Trailer Hitch Installation - 2011 Hyundai Sonata

Installation of a Trailer HItch on a 2011 Hyundai Sonata

Today on this 2011 Hyundai Sonata we will be Draw-Tite hitch part number 24853. And this installation will also apply for Hidden Hitch part number 60269. Alright, we are underneath the vehicle and the first thing we need to do is go ahead and lower the exhaust down to get that out of our way so we can work. This particular vehicle has single exhaust which is strictly on the passenger side. Some models will have dual exhaust so you will need to repeat this procedure for both sides. We will need to lower it down off of its rearmost hanger, which is just rear of the muffler itself. And if you move forward, almost even with the axle, there is a second hanger we are going to need to lower the exhaust off of. We are going to need to go ahead and remove, not only the hanger, but the bracket. 0:39

So we are going to go ahead and unbolt it from the frame. There are two nuts holding it into position that we are going to take it off of. The forward hanger we can actually unbolt as well, from the exhaust system. Before we do that though, we want to go ahead and put some form of support strap across the main tube here. Because, once we do lower it off the second hanger, this system could down and possibly damage it. With that lowered down, I am actually going to go back to the front hanger and I am going to go ahead and unbolt the rubber hanger from the exhaust bracket. This piece here is going to be removed and not put back up. The rubber hanger is actually going to bolt to the hitch once we get it back into position. 1:37

Next we will move on to the heat shield which was above the exhaust. We need to go ahead and lower it down. There are four nuts holding it into place. With the heat shield lowered, we can now go ahead and point out the mounting holes that we are going to be using to install our trailer hitch one here at the rear side of the frame and one more towards the forward side. The holes that we are going to be using are actually covered up by tap right now. Into those holes what we are going to do is fish in carriage bolt and block combinations. We will be using our forward most hole as our access point. You will notice that they actually provide two different length carriage bolts for each attaching point. There is a 1 inch and a 1-1/4 inch. The 1-1/4 inch one we will be using at the rearmost attaching point. The 1 inch one we will be using at the forward most attaching point. To fish those into the frame, we will be using the 3/8 bolt leaders that are provided with the installation kit. 2:39

And what we will do is we will start with the rearmost hole. We will take the threaded end of the bolt leader and go ahead and slide it up through the attaching hole. We will route it towards the front of the vehicle, back out. Alright, we will next take the block and go ahead and slide it onto the bolt leader, followed by the 1-1/4 inch long, 3/8 carriage bolt. And you can see we just thread the bolt leader around the threads of the carriage bolt. First feed the block inside the frame, followed by the carriage bolt and pull them down into position. And then for the forward attaching point, we are going to do what is called a reverse pull. In this case what we will do is go ahead and set everything up independent of the frame. We will go ahead and slide the block on the bolt leader and go ahead and wrap the carriage bolt, and again this is the 1 inch length carriage bolt. And then we will go ahead and actually take the carriage bolt and put it in first, followed by the block and pull that right back down into place. We just want to go ahead and repeat that set up for the passenger side as well. And then we can go ahead and put the hitch up into position. 3:37

It might be a good idea to get a second set of hands to help you put the hitch up in position. You just want to make sure that the hitch goes up and over the exhaust. And we are going to be attaching the hitch to the carriage bolt using a conical tooth washer and hex nut. OK, with the hitch up in position, we are going to go through now and go ahead and torque our bolts down. You want to verify with the directions the specific torque rating for each of the bolts. OK, with the bolts torqued down, we are going to go now and take our heat shield, that we had removed earlier, and we are going to need to trim that out, to go around the hitch. There is a diagram listed in the instructions and you want to follow that outline and go ahead and cut the heat shield out. And then with the heat shield trimmed out, we can go ahead and put it back into place. And again, if you have a dual exhaust model, you want to repeat that for both sides. At this rear rubber hanger, we are now going to be attaching it to the tab on the trailer hitch. And we are going to be doing that using the new 8 millimeter bolt that is provided with the installation kit. And then we go ahead and put the forward hanger back into place as well. And now that we have our hitch installed, we are going to go ahead and give you a couple of final install dimensions that will 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 11-1/4 inches. And from the center of the pin hole to clear the rear edge of the bumper is going to be approximately 5-1/2 inches. This will conclude the installation of Draw-Tite hitch part number 24853 on a 2011 Hyundai Sonata.