CURT 13084 Class 3 Trailer Hitch, 2-In Receiver, Concealed Main Body, Fits Select Jeep Cherokee XJ

Great product, very well engineered, went on with no problem. Didn't take long to install, and with 8 fatty bolts holding it on there now I don't think it's going to come off easily--certainly not while towing or recovering! The whole thing is heavy metal construction (30lbs or so), made with fine welds, got a nice looking powdercoat--even made in the USA! It came with all the bolts I needed, so no surprise auto parts store visits either. This actually comes with MORE bolts than I needed, because they give you some different bolts depending on what kind of hitch mouthing solution your XJ came from the factory with. I was fortunate--the 95 models are just straight through holes in the frame, no captured/welded in nut silliness or anything like that. May you be as fortunate as I was! (Mostly it's the 97+ XJs that have captured nuts)This doesn't use a nutstrip to bolt on like some; it uses fat carriage bolts with a chunk of metal with a square hole to capture the carriage bolt inside the framerail. The fishwire tool that comes with the product is again, ridiculously handy. With some careful finagling, I didn't even need to remove my rear bumper--just fingered 'em in with a little help from the fishwire! PROTIP: It doesn't really matter what fore/aft orientation the square hole metal parts are--the holes in the frame and the hitch have enough spacing that they can really go either way, which is great because there's not a lot of room to work with inside the frame rail.I also bought and installed the matching Curt front hitch for the XJ, and now I'm pleased as punch. Now I've got a set of proper hitches front and back, and the stiffness of the Jeep is better than ever, as is the towing/recovery ability. I think I spent about $250 for the both of them. That's hard to beat! This is a great product made by a heck of a good manufacturer. I don't typically enthuse on Amazon reviews about various consumer products, but this is seriously an outta-the-park home run product. I love it when I get a nice product that doesn't screw me around in some annoying little way. Curt makes stuff that is easy, strong, well thought out, and looks good. Legitly, I have nothing negative to say about this piece of gear. If you're thinking about getting one, go for it. Get 'em both! It's fan-fricking-tastic, and beats the old bumper hitch thing that was on my XJ by an easy country mile.

fit perfectly on my 97 xj jeep cherokee. no drilling was required.the hardest part was prepping the passenger side nuts inside the frame. The problem is that they're full of rust. What I did was I took one of the bolts and cut two slits down the length so that it resembles a self-tapping bolt. Then I carefully threaded it into the nuts backing it off every few turns to clear the rust out that builds up in the slits cut into the bolt. It took some time and effort to do this before hanging the trailer hitch but it was worth it.The driver side was really easy by using the provided "fishing tool." Simply put the square washer on the carraige bolt and then thread the tool onto it. With the other end, fish that through the back of the frame rail by the rear bumper and guide it to the holes in the bottom of the frame. Easy peasy!

Pretty good trailer hitch not too difficult to attach to the rear bumper of my 96’ Jeep Cherokee - pretty good value for the price.

Quick disclosure - I work for Amazon, but purchased, installed, and am reviewing this hitch as a customer, not an employee. I am doing my best to write an honest, unbiased review.Packaging/What's In the BoxThe hitch came in a sturdy box with the edges surrounded by quick-set foam type of material. There was no damage that I could see. Aside from the hitch and the protection, there is a small bag that includes the box and the hardware. The hardware bag includes a fishwire (a long piece of wire that helps pull hardware through the frame rails); a bunch of bolts of differing types; some blocks (metal plates with holes in them; though which the bolts fit; two types of washers; and one folded-up sheet of instructions.Product QualityThe hitch itself looks great. Mine wasn't damaged at all in shipping, and it seems incredibly sturdy and is finished nicely and looks great at the back of my red Jeep. The bolts, washers, and blocks are all very sturdy and well-made.InstallationThe one downside of this kit is the directions. The Cherokee was made, only lightly changed, from 1984-2001, and as a result there are a few options that the kit tries to allow for. For example, some Cherokees had a skid plate to protect the fuel tank, others had a built-in tow hook, and apparently in some cases there were undercoatings to scrape off. I was lucky (for the purposes of the installation, anyway), as my Cherokee was the most basic install and had none of those things to contend with.Unfortunately, the instructions try to explain every possible variation without explaining any specific one all that well. I kept trying to jump to my version, but it was confusing for me to understand what pieces of instruction went with which option. The section for my Jeep was only a partial explanation and it wasn't clear what information from the other options I needed to incorporate. I also wasn't sure what fishwiring was at the beginning, so the instructions assumed I had information I didn't have. Probably no big deal for somebody more experienced, but I'm sometimes easily confused. In any event, I pretty much threw in the towel on the instructions and went right to YouTube, where there are great videos that help explain things more clearly.Happily, once educated, the installation was pretty easy. On the driver's side, there are four holes in the frame. The goal is to use the fishwire to pull the blocks (metal plates) and carriage bolts (bolts with a round head) so that the bolts point downwards. You feed the fishwire through the hole you're working on, push the springy end through the end of the frame rail towards the bumper, and then use it to pull the block and the bolt through the frame rail. You do this by feeding the bolt in first (it can get hung up, so it can be handy to have a small screwdriver to help push it through), then screw the carriage bolt into the springy part of the fishwire and pull it through so it goes through the block and the hole in the frame rail. It's harder to describe than it is to do, but at the end of your process you have four beefy bolts sticking down through the frame rail, ready to accept the hitch.On the passenger's side, instead of empty holes the frame rail has a nut rail - i.e. a strip of metal in the rail that has threaded holes that will accept the bolts. Two complications here:- For me, two of the holes were already filled with factory bolts, one of which was holding an exhaust bracket. Not a huge deal in this case, you just remove those, but those bolts have been in for at least 13 years now and can be tough to remove. Those factory bolts took an 18mm socket and I needed to work pretty hard with my socket wrench and a long breaker bar to get the leverage to budge it. Once out, the nut strip is no longer held close to the frame rail and starts to tilt up, but it's easy to pull it back down by partially screwing in the bolt closest to the front of the Jeep and using that to pull the nut strip down.- The other two holes are open, which is convenient except for the fact that they've been exposed to the elements for at least 13 years and may need to be cleaned before they will easily accept a bolt.So after you have your four bolts hanging on the driver's side, you lift the hitch up and screw nuts in on those just enough to keep the hitch from falling, then get the passenger's side bolts and washers started, going up into the threaded nut rail. Once everything is started, all you have to do is tighten and you're done. The bolt heads take a 3/4" socket. So just to summarize - on the driver's side the bolts are hanging down from the rail, on the passenger's side the bolts are driven up into the rail. Again, it's more confusing to explain than it is in person, and in place the hitch is absolutely rock-solid.It took me about an hour overall, but it was pretty easy with no drilling and now that I know how it works I'll bet I could get it installed in less than Curt's quoted 30-minute installation time.