Trailer Hitch Installation - 2012 Honda CR-V - Curt

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2012 Honda CR-V

Today in our list, we've got a 2012 Honda CRV. And we're going to be installing CURT hitch part number C13119. The first step in our installation is to remove these plastic appearance panels. There's a handful of push pins that we're going to need to remove and there's also three bolts that we're going to need to remove along the back. To remove our push fasteners, you can either use a flathead screwdriver, or if you got one, a pry tool. There's one more fastener here near the driver's side fender well right at the edge of the body.

We'll also need to remove this one. This will be our last fastener and we can get the appearance panel out. We'll set that aside. And in the meantime, we'll come back to it later and trim it up for our hitch. To give ourselves some working room, we're going to go ahead and lower our exhaust system.

We're going to spray down the rubber isolators on our exhaust hangers with some spray lubricant, and then we can either use a pry bar, a screwdriver or an exhaust removal tool to help get the hangers out of the isolators and allow for some more room underneath the vehicle. In the instructions as the guide for measuring and marking, we're going to need to cut your appearance panel to fit your hitch, so we're going to follow that, draw our partner, and then make our trim. We're going to double-check our hitch fit first before we go and make our cuts. Next, we'll take a rotary cutting tool and cut out the spot on the panel that we marked. For our attachment points, we'll be using four weld knots in the tow loop.

We'll be using the rearmost weld knots on either side of the frame. Before we get started, we're going to want to make sure that our weld knots are clean so that our bolts will thread in nicely. We'll take some spary lubricant and a wire brush and we'll clean out the weld knots. Our centermounting point will be the tow loop. This will fit through the plastic appearance piece that we trimmed earlier.

The U-bolt will fit over our tow loop like this. We'll raise the hitch into position and then we'll thread on our flange nuts underneath. We can go ahead and leave that there for now. On each of the four weld knots, we'll be using a bolt and a conical-tooth washer. We'll just slip the washer over the bolt, making sure that the teeth of the washer face up towards the hitch. At this point, we're ready to fit our hitch up on the vehicle. We're going to need it feed the driver's side flange through the plastic appearance panel and lift it all up as one unit. Might be a good idea to get a second set of hands to help you lift the hitch into position and hold it while you start all your hardware. With all of our hardware started in, we can go ahead and run it all the way down. With all of our hardware tightened down, we're going to need to go ahead and torque it down as specified in the instructions. Now, we have our hitch torqued down, we can go ahead and reinstall our exhaust. We'll just push it back into position and slip the rubber isolators over the factory hangers. And finally, we need to reinstall our rear apperance panel. With our appearance panel back in place and secured, that does it for our installing CURT hitch part number C13119, our 2012 Honda CRV.