of (e-)bikes, I wanted to load low, on the back. Original hitch is produced by ACPS automotive and built into the car during assembly at VW. Car received, played with button and retract - OK.
Now let us buy a bike rack. I opted for Thule EasyFold XT 2, which has nice feature of folding and storing to the trunk, when not needed. A webshop also had an offer of EasyFold XTF 2. What is F? It is ACPS initiative, called Fix4Bike. I already had XT 2 at home, but I decided to change it for XTF 2 as my hitch has famous horizontal pins beneath the ball. Feature is really nice, taking care of orthogonal position of the rack, no large lever tensioning, just set and click.
Got XTF (bit higher price - well, I buy it for next 15 years): no click. WTF? It turned out, that Thule was producing a joint to a specification from my second link, while my hitch is the same from 1st link. Where is difference: on the curve of the hitch, there is a "nose ring", where a security lock or wire can be attached. This nose prevented Thule to slide down. Informed Thule, they promised upgrade for next production run (should be actual now). I took file and removed 3mm of extra sheet metal on my rack and got it working properly.
Just a word on compatibility: all old racks (working with friction joint of the ball) can be used with Fix4Bike hitch. But Fix4Bike rack cannot be used on pin-less hitch. So I have a technical (non-selfish) excuse not to borrow it to my brother
Someone in WA state just got an R, go pressure them to take it to Eco Hitch. I've already planted the seed.Stealth hitch said they were not producing a hitch for this car at the current time --I posted on VWVortex after my findings. Just wanted to make you aware.
Sorry if I missed this, but is this a 1.25 or 2" hitch?Today I had a hitch installed, made by Draw-Tite. It's more unobtrusive than the one I had on my MK7 GTI, though it was a bit more expensive at almost $500 installed.
Is this for a Golf R or a GTI? I'm only seeing options for a GTI listed on the Draw-Tite site: https://www.draw-tite.com/product/24979_class-1-trailer-hitch. The dealer has a 2023 Golf R with on the way with my name on it, but if I can't put a hitch on it that's a deal breaker.Today I had a hitch installed, made by Draw-Tite. It's more unobtrusive than the one I had on my MK7 GTI, though it was a bit more expensive at almost $500 installed.
I had to do something similar with my GTI, was super easy and I got a nice tight fit with a dremel tool. Let us know how it goes. It looks like you may not even need to take the bumper off.I’m about to order the EcoHitch for my R. I gather I’m going to have to cut a hole through the diffuser, but that’s no big deal.
https://torkliftcentral.com/vw-gti-trailer-hitch-by-ecohitchr