Video Transcript for Curt Class III Trailer Hitch Step-By-Step Installation - 2025 Toyota Crown Signia

Hi everyone. Jesse here with etrailer. Today we'll be taking a look at and I'll show you how to install the Curt Custom Fit Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2025 Toyota Crown. There's really not a lot of options out there as far as hitches for the Crown, but Curt is a trusted brand that's been making hitches for a long time, so you really can't go wrong with this as your hitch option. Adding a hitch to the Crown really makes a ton of sense. It does have a lot of storage space inside, but that doesn't mean you don't need to be able to add some extra storage space to the outside of the vehicle.

And with this hitch, you can throw an accessories such as the bike rack or a cargo carrier, or you can even do some light-duty towing. The cross tubes are completely hidden behind the fascia, so you really have a nice clean look on the back of your vehicle with this hitch. This receiver opening here is your standard 2" by 2" opening that's gonna fit most of your accessories. And behind that is another standard 5/8" pin hole. 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 wire-type safety-cable loop here. Very easy to access with whatever style safety cable you have. For example, an S or a large clevis like this. A question we get asked a lot is, once the hitch is installed, will my hands-free tailgate assist still function properly And the answer with this hitch is yes, it will.

You'll just have to kick to one side of the hitch to make sure you're not kicking it, but you'll just do it as normal and your hatch will open right up. Now for some measurements, we'll start with our ground clearance number. From the ground to the top of the inside of the collar here is right at 13". And then from the center of our pinhole to the edge of our bumper is about 7". That number you want to keep in mind for any folding accessory that you add on to ensure they don't make contact with the vehicle.

As for the 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 we have a maximum tongue weight of 350 pounds. That's the amount of weight you can have 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 comments 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, it's honestly a pretty simple process, but you do have to lower your exhaust down and do a little bit of trimming on a panel underneath here. So if it'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, just follow along and I'll walk you through the process. We'll begin our installation by removing this plastic cover here. It's just held in by a series of these push pin fasteners, which if you have a flathead screwdriver, you just wanna get into the middle of it and pop that center portion out. Sometimes it helps to have an actual trim panel tool that is made for this. Pop the centerpiece out and the whole thing will come out and we'll just work our way down the line, get all these removed. And once you've worked all those out, we can set this aside. Now we need to lower our exhaust down, and before you do that, you wanna make sure that you have something supporting the exhaust. I have a lift, so I'm up in the air. I'm using a cam strap to support it. If you're on the ground, you can just use a jack stand or something like that. We'll start with our rear hangers here. There's gonna be two bolts on the brackets and there's gonna be one of these brackets on both sides. And I'm removing these bolts with a 12 millimeter socket. (wrench clicks) Now our mounting holes are covered up by some plastic caps to protect the threads. Those come off pretty easily with a flathead screwdriver. Just get up under it and pry it away. There's one there and one towards the front. And then once those are out, I like to take our hardware and thread it in and out a few times, make sure that it's nice and smooth so we're not fighting those threads with the hitch above our head. While I have the hardware here, we'll talk about it. So both of those holes on both sides will get a bolt and a conical tooth washer. We want those teeth on the washer facing towards the hitch so they bite down and hold on. That's a good idea to grab a big strong friend. That's why I have my friend John here to help me lift our hitch into place. We just have to work around that recovery hook on this side and get it tucked up into place. So we did have to fight getting around this recovery hook and also getting up and over this heat shield here. Once you do that, we can line up our mounting holes and get some hardware started on both sides. And that's gonna hold it up so we can get the rest of our hardware installed. Now we'll tighten our hardware down with a 19 millimeter socket. (tool buzzes) Now we use our torque wrench and torque all of our hardware down to the specification in the instructions. Before we can reinstall this plastic panel, we will need to cut it out. There's kind of a diagram in the instructions, but it looks like we're just cutting out this rectangular piece here. I'm just gonna use some tin snips for that. This plastic's pretty easy to cut through. So we'll cut that out and then mock it up, make sure it fits and then we can reinstall it. (plastic snaps) All that's left is to get your exhaust hung back up. But otherwise that's gonna do it for our look at and installation of the Curt Custom Fit Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2025 Toyota Crown.