Video Transcript for How to Set Up Your Draw-Tite Max-Frame Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV

Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer today on 2022 Chevy Bolt EV. We're gonna be showing you how to install the Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch Receiver. Before we get into that though, why don't we just take a minute, check it out and make sure it's gonna work for you. Putting a trailer hitch on the back of your Bolt is really gonna help open up your opportunities on what you're gonna be able to do with your vehicle. Whether you're trying to use an accessory like a bike rack or maybe a cargo carrier or maybe you have a small, you know lawn and garden type trailer or kayak trailer or something like that, this is gonna allow you to hook up to it and get it moved around. So you know, if it we're me and I was looking for a hitch those things would come to mind.

But also how it's gonna look, you know and with this set up here I think it's about as best as it can get. Honestly, for the most part the hitch is gonna be completely hidden and really the only thing you're gonna be able to see is the receiver tube opening. The hitch is gonna have a two inch by two inch receiver tube opening, which is good. Really common size. Lot of different things are gonna work with it.

It's gonna use that standard 5/8 pin and clip. Keep in mind though, it doesn't come with a pin and clip if you need one, not a huge deal, grab it here at etrailer and a lot of times too, if you end up buying a new accessory a lot of times they'll come with one. So just keep that in mind. Safety chain openings are gonna be a loop style and easy to get to and allow us to use just about any size hook that we might have. As far as the hitch's just weight capacities go, it's gonna have a 300 pound maximum gross tongue weight rating.

That's gonna be the amount of weight pushing down on the hitch. That's a relatively high number for your vehicle like this and you should be fine using those one to three potentially even four bike racks just to give an example. As far as it just maximum gross trailer weight rating goes that's gonna be 2000 pounds and that's the amount of weight pulling on the hitch. So that's the weight of the trailer. Plus anything you might have on it I do always like to suggest, so it's never a bad idea just to grab your vehicle's owner's manual.

That way you can check in there and make sure that your Chevy can pull that weight safely. Now we can grab a couple of measurements and these will help you figure out what type of accessories will work best. If you go from the ground to the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening, accounting for the lift that the car's parked on that's gonna be about 10 1/2 inches. So relatively low, which is expected being on this vehicle. But if you are to get an accessory if you can find one that has a rise in the shank that'd be better off you know, it'll give you a little more clearance. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the edge of the rear bumper, that's gonna be about six inches. So it does sit a little bit further back which I think helps the appearance of it. But that's something to think about. If you are gonna be using a folding type accessory you can use that measurement to figure out if you you can swing it in that upright position and not have to worry about it hitting the back of your Bolt. Just to compare this hitch to some of the others available they're all right on par with each other. Honestly, in terms of appearance goes, not a whole lot too different about 'em there. There is an EcoHitch available that does have a little bit higher weight capacities. So if you know that's important to you, then that one's definitely worth checking out. But honestly at the end of the day you can't go wrong with any of them. You know, they're all gonna get the job done and allow you to do what you're trying to do. As far as the installation goes, you do have to remove the fascia but it's not too bad really, you know a handful of fasteners, the bumper does fit on there pretty tight. So just take your time when, when popping that off and I'll show you a couple things that I did to make it a little bit easier so hopefully it'll streamline it a little bit for you. But with that said, why don't we go ahead and get started on it now. To begin your installation, we're gonna be here at the back of our vehicle. We open up the hatch and if you move here to our taillights we're gonna have a couple of fasteners that we need to pull out. There's gonna be two covers here. Take a small flathead screwdriver just carefully kind of pop 'em open And behind 'em, there will be a T15 for spit screw. We'll pull those out. I wanna mention from this point on anything we do to one side we're also gonna do to the other side 'cause it'll be set up the same way. While we're right here, if you just continue to go down there will be another T15 kind of in our plastic bumper. We'll pull that out too. Now if you move to your wheel wells just behind the tire we're gonna have two T15 torques fit screws. So go ahead and grab our bit and get both of them removed. Now we're gonna need to unsnap this wheel well liner piece probably about halfway out 'cause there should be a bolt behind it. So with this it stays held in place with some clips. Sometimes if you spray some soapy water in behind there it makes it easier to to get it out. But there's some plastic fasteners behind here, but sometimes if you kind of pinch 'em you're able to work 'em out. And once I get this thing popped out we can take a better look here. It's definitely tight. So just be patient and work this piece out. Here's those clips I was talking about. So what I was doing, reaching behind there, trying to squeeze 'em with my fingers while you're pulling out to get 'em to release. Sometimes you can get it started and then take a small screwdriver and push on it from the outside to help get 'em out. But like I said, once you're about halfway up like you'll be in good shape and there'll be a seven millimeter head bolt right there and that's what we need to remove. Underneath the vehicle, on each side you're gonna have a pushpin fastener so get that out. These you just pry underneath the head of 'em your trim tool or your screwdriver and work it out. At this point we can remove our fascia. So I sprayed all our seams down with soapy water. Makes it a little easier. Put some painters tape here along where we're gonna be working so we don't have to worry about scratching anything, but you wanna start at the corner and just kind of carefully start to pop it out. Does get a little tight around the taillights so if you kind of, you know, just work it around eventually it'll unsnap and you may or may not have some wiring to disconnect. In our case it looks like we do on the driver's side. So you just pull up on that lever and pull the connector apart. And with everything released we can set our fascia off to the side. We need to get our bumper beam removed on our driver's side. Take this wiring connector plug, just pry underneath it to release it from the bumper beam. Gonna get that out of the way. Then we're gonna have three bolts. There, a 15 millimeter. And on this side too, we have this little bracket speaker assembly, other side don't have that. I'll take them two out first. Get that out of the way. And before you take the last one off, you know do two on the other side. But leave a nut on hand tight. That way you got control of the beam. Set this down here. Here's the last one removed, and then we can slide our bumper beam off. What we're able to do is grab our hitch. Its gonna slide on, we'll grab our bumper beam, see if I can manage to do this one handed here. This is gonna go back on as well. Honestly, it'd be easier if you had someone gimme a hand, but it is doable. Take the hardware that we just removed and we'll get 'em all started hand tight. With all the hardware in place and hand tight come back and snug 'em all down. Once they're snug, you need to make sure to come back with a torque wrench and tighten all the hardware down to the amount specified in the instructions. Now we can move over to our fascia and we are gonna have to trim a small portion of it out. That way it'll clear the hitch. So I taped it out, took our measurements and drew out the area that we're gonna need to cut, pretty thin plastic. I'm gonna use a dremel tool to cut this out but could you use a utility knife probably or some snips, whatever you got. So go ahead and get this cut out. Get this out of the way. And then if you have any rough edges or anything you can always come back with a file or razor edge or some sandpaper and kind of clean 'em up a little bit. Now we can get our fascia reinstalled. Don't forget to plug in any of your electrical connections if you removed any. And this will just get reinstalled, the opposite way that we removed it. And that'll finish up a look at and our insulation of the Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV.