Trailer Hitch Installation - 2006 Chevrolet Equinox

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox

Today on this 2006 Chevrolet Equinox we are going to be installing Curt hitch part number 13591. Before we get started with the hitch installation we are going to show you a couple of final installed dimensions that are going to help make choosing your hitch accessories a little bit easier. From the top of the receiver tube opening to the ground is going to measure 13 inches. From the center of the pin hole to clear the rear edge of the bumper is going to be approximately 6 inches. Now we will move on to our installation. 00:26

We are starting off underneath the vehicle nearest the rear bumper and the first thing you want to do on this Equinox is remove this appearance panel that is sitting directly in the middle. The receiver tube is going to come through there once we have the hitch installed. To remove this we have got two push pin fasteners here at the bottom that are holding it in place. Just take a flat head screwdriver, get it worked in there and then take a rivet removal tool, slide it in, and you can see the middle section pulls out and that will allow the whole fastener to be removed. With that removed if you look at the bottom of the bumper here you can see we have got two existing weld nuts. Those are going to provide our two center most attaching points for our trailer hitch. 01:07

Then if we move to the outboard side of the frame again nearest the bumper you can see we have got two weld nuts on top of each other and those are going to provide our two attaching points to the frame itself. That is going to be the same on both the driver and passenger sides of the vehicle. Before we move on to installing the trailer hitch we want to make sure each one of the weld nuts are thoroughly cleaned out and to do that we are going to take a spray lubricant like a WD-40 and spray the weld nut down and then we are going to take a wire brush and run that in there a few times to loosen up all of the rust and road grime that is going to be in there that is going to keep the bolt from wanting to start and thread in properly. It may be necessary to do this several times and a good way to test it is to take the bolt and run it in there and see how much resistance you are getting. If you can see I still can not easily get the bolt into position so I am going to need to clean it out a few more times and you are going to see this on any vehicle that has seen at least one winter and obviously the older the vehicle is the harder it is going to be to get the bolts started. 2:10

With all of the weld nuts thoroughly cleaned you can put the hitch up in position. I would recommend putting the two center bolts in first and then moving to the ones on the outside of the frame last. We are going to be installing the 12 millimeter bolts along with the conical tooth washers that are provided with the installation kit. Now that we have got the hitch up into place and the bolts tightened down you want to go back through and torque each one of the bolts down. You want to verify with the directions the specific torque rating for each of the bolts. Then with all of the bolts torqued down you may find that you were actually able to reinstall the fascia door that we removed earlier. With that reinstalled, the installation will be complete. This will conclude the installation of Curt hitch part number 13591 on a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox.