Video Transcript for DIY 2013 Mazda CX-9 Installation for the Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver

Today in our 2013 Mazda CX-9, we'll be having a look at and installing the CURT Class 2 Trailer Hitch Receiver, part number C12112. All right. Here's what our hitch looks like installed. As you can see, it's tucked up nicely behind our fascia here. So what that means is when we're loading cargo into our hatch area, we don't have to worry about running our shin into the hitch. We have an industry standard 1/2 inch diameter hitch pin hole here, to secure any of our hitch mounted accessories.

At the end of our receiver, we have this nice collar that's welded on to give us a finished look and help improve the strength of the receiver itself. Welded on the bottom are round tubular safety chain loops, which have a fairly decent size opening. So we shouldn't have much problem at all hooking our safety chain hooks onto them. Now for a few measurements to better assist you in choosing any hitch mount-on accessory you may need, such as a ball mount, bike rack, or a cargo carrier. You're looking at about 13 1/2 inches from the ground to the top of the receiver opening and about five inches from the center of the hitch pin hole to the outer most part of the back bumper.

Now we've gone over some features. We'll show you how to get it installed. Okay, we're underneath our vehicle right now. We have attachment points in either side of our frame rail on the inside edge of it. We'll point those out to you right now.

So you can see I've already circled our tapping points that we're using. The driver's side is the same way. We're looking at the passenger side right now. These are existing well nuts inside the frame. Now, it's a good idea to spray some lubricant inside of there, and use a pipe brush, which we have available on our website, that's part number 814092.

And run that in and out a few times to clean out the threads. We want to do this on all of our attachment points on both sides. Over time, you'll find that they can have rust build up inside of them or dirt or debris and wanna make sure they're clean, so that way your hardware goes in and out easily. All right. As you can see, we have two different size bolts. The smaller bolt will go in the smaller hole and all three of our larger attachment points get the same size bolt. We have conical tooth washer on both of our bolts. The teeth will face away from the bolt head towards the hitch. Now keep in mind, everything we do at one side will repeat on the other side. So with an extra set of hands, we'll raise the hitch into position and secure it in place to the provided hardware. All right, so we're working it in around our exhaust and our rear fascia. All right. Now we'll use a 19 millimeter socket to tighten down our larger bolts. And we'll use a 13 millimeter for the smaller bolt. Now we'll torque all our hardware to the amount specifying in the instructions. And that completes our look at an installation of the CURT Class 2 Trailer Hitch Receiver, part number C12112, on our 2013 Mazda CX-9..