Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Class II - 1-1/4"

Video Transcript for Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch Installation - 2019 Subaru Crosstrek

Rob: Rob here at etrailer.com, and today you're going to be taking a look at the Draw Tite Class II custom fit trailer hitch receiver on our 2019 Subaru Crosstrek. So here's what our hitch is going to look like once we have it installed. The crosstube is going to be visible, it's going to sit right down below the bumper, but it's still going to have that really clean appearance to it because it is going to be tucked back a little bit and the main thing we see is just that receiver tube sticking out.Now our hitch is going to allow us to do a lot of different things. If you want to tow a trailer, we can do that. We can make some room on the inside of our car for more passengers or pets, we can use a cargo carrier to put that gear on the outside, or if we want to take a bike ride, hit the trails, we can put a bike rack in here and we can be on the way.But regardless of what we're going to be using it for, all of our accessories are going to mount to the hitch pin hole here on the side. Our hitch is going to accept a standard half inch pin and clip.

These are not included with the kit, but you can pick them up here etrailer.com along with some locking devices to make sure your accessories are secure.If you are going to be towing a trailer, obviously you need a spot to hook up your safety chains. And here we're going to have a loop style welded to the bottom of the receiver tube. And you can see we have plenty of room to get most sized hooks on or off.You want to make sure your hitch is going to be up to the task and put it to, so as far as the weight ratings go, our hitch is going to have a 350 pound tongue weight, which is going to be the maximum downward force at the end of the receiver tube. It's also going to have a 3,500 pound gross trailer weight rating. That's how much it can pull, including the trailer and everything we have loaded on it.

But you do want to always double check your Subaru's owner's manual because you don't want to exceed the manufacturer's recommended weight.I'd like to give you a few measurements. These are going to help you out whenever you're looking for accessories for your new hitch such as a bike rack or even a cargo carrier. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outermost edge of the bumper is right about two and a half inches. Now this measurement is going to help you out when you're looking at folding accessories to make sure that they can go into the stored upright position and they're not going to come in contact with the rear bumper. From the ground and the inside top edge of the receiver tube opening is going to be right about 16 inches.

Now at that height, that should be enough ground clearance for most bike racks or cargo carriers that we're not going to have to worry about it.But now that we've seen what the hitch looks like and gone over some of the features, let's put it on together. To begin our installation, we want to come to the back of our Subaru and we're going to have to lower our exhaust down. But before we do, we want to put up a support strap so it's not going to hang down too far and cause any damage.So you want to come to right about where the rear axle is, if not forward, and find a solid point to put your support strap up. And then you just want to make sure that it's tight enough that it will support the exhaust. Then we can start working on removing all the hangers that are holding it in place.

The first one is going to be right in front of the rear axle here. We'll have a rubber isolator on that metal hanger, and the main goal here is just to slide one of those off so the exhaust can come down.So to help slide that off, I'm going to spray a little bit of spray lubricant on the hanger, and then I'm going to use a pry bar. I'm going to pry against it until I can get it to come off. Now as we move towards the back of the car, we'll have two rubber hangers on the driver's side. We'll have another one on the passenger side of the muffler. We're going to do the same method. Just spray them down and use a pry bar to slide them off.Once all the hangers are loose, I'm going to loosen up the support strap slowly just so I can let the exhaust come down and we've got a little bit more room to work with above it. If we look at the frame rail, on each side, we're going to have three rubber plugs. We're going to grab a flat blade screwdriver and we're going to pull all of those out.So we're going to come underneath the edge and pry those out. We'll move to the other side and pull the plugs out as well. With all the plugs removed, I'd like to go over the mounting locations for our hitch. On each side of the frame, they're going to be exactly the same. We'll have the large hole towards the front and then the hole at the very back of our frame rail towards the bumper. Those are going to be our two mounting locations and we're going to have to get some hardware in place.Just want to grab our pull wire. We'll take the coiled end and we'll start by feeding it into the furthest hole towards our bumper. We're going to feed it in until we can get it to come back towards the access hole, which is a large hole towards the back. And if you need to you can kind of reach in with your finger. We just want that coiled end of the wire to come out. But you also want to make sure that the tail end is still sticking out of the frame as well.Then we'll grab a square hole spacer block. We'll slide it over our wire, push it into the frame, and then we'll grab a carriage bolt from our kit and we'll thread it onto the end of our wire. We're going to push our bolts in the frame and we'll pull down until the bolt drops down to the frame. You want to leave the pull wire attached for now. It'll make it easier where we don't have to worry about the bolt getting pushed back in.Now for our second piece of hardware, going right here, it's going to be a little bit different. We're still going to use our pull wire. We'll take a square hole spacer box, slide it over the coiled end, and then we'll thread our carriage bolts in place. And then we'll push our bolt in, followed by the block, making sure it goes all the way in the frame. And we're trying to pull back until our bolt comes through and engages that block. Now we're going to repeat the entire process over on the other of the frame as well.Before we put our hitch in place, we're going to have to get one more piece of hardware, except this time it's going to go on the hitch. We have these round hole spacer blocks, and these need to go to the very front, or the furthest away from the receiver tube. These are going to go get sandwiched in between our hitch, so I'm going to use a piece of tape just to lightly hold it in place. You don't have to worry about it falling when we go to put our hitch up. But we're going to put one of these on both sides of our hitch on the furthest forward mounting location.Now with an extra set of hands, we're going to feed our pull wires down through and get our hitch in place. Lift our hitch up and make sure all the bolts come down through the hitch. We'll remove one of our pull wires and we'll take a conical tooth washer, we want to make sure the teeth are facing up towards the hitch, and then we'll take a hex nut and secure it down. You want to get at least one piece of hardware on each side. That way the hitch will hold itself up and we can work on getting the rest of the hardware in place.Once you have all your hardware in place, you're going to want to grab an 11 16ths socket and we'll tighten it all up. Then you want to come back with a torque wrench. We're going to torque all of our hardware down to the specified amount in the instructions. And we're going to repeat that for all of our remaining hardware. And for the bolt on the passenger side, because of the side plate here, it will help if you get an extension and a swivel so you can get in and reach it fully.I'm going to spray a little bit more lubricant on the hangers and the rubber isolators. We can lift our exhaust back up. And we'll slide the rubber isolator back onto the hanger. And we'll do that for each one that we removed earlier. Once that's all back in place, we can remove the strap and that'll finish up your installation and look at the Draw Tite Class II custom fit trailer hitch receiver on our 2019 Subaru Crosstrek.