Trailer Hitch Installation - 2011 Chevrolet Equinox

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox

Today on this 2011 Chevrolet Equinox we are going to be installing Curt hitch part number 13591. Before we get started, we are going to show you a couple final installed dimensions which will help make choosing your hitch accessories a little easier. From the top of the receiver tube opening, to the ground is going to measure 14 inches. From the center of the pin hole to the outside edge of the bumper is going to be approximately 5 inches. Now we will go ahead and move on to our installation. :23.

We are gong to start off here, underneath the vehicle. The first thing we want to do here on this Equinox is remove the appearance panel that is at the bottom of the bumper here. To remove it, if you look underneath it you will see a push clip, there is one on each side of the panel. You need to take a pair of needle nosed pliers and press those in. That should allow us to pull the panel away from the bumper. With those two bottom ones removed, we can take and start releasing the ones that are on top. :50

With the panel removed we can continue underneath the vehicle, we are next going to lower the exhaust system down to give us a little more working room. There are three hangers on the exhaust system, one on the passenger side, one on the driver side, and one directly in the middle just forward of the muffler. In the removal of the hangers of the exhaust system, we are going to use a spray lubricant, like a WD-40. Then take a pry bar or pair of pliers and go ahead and separate the two. Before I do a third one, I am going to put a support strap across the main exhaust tube because once I remove the exhaust off of its third hanger the system will want to fall. If not properly supported, it could damage the system. Starting at the bottom of the bumper, hidden behind where we removed the appearance panel, there are two existing weld nuts here. These are going to provide the two center most attaching points for the trailer hitch. Moving over to the passenger side frame rail, if you look on the outboard side, nearest the bumper you can see we have two weld nuts, one on top of each other. Those are going to provide our attaching points for that side of the frame. That is going to be the same on the driver side of the vehicle as well. 1:53

From there we are basically ready to install the hitch on any vehicle that has seen at least one winter. The weld nuts that are likely in the frame have corrosion or road grime built up in them, so we want to go through first and clean those out thoroughly to ensure the bolts do not get hung up when we go to install the hitch. To clean the weld nuts, we are going to take a spray lubricant like a WD-40 and do that for all the weld nuts. You may need to do it more than once to ensure the road grime and corrosion is pulled out of there. You can even take your bolt and feed it in there and give it a test fit. Into each one of those weld nuts we are going to be using 12 millimeter bolts along with conical tooth washers that are provided with the installation kit. What we want to do is leave the two middle bolts loosely installed until we get everything in place. We are now going to move to the side of the frame, I am on the passenger side, and put our hardware into the weld nuts. Then we will go over and do that for the driver side as well. Then we ill be ready to tighten our bolts down. 2:48

I am going to go back through and torque the bolts down. I am going to verify with the directions the specific torque rating for each individual bolt. For the torquing process, I am going to start by torquing the bumper bolts first, and then the outside bolts last. With all the bolts torqued down the only thing left to do is put our exhaust back up on its hangers and our installation will be complete. With that, that will conclude the installation of Curt hitch part number 13591 on a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox.