Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Class IV - 2"

Video Transcript for Curt Class IV Trailer Hitch Installation - 2014 Ram 3500

Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today, we're gonna be showing you how to install the Curt Class 4 trailer hitch receiver on our 2014 Ram 3500 cab and chassis. But before we do that, why don't we check this out and make sure that this is gonna work for you. So, when it comes to these cab and chassis, you know, they're big trucks. And people do a lot of stuff related to work with them, pulling a lot of trailers around and everything else. And being a cab and chassis, you know, they're all kinda set up a little bit different.

And so, a lot of people are probably wondering, I don't know, I would be, is if the hitch is even gonna fit, right Well, it's gonna fit the cab and chassis frame rails with no problem. But the issue is, with these flatbeds and stuff, you know, they're all a little bit different. People build them how they want them and a lot of things change. And so, it's really not so much about the frame, it's what you got going on around it. With that said, you know, I'd like to just throw out a couple of measurements right off the bat.

That way, if you can do something with them, great. It might help you out determining if it'll fit with your particular vehicle. You know, whether you have a bumper beam, like this one here that sticks out further, or whatever you got going on. So, probably the first one that we'll do is from the top of the flange here, where the hitch actually bolts to the bottom of the frame rail, down to the bottom of the flange there, so that distance is gonna be about, about 8 1/4 of an inch. And what I'll do now, hopefully, you can do something with these measurements.

If not, not really a big deal. But the side plate here, at the bottom of it, as far as the width is concerned, it's gonna be about 4 1/2 inches. And as far as the furthest point, right up top here, that's gonna be about 10 1/2 inches. So, hopefully that helped you out a little bit. If you can do something with them, great.

