Video Transcript for TowSmart Class II Trailer Hitch Step-By-Step Installation - 2021 Ford Ranger

Hi everyone, Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at and later be showing you how to install this Tow Smart Class three custom fit trailer hitch on our 2021 Ford Ranger. Now if your ranger didn't come with the factory hitch but you're looking to expand its functionality, either being able to tow a trailer or a small camper, maybe even put something like a bike rack in the hitch, a two inch trailer hitch receiver like this is gonna allow you to do that and it's gonna work with most of the accessories out on the market. It's gonna use a standard five eighth inch hitch pin and clip through the side here to secure those accessories. Keep in mind, this doesn't come included with the hitch, but most accessories, like our etrailer ball mounts, do come with one so depending on what you pick up, you shouldn't have to worry about it. Just make sure that it does come with one if you're picking that up alongside your hitch.

You do have these loop style safety chain loops on the side and that's gonna work well for your standard S hooks or your larger clever style hooks here. Now as far as your towing capacities go, your gross trailer weight rating is gonna be 6,000 pounds, that's the weight that this hitch can pull behind it, including the trailer and everything loaded up on it. And it's gonna have a maximum tongue weight rating of 900 pounds. That's maximum downward pressure on the end of the receiver tube here. Now if you're using this in conjunction with a weight distribution system, the tongue weight will remain the same, but it does up your gross trailer weight rating up to 8,000 pounds.

Keep in mind though, that that's just what the hitch is rated for. You always wanna go and check the owner's manual on your ranger and see what it's rated for on its own and just go by the lowest rated component, whether that be the truck or the hitch. Some measurements to watch out for. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the closest point on the bumper here, it's gonna be about three and a half inches. So if you do plan on using this with something like a bike rack that folds up, you can make sure that it's gonna clear.

That's the kind of clearance you have from the center of the hitch pin hole. And from the ground to the top inside edge of the receiver tube here, we're sitting at 18 and a half inches. That's gonna let us know if we are using this with a ball mount, what kind of rise or drop we need to be level with our trailer coupler. Chances are you might need a small drop. Now as far as the installation goes, it's gonna be really straightforward.

All you gotta do is remove a couple of factory bolts and reattach them with the hitch in place. The one thing is those factory bolts are on there very tight and they do have a high torque spec once they get reinstalled. So if you don't have the tools or the desire to mess with that, you can use our dealer locator tool to find an installer near you who can help you get that installed and torqued down properly. But if you are wanting to tackle this yourself, then just follow along and we'll walk you through step by step. And if you decide that this is the right hitch for you and you do end up getting it installed, leave a review or drop a comment on this video and let us know how it's working out for you. Show us what you're using it for and what kind of adventures you're getting on with it. But without further ado, let's get to that install. Now to begin our installation, we wanna look under the vehicle to our bumper beam and find two bolts where it attaches to our frame rail here. We will need to remove these, but to make sure that the bumper support doesn't fall down, we need to clamp it in place. Just off the side there's two tabs, one on the bumper support and one on the frame here that are conveniently right together. So we can take a clamp, sandwich those together and repeat that process on the other side just to make sure that it's held securely. With those secured, we can take a 21 millimeter socket and undo these bolts. I will say these are tight, I broke them loose a little bit off camera, so if you don't have an extra long socket or a breaker bar, you might wanna pick one up and just get all these removed and be careful with them 'cause we will be reusing them. Now these threads are pretty clean on ours. Our ranger isn't too old at the time of filming, but it may be a good idea to go through with some penetrating oil and a tube brush and just clean them out. For us today, honestly, I think we're just gonna be fine with the tube brush on its own, just getting some of the dirty debris out of there that came out when the bolts we inchesre removed. But you can always just check with the bolts and make sure they thread back in smoothly, which for us they do. And then you can go grab a friend to help you lift the hitch. Now I've got my friend Brad here to help me lift this up into place. We're just gonna take that same factory hardware that we removed, we get some of the holes lined up and insert that by hand. Just get one side on each side so the hitch will support itself in place and we can get the rest in. And we'll just come back through with that same 21 millimeter socket and get everything snugged up before we fully tighten things down with a torque wrench. Now even if you have a torque wrench at home, you may need to go to a local auto parts store and check one out or rent one just because the torque spec on these is pretty high and you'll probably want a big torque wrench to get that accomplished in a reasonable manner. We'll just go through and repeat that process for all the remaining hardware. And of course you'll remember to go back through and remove those clamps so that we don't leave them on the truck. But once you're done with that, that'll do it for our look at and installation of this Tow Smart Class three two inch trailer hitch receiver on our 2021 Ford Ranger. I'm Aiden and thanks for watching.