Video Transcript for Installing the Blue Ox Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2023 Buick Encore GX

Hi, everyone, Jesse here with etrailer. Today, we'll be taking a look at, and I'll show you how to install the Blue Ox Custom Fit Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2023 Buick Encore GX. Adding a hitch to a car like the Encore GX really makes a ton of sense. It is a smaller car, so it's always nice to add some extra storage space onto the rear of your vehicle. And with the hitch, you can do that. Once you have this hitch on, you can throw on accessories such as a bike rack or a cargo carrier, or you can even do some light duty towing with it.

Just remember, if you plan on doing any kind of towing with your vehicle, you will need to add on trailer wiring to keep you safe and legal out there on the road. Now our hitch installs behind our fascia here, so the only thing you'll be able to see is the receiver opening. And that receiver opening is your standard two inch by two inch opening that's gonna fit most of your accessories. And behind that, we have another standard 5/8 inch pinhole. The pin and clip are not included with the hitch.

However, we have many options available here at etrailer. Also, any accessory that you add on will most likely come with one included. And we have a sturdy safety cable loop here, very easy to access with whatever style safety cable you have. For example, this large clevis or an S like this. Now we'll take some quick measurements.

We'll start with our ground clearance. From the ground to the top of the inside of the collar here is about 11 and a half inches. That's on the low side for sure. So any accessory or ball mount that you add on, I'd look for something with a slight rise to it. Then from the center of our pinhole to the edge of our bumper here is about 4 and 3/4 inches.

Keep that number in mind for any folding accessory that you add on to ensure that that doesn't make contact with the vehicle. As for our weight capacities with this hitch, we have a gross trailer weight of 3,500 pounds. That's the amount of weight that you can pull behind the vehicle. And then our maximum tongue weight is gonna be 525 pounds. That's the amount of weight pushing down on the hitch. Always be sure to double check your vehicle's owner's manual to ensure that your vehicle can handle that weight safely. If you have any questions or concerns about this hitch or anything else we offer here at etrailer, feel free to reach out to us. We'd be happy to get you pointed in the right direction. As for the installation, as I said, it does install behind our fascia, so you do have to remove the fascia. So I understand if that's not something that you're looking to do yourself, check out our dealer locator. You can find someone local to you that would be happy to get this set up for you. If you are looking to see how this gets installed, then follow along, and I'll walk you through the process. To start our installation, we'll be removing our taillights here. So we have this plastic cover. We're gonna pop these round pieces off with a flathead screwdriver. Just get up under it and it will pull out. I'll pop off both of those. And then it looks like behind that, we have two T10 screws, so I'll grab a drill and take those out. And we'll remove both those screws. (tool whirring) And with those backed off, we'll be able to pull our taillight out. It's just gonna be held in by clips. Just gonna have to carefully work it out, trying to pull straight back. You don't wanna bend the taillight at all. Get that popped off. And then on the backside here, we'll have a couple of bulbs that we will just simply remove so that we can set our taillight aside. This third one here is actually not a bulb, it's wired in, but you can remove the plug. You just have to use a flathead screwdriver to depress this pin and then you can pull it out. And at this point, we can set our taillight aside. And we also have a couple T20 screws to remove in our bumper here. (tool whirring) One on this side and one on this side. (whirring continues) Inside of our wheel well here, we have two more T10 screws to remove. (tool whirring) There's actually one more of those screws right here. We'll get that removed. (tool whirring) Then from this point on, anything we do on one side, we'll also do on the other. On the bottom of our wheel well here, we have two more of the same screws to remove. (tool whirring) We need to pull back on this piece here. It does take quite a bit of strength to get the clips to release, but it just helps to kind of push with one hand on the bottom of our fascia and pull out with the other. And we'll work it up. We don't have to take it all the way off. We just need to get it past our fascia so that we can remove a couple screws that are holding it on. Then I'll use a couple paper towels to prop it up for us. Here's that screw we need to remove. It's gonna be seven millimeters. (tool whirring) And on the bottom of our fascia here, we have some push pin fasteners to remove. There's gonna be two on each side. I'm just using a flathead screwdriver to get up under that centerpiece and then the whole thing will come out. There's two there and two over here. Now I'd recommend grabbing an extra set of hands. I have my friend Daniel here to help me out. We're ready to start removing our fascia. Just wanna work it from the outside in by pulling out. It's just gonna be held in by a series of clips. So you will have to pull pretty firmly out on it. (fascia rattles) Once you get to the taillights, you can kind of lift up around the clips to get them to release. Now, we don't wanna pull it out too far because we have a plug that we need to unplug. There's a red locking tab that you can push back. So it helps to have a flathead screwdriver to push it. There can be a lot of stuff built up in there that holds it in. And then we can push down on our tab. And once again, it may fight you just 'cause of the dirt that's built up in there. We might use a screwdriver to help me push that down. And once we have that unplugged, we can set our fascia aside. Now we need to remove our bumper beam, but before we can, we have a gasket that's kind of holding it in place. So what I'll do is I'll just take my razor blade and try to score into it. That way, it'll separate easier. So just do that on both sides, go all the way around, and make sure you break some of that gasket up. Now we'll remove the nuts with a 15 millimeter socket. (tool whirring) There's gonna be three on both sides. (tool whirring) And before we take all of our hardware off, we wanna unclip this wiring harness. So helps have a trim tool like this where you can just use a flathead screwdriver and just pry it up and get it out of the way. We'll continue to take our hardware off. (tool whirring) Even though we scored it, there's still gonna be some gasket tucked up inside of it. So just try to get a pry bar under there and just work it out. Just be careful working with the pry bar so you don't hit anything that you aren't planning on hitting. So pop that one side off. Should be able to pull this side all the way off, and we'll set that aside. With our bumper beam off, we are going to apply some silicone around our hole on both sides. You can be pretty liberal with it. Just cover it up. It's gonna create a nice watertight seal. Now we can lift our hitch up into place, sliding it up with those holes. And we will be installing the bumper beam on over this, but I'm gonna just temporarily put a nut on. That way, I can grab the bumper. And with our bumper beam, I did cut off some more of that gasket was on there because it is a pretty tight fit over our hitch, but we have to go bring the bumper up and then kinda get it down into position. Once we get both sides lined up, I'll remove that nut, (metal banging) and we can get it bolted on. We got that nut off and I'll replace it. We'll have to kinda push against the bumper and the hitch to make that thread on. And we'll thread another one on the other side and we can get the rest of our hardware on. Now we'll take our 15 millimeter socket and tighten those down. (tool whirring) Now we'll take a torque wrench and torque everything down to these specifications in the instructions. (device beeping) Before we can reinstall our fascia, we need to trim it out. It'll have a diagram for you in the instructions. You just wanna find center and then base your measurements off of that. I just marked it off with some painter's tape, and then I'll use a multi-tool to cut it out. (tool whirring) Then we'll pop this out, and I'll come back through with a razor blade to clean up that cut. So I did end up making that cutout just a little bit larger than the instructions said. My advice would just be to mock it up and just cut a little bit at a time to make sure you get a nice clean install. But other than that, all that's left is to reinstall our fascia. It's just the opposite of how we took it off, but otherwise, that's gonna do it for our look at and installation of the Blue Ox Custom Fit Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2023 Buick Encore GX.