So, what are ya'll using for a wiring kit? I'm not thrilled with the kit that I got from hitch-web. I was hoping for a splice & go job, not a run wires from the battery, install a fuse, and run wires throughout the length of the car job.

 

That's actually the good kind of kit. I'll be installing one of those shortly, I'm just waiting for a warmer day. By running the cable from the control module directly to the battery, trailer lighting puts no load at all on the car's taillight circuit. The only way it touches the the tail/stop/turn wiring is to sense what's going on, and the draw goes straight to the battery.

There's no choice with the RX-8. There are three types of rear lighting configurations

• Best (typically European): Turn signals as separate bulbs, usually amber. Single-filament tail lamp which is always on. Totally separate single-filament brake lamp (brighter) which lights up in a different part of the lens than the tail lamp.
• OK (typically Japanese): Turn signals as separate bulbs, usually amber. Dual-filament tail/brake combination bulbs. Brake light lights up in the same part of the lens as the tail light, so the tails just get 'brighter' to indicate braking, rather than having a separate brake light area to illuminate.
• Sucks Donkey (typically American): Gets by with as little as one bulb per side, can be a dual-filament combination stop/tail/turn. The less-bright filament lights up as a tail light, and the brighter filament lights up as a turn OR brake light in the same space. If you're behind someone who taps their brakes with a turn signal on, you have no idea WTF is going on. This type of rear lighting should have been made illegal decades ago. I will not own a car with this arrangement, no matter what it is.

Most small trailers in the US are the American one-bulb-per-side combo type. If you have a car with that type of rear lighting the 4-pin trailer connection really is a '...splice & go job...', but with Japanese- or European-style lighting you need the interface box like you have since the circuits don't correlate to the combo stop/turn arrangement.

 

You can get the interface boxes from all sorts of trailer places and even Wal-Mart for around $20. I have used them on motorcycles to remove the separate turn signals and have the two tail light bulbs multifunction as tail/stop/turn signals like trailers and many American cars. They are pretty simple to connect.

 

on www.Uhaul.com, I entered my car info "2004 Mazda RX8", and it showed up with 1 hitch available, black Sportframe class 1 hitch, model #247472. On www.hitch-web.com, it shows the Dalan hitch for $228.10 that others in this thread have bought, then when I pulled up the PDF, it showed exact same model number as the Uhaul hitch, #247472 from Dalan. So I called Uhaul and they confirmed that their hitch is Dalan, #247472, but they would charge $225 + tax, including the hitch AND installation AND 7-10 day delivery to the Uhaul location that would install it, but NOT including the ball mount or wiring for lights. This sounds like a better deal than getting one from hitch-web.com with installation included. Any thoughts? I'm planning to order it this monday.

 

It sounds like a no brainer. I have had Uhaul install hitches on several cars over the years with no problems. Even though hitch installation isn't rocket science, I would rather have someone that does it every day do it. Especially since it is going to basically be for free. Besides, if something goes wrong or the part is incorrect then Uhaul will be responsible.

 

After having the hitch installed, my g/f complained of noise. I checked and found the heat shield jammed against the hitch. A few minutes with some pliers and I had the edge of the heat shield crimped back. Problem solved, I thought.

Next day she said there was still a little bit of noise. I brushed it off, and said I'd look into it when it got warmer. Well, yesterday was warmer, so I slid under the back. I immediately saw what was going on - the guy who did the install is quite frankly dumber than a box of wet socks. The hitch is jammed *hard* against the exhaust hangers. The photo below is of the right side, but both sides are identical. The arrow in the red circle shows the point-of-contact.

All it would have taken is a couple of *millimetres* towards the front of the car, but nooooooo.... now I have to carry it back to have the flanges on the exhaust hangers cut off to create the necessary clearance. No freakin' wonder there is noise. Amazingly, it wasn't really noticible at all except a little bit right when taking off - I would have imagined it would be a lot noisier than it is.

AND - I'm pissed at myself since the pictures I took on the day of install (see earlier postings in this thread) clearly show the same thing, and I looked right at it without seeing it.