Video Transcript for Blue Ox Class III Trailer Hitch Complete Installation - 2015 Dodge Durango

Hey neighbor, it's Kevin here with etrailer, and today we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Blue Ox Trailer Hitch Receiver here on our 2015 Dodge Durango. If you're like our neighbor today and you're planning on towing a small trailer, maybe you need to move somewhere, or you just wanna throw a little bit of extra cargo on the back of your vehicle so you can haul it around or even just the bike rack, a trailer hitch is going to be a necessary component to complete all of those tasks. And with the Blue Ox receiver, here, it's gonna give you a nice option where it's gonna stick out just a bit further than most of the competition. Now, this is going to have a hitch pin hole within less than an inch from the edge of our fascia. So you won't really have to worry about any kind of clearance issues if you have a folding accessory. So typically those cargo carriers, bike racks, anything like that, they can fold up.

'Cause you really only have about three quarter inches from that pin up to here. So if you really have that tight of a shank, you could really sit there and measure it, but you should be pretty much good to go with that. Now, the other thing that goes along with this is gonna be our clearance from the ground. With the Durango sitting pretty high up 'cause it is more of an SUV, it is going to give pretty good clearance. With our lifts added onto this, that adds about eight inches.

So we're sitting at 22 and three eighths, which would really be about 14 and three eighths if we negate the lift adding on height here. So that's well over 12 inches. Typically we wanna see 12 inches anytime we have a trailer hitch receiver on here. That way we know we don't have to use an adapter to get anything a little bit higher so that it's not scraping the ground anytime you go up an incline or down a decline. Along with that, this hitch is gonna have a 6,000-pound gross towing weight capacity and a 900-pound tongue weight capacity.

Now, that does not mean that your vehicle can still tow 6,000 pounds. You definitely wanna double check it. Go look in your owner's manual. You can figure out exactly what your gross vehicle weight rating is and then look up the combined weight rating and then subtract whatever your trailer is to see exactly what you can tow on here. Now, typically if you're gonna add a trailer hitch in, you're also gonna want to add in some wiring so that way you can pass those traffic signals from your vehicle back to the trailer.

Especially if you have a cargo carrier that's pretty wide or maybe your bike rack has really large bikes on it that could potentially cover your taillights. So that's where adding in a little light on that or maybe your bike rack already has one. Blue Ox does a nice job. They give you a mounting bracket already welded to the cross tube, so it makes it a whole lot easier and a little bit less expensive so you're not having to buy a separate bracket. Which typically we wanna do a no-drill mounting bracket that just clamps onto the cross tube. This is already there for you. So all you'll need is just the bracket for either a seven-pole or four-pole connector depending on what you go with. Along with that, we also need to hook up our safety chains if we're gonna be towing a trailer, so. Now, typically with most smaller trailers, you're gonna have an S-hook style. S-hook fits in this no problem. Can go either way. Plenty of room for it to grab on and not bind up. Now, with the heavier duty clevis, that as well. You might have a little bit of binding if it gets real close right here, but it can still flow pretty freely throughout here. So you could get away with using that as well. Last but not least, we also need to make sure that we have a pin and clip. Now, this is not gonna come with your trailer hitch. It typically comes with whatever accessory you have. But you can also pick some of these up here. I highly recommend picking up one that locks. That way once you have your accessory or your hitch on there, you don't ever have to worry about somebody walking up and stealing it. As far as installation goes, this one is super easy. Dodge did it right. They gave you four mounting points in the frame rail, and they even supplied the bolts for you. So you already have factory hardware. You don't have to get anything new and worry about anything kind of already being lost in the kit with it. So all you have to do is just drop your spare tires, give yourself a little bit of extra room to work, and then you'll just pull out the factory hardware on both sides of the frame, and then you can slot your hitch up into place. I highly recommend having someone else with you for that, help pull it up. This is a pretty heavy-duty hitch, so it is a little bit heavier than normal. If this is something you don't feel like doing yourself though, you can use our dealer locator. You'll just type in your zip code to find a shop near you. It'll get installed professionally. If you do wanna do this yourself, stick around and I'll show you how I did it. To start for install, you don't technically have to drop your spare tire, but it's gonna make this a whole lot easier if you do because we're gonna be reusing the factory hardware that's already in your frame. So if you look right here on the frame, there's gonna be two bolt holes with bolts already in it. And the same thing over on this side. So this is gonna be a super easy install. We're gonna start off with a 21-millimeter socket. We're gonna take these out. (socket grinds) Now, if you do have a diesel model, there will be some additional steps you'll need to fill out just because you're gonna have to drop your DEF tank just a bit. You won't fully pull it out, but you'll have to just kind of loosen it up so you can wiggle it around a bit to get some stuff through. Now, this isn't a diesel model, so I won't be able to show you that, but there are steps listed in the instructions if that's something you have to do. (bolt scratches) All right, almost got this one out. And once you get these out, you can kind of see they're pretty dirty. So I'm gonna take a wire brush and just clean out our weld nut in there a bit. But we'll take all four of these bolts out and clean 'em. If yours are real gummed up or rusty, you can also shoot a little bit of penetrating oil in there first and then run through with your brush, just clean up those threads. (brush scratches) With the help of my super buff assistant Brad here, we're gonna lift our heavy-duty hitch up into place. Now, when you're doing this, you're gonna want to get it past, so on the inside of your spare tire cover here. I'll just thread those in. Once you get 'em a little bit of the ways, you can start on the other one, and then they'll help support itself. Now, with all of our hardware snugged down, we can torque it to the specifications listed in the instructions manual. Well, I think that does it for today's look at an installation of the Blue Ox Trailer Hitch Receiver here on our 2015 Dodge Durango. Please feel free to reach out to us via our Ask the Experts link, a comment on this video, or a phone call to our customer service department. We'd be happy to help you out on your journey.