Video Transcript for Installing the etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2015 Hyundai Tucson

Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today, on our 2015 Hyundai Tucson we're gonna be showing you how to install the etrailer.com Trailer Hitch Receiver. But before we get into that why don't we just take a minute, check this out and make sure it'll work for you. Putting a trailer hitch on a Tucson just make sense, you know, versatile SUVs. And so having this back here is gonna open up your opportunities on what you're gonna be able to do, whether you're trying to use an accessory, you know, whether it be a bike rack or a cargo carrier or even if you're trying to pull a trailer around, this is gonna let you accomplish those tasks. This is a class three hitch, so it has the two inch by two inch receiver tube opening, which is a good thing.

You know, this is a super common size, lot of different stuff is gonna work with it. It is gonna use the standard five eights pin and clip. One doesn't come included with the hitch. If you need one, not a big deal, grab it here at etrailer. And a lot of times as well, if you end up buying a new accessory they usually come with one of these.

So, just keep that in mind if that's what you plan on doing. The safety chain openings are gonna be a loop style, you know, easy to get to and large enough to allow us to use pretty much any size hook that our trailer might have on it. As far as the hitches weight capacities go, numbers are gonna be pretty good. Maximum gross tongue weight, it's gonna be 525 pounds. And that's gonna be the amount of weight that is pushing down on the hitch, so that's good for pretty much any bike rack or cargo carrier.

As far as the maximum gross trailer weight rating goes that's gonna be 3,500 pounds, or the amount of weight pulling on the hitch. It's the weight of your trailer plus anything that you might have on it. This can be used with a weight distribution system which is a separate component. What happens when you use that, it's gonna keep your Tucson and your trailer level whenever you're towing it down the road. So, if you got a bigger camper, something along them lines, it might be worth looking into.

And when you use that, the tongue weight rating will remain the same at 525, however the trailer weight rating will go up to 5,250 pounds. With that in mind though I do always like to suggest, never a bad idea just to grab your Tucson's owner's manual that way you can check in there and make sure that your SUV can handle that much weight safely. I can grab a couple of measurements and these will help us 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 that's gonna be about 13 inches. So, if you're plan on pulling a trailer, you know, chances are pretty good, you can get a ball mount with a rise in the shank. Probably that two to four inch range work for a lot of people, that kind of holds true with your accessory tube. If you have one or can get one that comes up a little bit, probably not a bad idea. If you go from the center of the hitch pin hole to the edge of the rear bumper, that's gonna be about four inches. And you can use that to help figure out that if you have any type of folding accessories, you know, you can use that to determine if they can be stored upright without hitting the back of your Hyundai. Compared to some of the other hitches available this one would probably be my top pick and really for a couple of different reasons. Personally, I think it looks the best. You know, it has this matte black powder coat finish and it looks a little more factory to me. You know, it kind of matches the, you know, the texture and the color of our plastic bumper here and it has a little bit higher weight capacities than some of the other hitches. So, you know, a little more versatile there. As far as the installation goes, really not too bad at all. You know, essentially it kind of bolts up. You can lower your exhaust down, give you a little more room, put up in place and and tighten down the bolt. So, definitely doable. But if you'd like to see how that's done feel free to hang around, we'll go ahead and get started on it now. To begin our insulation we're gonna be underneath the back of our Tucson and what we're gonna do is get our exhaust lowered down a little bit, just to make it easier to get the hitch up. So, before we do that we wanna support it. That way when we let it down, you know, we can kind of control how fast and how far we let it come down. So, I'm gonna take a strap, run it from side to side and cinch it up. To get the exhaust lowered you're gonna have two rubber hangers on each side of the muffler just like this. And you can spray 'em down with soapy water to help lubricate 'em. Then take a big pry bar or big screwdriver, whatever you got and pry on that hangar. I already took the other side off the same way. And from this point on anything we do to one side of the vehicle, we're also gonna do to the other side. So, it'll be the same. We'll get that popped off there and with both of 'em lowered, or loosened rather we can lower the exhaust down some. We're gonna have two attachment points on each one of our frame rails, this hole here and this one as well. And these are threaded weld nuts in the frames so bolts will go up into 'em. I do suggest though, spraying them down with some type of penetrating oil. You can take a toothbrush like this and just work it back and forth. That way you can clean out any potential gunk or debris that may be inside. (brush scraping) The hardware that we're gonna use to attach our hitch is is really straightforward. You're gonna have a bolt and then you can put on a conical tooth washer. Make sure the teeth on the washer are gonna face up towards a hitch. And so, when we're holding this up in place we'll get everything lined up and then these will simply just slide right into the frame. Now, with the help from Joe here, we can take our hitch and raise it into position. So, line up the holes like we talked about, take our hardware and get it started. With all the hardware and place, now we can come back with the 17 millimeter socket and snug it all down. (tool operating) And now we can come back with a torque wrench and tighten down all the hardware to the amount specified in our instructions. (wrench ratcheting) At this point you can go ahead, raise our exhaust back into position. You can just spray it down again and work these all in place by hand. Got the other side done too. And now we're able to remove our strap. And that'll finish up our look at and our insulation of the etrailer.com Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2015 Hyundai Tucson.