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Full transcript: www.etrailer.com/tv-install-t...
Today on our 2018 Kia Niro you're going to be taking a look at and I'm going to show you how to install the Curt Class III trailer hitch receiver. Part number C13329.This is what our hitch looks like when it's installed. The cross tube is completely hidden behind the bumper fascia. The only thing we can see is the receiver tube. The receiver tube is nice and tucked in underneath the outer edge of the bumper fascia, so we're not going to have to worry about hitting our legs or our shins on it when we're loading and unloading the back of the vehicle.It's going to be a class III hitch, 2 inch by 2 inch, and you see we have a nice reinforced inaudible 00:00:29 to give us a little extra stability on our receiver tube. The hitch pin hole is going to be five-eighths inch in diameter.
Our hitch pin and clip does not come with this hitch, however, you can find one here at etrailer.com.We're going to have rolled steel style safety chain loops. And see, it gives us plenty of room for different sized hooks. This hitch is also going to have a nice black powder coat finish that's really going to resist any rust or corrosion.As far as our weight capacities go, we're going to have a 525 pound max towing weight, which is the downward pressure on the inside of the receiver tube, and a 3500 pound max trailer weight, which is the trailer plus load included. I do recommend checking the owner's manual of your Kia to make sure the vehicle can withstand that amount of weight. You want to pick the lowest number between the vehicle and the hitch.As far as the installation goes with this hitch, it's very simple.
I do recommend getting an extra set of hands to help hold the hitch into place.Now let's give you a few measurements to help you on deciding on any hitch product accessories you may need, such as a bike rack, ball mount or cargo carrier. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outermost part of the bumper is going to be about 5 inches. This number is important for any of your hitch mount accessories that may fold up against your vehicle. From the ground to the top innermost part of your receiver tube it's going to be about 11 inches. It's a good idea to get a raised shank for better ground clearance.Now let's show you how to get this installed.
The first thing we need to do to start our installation is we're going to skip a few steps ahead in our instructions. We're going to have a panel right here on our driver's side that's going to need to be trimmed. What I'm going to do is I'm going to mark it while it's installed on here. Take a paint marker or any colored marker. You can kind of see where it bends, I'm going to go just like this.
We're going to have three plastic push in fasteners here in the bottom and two plastic nuts up on the inside of the bottom of the frame rail.Take a trim panel tool and I'm going to pry out the push pin fasteners like that. Go ahead and set this aside so we can trim it later on. Next on our passenger's side, and it's not going to tell you this in the instructions. However, it's going to make it much easier to tighten your hardware if you take this panel off also. It's going to come off the same way, a couple push pin fasteners, and you're going to have the plastic nut right up here.Now we'll take a strap. What I like to do is hang it from my springs because they're pretty easily accessible. We'll go underneath our exhaust pipe, pull it up tight. We'll take some spray lubricant and we're going to spray down our exhaust hangers. We're going to have three of them that we're going to need to remove. We'll have one there, we'll have one on this side, and then we're going to have one right here in the center, right in front of the rear axle.Now we'll take a pry bar and we're just going to pry off the exhaust hangers. We'll do the same thing with the other two. Once you get your exhaust hangers off, go ahead and you can lower your exhaust a little bit. Next, we'll take our trim panel tool. We're going to have a rubber plug on each frame rail. Go ahead and remove that. These will not be reinstalled. Take your pull wire, spacer block, carriage bolt, and we're going to thread the carriage bolt onto the pull wire.We're going to do a reverse pull, so we're going to take the head of the bolt and we're going to slide it right up through that hole where we removed our rubber plug. Pull out your spacer block and just pull it back down like that.Now, with an extra set of hands, we're going to pull our wire on the corresponding hole, which on the bottom of our hitch we're actually going to have three holes. We're going to go into the center one. Push it up into place, remove your pull wire,