Hey all,

Tonight I was going to put the trailer hitch on my p650 myself and was wondering if anyone here has done that job themselves. I was just going to bring it in and have the dealership do it, but they said they havent put a hitch on a prairie yet and I don't want them to **ck anything up, like putting in some other type of oil other than the 424. I have the big shop manual and the instructions that came with the hitch and after studying them a bit it looks pretty easy.

Drain the oil
Take off tire and hub
take off bolts
put on hitch
torgue bolts down
re-assemble everything
etc, etc

I'd just like to know form people who have done this themselves any problems they encountered or tips/hints they might have....Like do I really need a new aluminium washer for the drain plug...?

Anyway, any info is appreciated...thanks

 

I put mine on it was real easy just make shere you have some thread lock to put back on the bolts when you put them back in. It is a little tight fit but it should only take about 30-45 minutes.

 

I didn't put on my trailer hitch myself, but I did read a couple times that it isn't neccessary to drain the oil out. The aluminum washer is probably ok to reuse, but technically it should be replaced. I like to order a bunch just to have. The reason is because the aluminum washer compresses a bit so you don't overtorque the threads and strip them out. My friend stripped out a drain bolt on his 250r because he never replaced the washer.

 

As already stated, don't bother draining the oil. Simply remove the necessary bolts, slide the new hitch into place gently, making sure not to disturb the bearing retainers, apply thread sealant to each bolt and reinstall. Took me less than 15 min. and I'm an old dude. 300 mi. ago and not so much as a drop of leakage. Just pay attention and be gentle.

 

Drain the oil? Take off tire and hub?
I used an aftermarket hitch that didn't require either one of these procedures. I just looked at the hitch from the BUYKAWASAKI accesories page and it didn't look to me like you had to take the tire or hub off. The bolting area on both sides is open on one end (half moon shaped) so that you don't have to remove the tire. Maybe with the number of bolts that you have to remove from the rear end the oil might drain out on its own?

 

No u don't have to take the tire and hub off. Teh only reason why I drained the oil is because it was the 10 hr break in other than that it is very easy. You don't need to jack it up, remove a wheel, or any thing else. Just plop down behind it and unbolt the skid plates and the bolts oround the rear end slide the hitch on and put the bolts on. Done!!!

The after market one is almost twice as much and doesn't look as nice as teh Factory one.

 

In Canada the 650 comes with a hitch already installed. Go figure.

 

Well I got the hitch on with out a problem. I did drain the fluid, I figured whats 5 dollars for the oil. Anyway it was super easy and I had no problems at all. Thanks for the tips guys