Trailer Hitch Installation - 2005 Honda Pilot

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2001 - 2006 Acura MDX
2003 - 2008 Honda Pilot

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Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2005 Honda Pilot

Today we are installing part number 13328, a hitch made by Curt, and it will be going on a 2005 Honda Pilot. Okay, we are underneath the vehicle now. And the first thing you want to do is remove your spare tire, and get it out of the way. Locating the attachment points, right here on the back side of the bumper there are two weld nuts that attach to the flange on the hitch itself. And then we go over here to the drivers side of the frame rail, there is just a tow hook that needs to be removed. There are three bolts holding it on. And those three weld nuts in the frame will be the attachment points for the hitch, as well. And then on the passengers side frame rail, there is not actually a tie-down, there are just the existing weld nuts. On older vehicles, over time corrosion will build up into these weld nuts, so you want to go ahead and clean those out really well before you get started. You can use any kind of spray lubricant, like WD-40, and a wire brush to get the threads cleaned out.

Okay, now that we have got all the bolt holes located, we want to go ahead and remove the drivers side tow hook. With the tow hook removed, we can go ahead and put the hitch up into position now. When we are putting the hitch into position, we want to go up and over the exhaust on the passengers side, and we can kind of use that to help hold the hitch into position. I will get the bolts started here on the drivers side. Okay, with the driver and passengers side bolts in the frame and just loosely installed, we want to go and now make the attachments on the back side of the bumper here with the 10-mm hardware that is provided. These bolt holes, as well, did not have any existing hardware in them so they have really had some corrosion and grime in them, so it may be necessary to go ahead and clean these out, as well.

Okay, we have got them loosely installed now. Now we want to go ahead and just hand tighten everything down. And after that we will go ahead and torque the bolts down. When hand tightening, start with the ones that are mounted to the frame on both the drivers and passengers side and then hand tighten the ones in the back to the bumper and that will help to help align it better. Okay, with all the bolts hand tightened down now we want to go ahead and torque them to their predetermined settings. When torquing them down, let us go ahead and torque the bumper bolts in first. That will set the height for us, and then we will torque down the frame bolts. These bumper bolts get torqued down to 42 foot-pounds. And then the frame bolts here, these get torqued to 68 foot-pounds. Okay, now that we have got all the bolts torqued down, your installation is complete. You want to go ahead and make sure you put your spare tire back up when you are done.

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