Video Transcript for etrailer Class III Trailer Hitch DIY Installation - 2015 Nissan Xterra

Hi, this is Scott with etrailer. Today we're taking a look at and installing our etrailer hitch for our 2015 Nissan Xterra. Our etrailer hitch we have on our Xterra today is gonna have a really nice flat black finish on it and it's gonna be a powder coat, so it's gonna match our flat trim really well. Another feature I like about this one is it has a little bit of a built-in step on it and that's gonna help you if you have your cargo rack on top, say you wanna step up on there and gain access to that a little bit easier, this hitch is gonna help you out with that. The hitch on the back of your Xterra is gonna be really nice. So say you're going away for a weekend or you're going out camping and you have the back all full and you want to bring your bikes along on your bike rack, this hitch is gonna work out really good for that.

Or maybe you want to add a little more gear, a generator with a gas can, something like that. You can also put on a cargo carrier on the back and that'll extend your ability to haul more items as well. But one of the things with this one is it's gonna have a two inch receiver. So that's gonna take most of your accessories that are out on the market today. It is going to have a 5/8 pin hole opening, so that's gonna be able to lock in your accessories that you put on the back.

Now this one will not come with the pin, but we do offer them here at etrailer. Another nice option for these is a locking pin. And say you're out on the trail and you have your nice bike rack on the back, you want to be able to lock that in place. Your locking pin is a really good option to keep it secure and locked onto the back of your vehicle. For your safety chain loops, you're gonna have the welded on loop style.

Those are gonna accept either your S style or your clevis hook style. So those will get you set up really well for your trailer towing needs. Now from the top of our tube to the ground, we're looking at 19 inches. So you're not gonna have any kind of clearance issues at all with that. But with that number in the future, that will help you figure out if you need any rise in the shank of your bike racks or your cargo carriers.

From the pin hole out to the edge of the bumper, we're out past our bumper on that. So if any of your accessories that you have fold up and stow away, you're gonna have no problems with that either. For our tongue weight rating, we're gonna be looking at 400 pounds and that's gonna be the weight of your bike racks with all your bikes on it or your cargo carrier loaded up pushing down on this portion of the hitch itself. So that's a pretty heavy rating, so you shouldn't have any problem with all of your bikes on there. For a gross trailer weight rating, we're looking at 4,000 pounds and with that, that's gonna be the weight of your trailer and everything that you have loaded on that. It's also gonna have a weight distribution and you'll be able to hook that up and have 6,000 pounds of gross trailer weight rating. And that's also the weight of your trailer and everything you have on that. If you have this hitch or you plan on getting it and you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave any comments down below. Pictures are also welcome. We'd love to see what you're doing with your Xterra. Other than that, for installation, this is pretty straightforward and you could do it pretty easily in your driveway. If it's something you don't have time to do yourself, you can take a look at our dealer locator and get something installed for you locally. If you wanna do it yourself, stick around, watch our video and we'll help you get it installed. To start our installation, we want to get our spare tire down and out of the way. That's gonna give us more room to install our hitch. I'm just gonna back that off now and we'll get that out of the way. We're gonna wanna remove these two lower bolts on our bumper bracket. Now these are gonna be really tight, they're gonna be 19 millimeter, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try and spray some penetrating lubricant into this hole and hopefully get into the back of these. And I'm gonna also spray up here on our weld nut and get those soaking a little bit. Now after we let the penetrate sit a little bit, our bolts are coming right out. (drill grinding) Now we can get our hitch lifted in place and all I'm gonna do is get it lifted over my exhaust and line up the rear most hole. And with the hardware in the kit, you're gonna have a smaller bolt with a conical washer with teeth. Now you're gonna want those teeth facing the hitch itself. Now I just wanna run our bolt in finger tight. For our larger hardware we're gonna have our bolt and we're gonna have our lock washer and we're just gonna put those in the holes that we took out our two lower bolts from on our bumper mount and we will be using the supplied hardware that comes in our kit. We will not be using the hardware that we took off. And with those again, just run 'em down finger tight. After we have all of our hardware in place, now we can come back through and just snug 'em all down. Now we'll go back through and torque down all of our hardware to the specifications listed in our instruction manual. Now if you don't have a torque wrench, you could pick one up here at etrailer or take a look at your local parts store and you should be able to rent one there. After we have everything torqued down normally we'd put our spare tire back in place, but we are gonna be doing wiring on this one. And we have our plugin right here, so we're gonna leave our spare tire off so we can get started on our wiring as well. And that was a look at our etrailer hitch for 2015 Nissan Xterra. I'm Scott with etrailer and thanks for watching.