Video Transcript for How to Install: TorkLift SuperHitch Original Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2009 Chevrolet Silverado

Today, on 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, we'll be installing the TorkLift SuperHitch Original Trailer Hitch Receiver, Class V with Dual 2" Receivers, Part No. TLC1206. Here's what your hitch looks like once it's installed. As you can see, it only hangs down a little bit below the bumper, almost in the same position as the factory hitch was. It utilizes most of the same attachment points as the factory hitch, just a couple more additional bolts added. There is no additional drilling required on this hitch to install it.

It is a direct bolt-on installation, no welding or anything like that required. This hitch has a 17,000 pound max trailer weight rating, and a 1,700 pound max tongue weight rating. If you step up to weight distribution, the max trailer weight rating increases to 20,000 pounds, and the max tongue weight rating increases to 2,000 pounds. Obviously, you want to consult with the owner's manual of the vehicle to see what it's actually capable of towing. You don't want to exceed those numbers and cause damage to your vehicle. As you can see, this hitch is unlike most hitches out there in the fact that there are two 2" receivers on top of each other. What this will allow you to do, say you want to two your trailer on the bottom one, not a problem.

You can still use the top one to carry your cargo rack or your bike rack. You can also attach an extension to both of them so you can two your trailer if you have a truck bed camper inside your truck. The hitch has holes in the side of it to utilize with camper tie-downs. This hitch has a very nice powder coat finish that is textured, so it will provide us with many years of rust-free and corrosion-free service. Even the smallest diameter safety chain should still fit in here just fine. It is a very solid construction here.

As you can see, there are two plates that are welded together to provide extra strength on it. Now for a few measurements to help choose any hitch extension or other hitch-mounted accessory you may need, such as a ball mount, bike carrier, or cargo rack. You're looking about 2 1/2" from the center of the 5/8" diameter hitch pin holes to the rear-most point in the back bumper, and 20" from the ground to the top of the 2" receiver opening on the bottom, and about 23" from the ground to the top of the upper 2" receiver hitch opening. As you can see here, our Silverado that we have today, already has a factory hitch installed on it, so we're going to have to remove that in order to install the TorkLift SuperHitch. Let's go ahead and get the vehicle up in the air, and let's start removing it. Now on the side of the factory receiver, there's two bolts on either side that go straight up. We'll start by removing those.

Now there's three nuts and bolts on either side. There's two nuts right here, and one bolt here in the back, so we'll start by removing these two. You'll need to use a wrench on the top of the ones that have nuts, to keep the stud from spinning. Get that wrench in place. Take the nut out. Do the same for the other one. Now we'll go to the other side and repeat the same process. Now before we take all the bolts off on the other side, you may want to have a stand or something in place to support the hitch, because it is awful heavy and you don't want it to fall on you. Now I have someone over here, holding the side off while I remove the last bolt. The other side is still supported. Now we'll take the factory bolt that we removed from the rear hole of our hitch, we'll take this bracket on the passenger side . Notice that the bracket will face towards the center of the vehicle, right here . raise it into position and we'll loosely install this one bolt, just to hold it in place. We'll do the same on the other side. Now we'll take one of our 1/2" bolts here and one of these plate washers, put the bolt through it. Go through the forward hole in the frame. We'll take two of the 1/2" washers, one of the 1/2" lock washers, and one of the nuts. We'll push the hitch on up, put the flat washers on, and the lock washer, and we'll start the nut. Again, we're leaving everything loose, for the time being, so we can actually slide the crossbar of the hitch, itself, into place. Okay, it's very important that we have at least five bolts per side to hold the hitch up. Right now, we have five bolts on this side. There is another spot here, but we won't be able to get the flat washers in position, so we're not going worry about that one, since we do have five. We'll repeat the process on the other side, now. Okay. All right, now before we raise our hitch into position, we need to loosen the spare tire slightly, just so we can push it forward to have room to get our hitch in. That will give us plenty of room, right there. Now, with our spare tire loosened, we'll have two assistants help raise the hitch into position, and we'll drive our hardware in from the outside. Got it started on each side. The hardware that we're using are these spline bolts here. Now that we have two in on each side, we'll take a 1/2" lock washer, again, and a nut. Loosely install these. We'll do the same for the other two, the other bolts on the other side. Then we'll draw the two other bolts in to it. inaudible 00:07:53. Now that we have all of our hardware installed, we'll start by tightening these up a little bit. Then we'll torque them down to the manufacturer's specifications, found in the instructions. I'm just going to start to finger tighten these bolts that we had loose before, just to make our life a little bit easier when we go to tighten everything up for the final pass up top. We'll start with the two factory bolts, first, on either side. Now we use a wrench to hold the bolts that we added, on the top. Now, with the frame bolts tightened up, we'll torque them down to manufacturer's specification. Okay. For the factory bolt, you do not need a wrench to hold it in place, because it has a weld nut on the frame. With our hitch all torqued down, now, we can raise back up our spare tire. That completes our installation of the TorkLift SuperHitch Original Trailer Hitch Receiver, Class V with Dual 2" Receivers, Part No. TLC1206, on our 2009 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD.