I did cut the plastic. The receiver would have to be too low if it was done without any trimming. I used the measurements from the EcoHitch installation guide to mark it out and then made my cuts a little smaller (with a zip disc on an angle grinder). I test fit it a couple of times and ended up trimming the opening a little bigger to make it fit properly but without getting any bigger than necessary. The zip disc did a nice neat job of cutting the plastic. Because of the way that the bumper cover curves down and under it is hard to tell that it has been cut unless you get right down and look under.
It took about ten hours for me (I’m pretty slow when it comes to the fabrication-type stuff). I spent about three hours the first night. I took the bumper cover and bumper off. Cut and trimmed the two angle pieces that bolt behind the bumper. Welded the cross tube between the angle pieces and then drilled the mounting holes. The next day I spent about seven hours at it (including lunch and some minor general distractions). I test fit the bumper cover about eight times as I decided how much of a drop I needed for the receiver tube and how long the tube would be. I drilled the hole in the receiver tube and then tacked it together (test fitting again several times), added a couple of braces and welded it all up. I actually trimmed the bumper cover between tacking it together and doing the final welding to make sure I had the receiver centered properly on the cut out (I ended up moving the receiver over 1/8” so that it was centered on the cut out...easier to do it then than any time later!). I bent up a couple of pieces of 1/2” rod for the safety chain loops and welded them on and then it was finished except for paint. I painted it the next day. Let it dry for a day, and then finally mounted it and reattached the bumper cover properly (I spent four days driving around with the bumper cover set loosely in place and held there by four screws). It took about half an hour to mount the receiver and reattache the bumper cover.
You, sir, are infinitely faster at it than I am!
The primary purpose of the hitch is to move a 4 metre aluminum boat around at the cabin of our extended family. It gets moved about one kilometer on private land from where it is parked at high water to where the boat launch is. If we go when the boat isn’t in the water we want to be able to tow it to the boat launch (without having to take the other car, which already has a hitch on it...that wouldn’t be any fun!
). We also have a bike rack that fits a 2” receiver, so there is a chance that it may be used for that. It also provides the flexibility to move our 4’x8’ utility trailer around if we need to. I don’t have any intentions of towing a load with it...but it’s nice to be able to reposition the trailer at least.
