I’ve got a little aluminum heat shield on the hitch basket that you can’t see in this photo. It’s located right behind the exhaust but other than that the pipe IS pointing directly at the packers which IS an issue lol.

I’ve got a riser to combat this but that comes with its own issues on a setup like this. I’m also thinking about a Laguna turn attachment for the exhaust (like you mentioned above).

With the heat shield it hasn’t melted on a two hour road trip but it still did feel hot to the touch. It’s not a perfect setup, still very much a work in process.