But enough of that, let's kinda talk about, let's talk about the hitch itself. So, this is gonna be a Class 4 hitch. And it's gonna have that two-inch by two-inch receiver tube opening. So, you guys probably know, it's a really common size. A lot of different stuff works with it. A reinforced collar there at the end. And it is going to use that standard 5/8 pin and clip. Pin and clip doesn't come included. If you need one, though, not really a huge deal. You can grab it right here at etrailer. And the safety chain openings are gonna be relatively large. Pretty thick. And you should be able to use just about any size hook that your trailer might have. As far as the hitch's weight capacities go, they're gonna be pretty high. The maximum gross tongue weight rating is gonna be 1,000 pounds. And so, that's gonna be the amount of weight that's pushing down on the hitch. And the maximum gross trailer weight rating is gonna be 10,000 pounds. And that's gonna be the amount of weight that is pulling on the hitch. So, the weight of the trailer, plus anything that you might have on it. This setup can be used with a weight distribution system, which is a separate component. What happens is, or whenever you use that, the trailer and your truck are gonna ride level whenever you're going down the road. With that said, if you use the weight distribution, the weight capacities are gonna increase a little bit. The maximum gross tongue weight rating will go up to 1,200 pounds. And the maximum gross trailer weight rating will increase to 12,000 pounds. But with that said, you know, I always like to recommend, it's never a bad idea, just to grab your truck's owner's manual. That way, you can make sure your Ram can pull that much weight safely. So now, we can go ahead and grab a couple more measure here. And these are gonna help you figure out what type of hitch-mounted accessories to get. And keep in mind, too, depending on your truck, you know, these measurements can vary a little bit. You know, what size tires you got and everything else. So, we'll go from the center of the hitch pin hole. If you come down to the back of our bed here straight down, in our case, it's gonna be about three inches. And so, you might be able to use that if you're wanting to put like a salt spreader back here or some other type of accessory along those lines. If you go from the ground to the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening, that's gonna be about 18 1/2 inches. And chances are pretty good, you know, if you're pulling your trailer around, you can get a ball mount that has a slight drop in it's shank. I do just kinda wanna compare this hitch to some of the others. This one, for the cab and chassis, it's a little on the light side, in terms of how much weight it can handle and stuff. There are some other ones available that are really beefy. And, you know, the weight capacities are kinda all over the place. So, depending on what you're doing with it, that's really gonna be the determining factor, to me, right If you know for a fact that you got some medium, you know, a somewhat heavy bumper pull trailers, and you know you're not gonna even come close to exceeding this, then who cares, right If you know, all your really heavy stuff is with your gooseneck or your fifth wheel, then you got what you need. But if you know that you're gonna be pulling some really heavy bumper pulls, you know, maybe some of those other hitches are worth looking into. But with that said, you know, at the end of the day, it's just gonna depend on what you're trying to do with it. As far as the installation goes, it wasn't terrible. The worst part about it is just having to drill all the holes. So, be prepared to, you know, have some sore arms after drilling all these holes out of the frame. I definitely recommend getting a sharp drill bit and a good drill. That'll really make your life a little bit easier during this. But it's straightforward. You know, you bolt, you kinda hold the hitch up, mark where you need to drill, drill it out, and it kinda just bolts right in, so not complicated. You just have to use your muscles a little bit. But speaking of the installation, why don't we go ahead, pull them to the garage and put it on together now. To begin your installation, you're gonna be here at the back of your truck. And the very first thing that you wanna do is take your hitch and put it up to the bottom of your frame. You probably need a friend to do this. But there's an alignment pin, that we'll show you in a second, that'll get you in the spot where you want it. And once you have it like that, you can use some clamps or vise grips, whatever you got to secure it to the bottom of your frame rail. So, here's kind of a better look at the bottom of it. So, this circle here in the hitch that lines up with this, looks like a big rivet, or kind of a little alignment pin, I guess you could call it, that lines up with that, that's where you know where to position the hitch. So, once it's clamped up there, you got three attachment points. This hole here. This one there, as well as this one. And what I did was just take a marker and kinda go in the center of it and put a mark, in those attachment points, and that's where we know where we need to drill. I do wanna mention as well, from this point on, anything we do to one side, we're gonna do to the other side as well, 'cause it'll be set up the same way. But once you have your alignment pin or alignment marks made, I feel like it'll be easier just to let the hitch come down. And that way, we have a little more room to work whenever we're drilling. So, like I said, with those marks made, go ahead and loosen up our clamps here, and get the hitch out of the way for now. So now, we can get our holes drilled. So, we marked where we need to go. And we're going to enlarge them to the size indicated in the instructions. When you're drilling, be careful, you know, every truck might be set up differently. If you have wiring or hoses or anything that runs along through there, you know, be conscious of that. If you have to put a piece of wood or a piece of steel to protect them while you're drilling, go ahead and do that. Pretty thick stuff here. The biggest trick that, or the best advice that I have when drilling through a real thick steel like this, obviously, a really good drill bit helps. And I've had the best luck with kind of a lower speed to medium speed with really high pressure. A good cutting compound that you can put on the bit. Really, just trying to keep your bit cool, you know, to prevent it from burning up. And, you know, so if you gotta drill for a minute, take a break, let it cool or whatever you need to do, or switch bits, that's the best advice I have for you. So, I'll go ahead and get all of these drilled out. So, once you get through, you're just gonna repeat that same process for the remaining attachment points. The good news is, this one here at the back is definitely the worst. And I got two layers of steel, as opposed to just the one. So, it should be a little bit easier from here on out once you get the ones here at the back done first. So, once you have all of your holes drilled, what I did was just kinda clean up the bottom of our frame rail. I hit it with some spray paint and let it dry. That way, we just, you know, we don't have bare metal anywhere when we put our hitch up. I feel like it'd be easier to get some of our hardware started now, as opposed to when the hitch is up. It's just kinda my thought, so that's what we're gonna do. For the two holes close to the front of the truck, what you're gonna do is take a carriage bolt along with the spacer blocks, all right, and then you'll just reach in and drop them in, you know, from the inside of the frame there. I think these are the only two that we're gonna do. You'll have a third bolt. Eventually, once it hitch is up, you're gonna have like a regular bolt and a flat washer. And that's supposed to come in from the top down. I'm not real sure how that's gonna work with this bolt here and everything, but we will figure it out and go from there. So now, what we can do, I got these in on the other side as well, we'll get our hitch back up in position here. So, for this bolt here, I'm just kinda just playing with it, I've loosen this bolt up and kinda pushed it in and that'll give us a clearance that we need, hopefully, to get this in. With that said, it kinda looks like the washer might hit that rivet and not line up, so we may end up coming back and filing this down a little bit to get everything to fit. But I just wanted to point that out. I think we're in a position now where we can get our hitch lifted up and actually get it loosely bolted on. So, we'll go ahead and get this lifted up. Hopefully, everything lines up the way it should. And once our bolts drop through, you're gonna take a flange nut and get these started on there hand tight. So, this one here, I did what I thought I might have to do. The washer, I just took a little bit of material off on one side to flattened it out. That way, it'll clear that rivet. So, we'll put that down and take the hex bolt and pass that through. A flange nut on this side. And then we can grab a 3/4-inch wrench and socket and snug all the hardware down. What we need to make sure and do now is come back and torque down all of the hardware to the amount specified in the instructions. If you don't have a torque wrench, you can grab one here at etrailer. Or a lot of times, go to your local auto parts store, they'll have one there available that you can rent. That'll finish up our look at and installation of the Curt Class 4 trailer hitch receiver on our 2014 Ram 3500 cab and chassis..