Trailer Hitch Installation - 2008 Smart Car Fortwo

Custom Fit Trailer Hitch

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This Product Fits The Following Vehicles

2008 - 2009 Smart ForTwo All Models

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Curt Class I Trailer Hitch Receiver with Drawbar - Smartcar Fortwo Passion

11018

$149.95

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2008 Smart Car Fortwo

Today we are going to be installing hitch part number 11018 from Curt for a 2008 Smart Fortwo. Looking up under the vehicle, we are going go ahead and point out where the hitch is going to mount. The rear-most attaching point will be through this bolt here, so we are going to need to remove that on both sides. This hole here, we are going to a block and bolt down through. And we are going to use this access hole to get the bolt and block up through the frame. On the passengers side, this hole will need to be drilled. Taking a look over here at the passengers side rail, you can see that this area here where the hole was on the drivers side is not here, so that is one we are going to have to drill. And the access hole that we are going to use to run the bolt and block through the frame up into that hole actually has a plug in it, so we are going to need to remove that, as well. And there is one a little bit forward on the frame, as well, that needs to be removed. So that way this piece will completely come down.

All right, with the cover removed you can now see the access hole that we are going to enlarge. OK, with the cover removed off the passengers side, we want to go ahead and remove the bolts from the end of the frame rail. These require a 14-mm 12-point socket to get those out. We want to get that out on both sides of the frame. Now that we have got the bolts out of the end of the frame, we can go ahead and put the hitch up into position, using the bolts that we just removed to hold it up into place. Now we just want to loosely install these bolts. OK, with the hitch installed up into position here, we want to go ahead and mark on the passengers side frame rail the hole that we are going to need to drill. OK, now that we have got the hitch down out of the way, we can go ahead and drill the hole here on the passengers side. We are going to drill it to a 1/2 inch. And on the drivers side it may be necessary to go ahead and enlarge that, as well, to 1/2 inch. With the holes now drilled, we are going to need to actually enlarge the access hole here on the forward side of the frame. It needs to be large enough to get the block and the bolt through. So the diameter should be OK we just need to use a rotary tool to notch out the sides to have enough room to get the block up in there. OK, as you can see, I enlarged the hole just enough so that I can get the block and the bolt up and through. So then we want to go ahead and take the fish wire and run it through the hole that we had drilled and pull it back out the hole that we just enlarged. And then we just place the threaded end of the fish wire through the block and wrap it around the thread of the bolt and then feed them up into position.

OK, we want to go ahead and enlarge the hole on the other side and pull the block and bolt through, as well. OK, with both bolts in position, we can go ahead and put the hitch back up into place. OK, with the hitch now up in position, you can see now that we went ahead and placed the block in between the frame and the hitch, and then we put the nut on there. And we need to do the same thing on the rear side. We need to put the block into position and then put the bolt in the frame, and make sure that block stays in position while we tighten it up. We need to do that block alignment on both sides of the frame. OK, with the bolts and the blocks in position, we can go ahead and tighten it up. OK, now we want to go ahead and torque the bolts down to their specified torque ratings. The 7/16 fasteners need to be torqued down to 50 foot-pounds the 12-mm fasteners get torqued to 62 foot-pounds. OK, with the bolts torqued down, we want to go ahead and put our guard back up into place. OK, with the guard back into place, our installation is complete. And this concludes the installation of Curt part number 11018 on a 2008 Smart Fortwo.