Video Transcript for How to Install Your Trailer Mate Class III Trailer Hitch - 2023 Dodge Durango

Hey there, neighbors, it's Kevin here with etrailer, and today we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Trailer Mate trailer hitch receiver here on our 2023 Dodge Durango. Dodge Durango is a great mid-size SUV that actually has quite a bit of room in the back for you to store a lot of stuff, but that doesn't always mean that you can get everything that you want inside of there for all of your trips. So that leaves you with only a couple of options to get some of those larger items out there or just if you're really packing a lot into there to get some more space. And that's kind of just your roof rack, which on our model today, they already have some built-in rails, so they could easily throw on a roof rack on top of this and gain a little bit more space, but they would still need to get a cargo basket or some other kind of attachment to go up there to give them more room to mount up and kind of sit all of those items onto. And then the other option is what our neighbor chose to go with, and that is gonna be a trailer hitch because that's not only gonna give 'em that room for a cargo carrier to haul all that extra gear, but it's also gonna allow them to tow around that bike rack or even pull a small trailer. And with the Trailer Mate today, that is gonna give them quite a bit of capacity here.

So that's gonna come with a two-inch-by-two-inch receiver tube opening, which is pretty much standard for most applications out there. Now, you might find a 1 1/4 inch bike rack in some cases, but a lot of those will typically have some kind of tool that you could put in here, reduce the two inch down to that 1 1/4 and be able to use your bike rack. And if yours doesn't come with that, you can easily pick that up at etrailer as well. Now, when we come down to weight ratings, this is gonna have a 6,000-pound gross towing weight capacity, and that's gonna be our capacity for pulling a trailer. And then for our tongue weight, which is the downward force on the inside edge here on our receiver tube opening, that's gonna be 600 pounds, which is pretty good for a tongue weight capacity.

So you can get a lot of gear on here and really haul a lot. Now, with those attachments on here, you are gonna wanna take account into some of these measurements here. First one being clearance. So we wanna make sure that our shank, or bottom of our bike rack or cargo carrier, is not gonna scrape the ground if we hit a really steep incline or decline. And what we like to see is about 12 inches from the ground up to the top inside edge of our receiver tube.

And with ours, we're getting 13 1/4. So we are above that, we're doing good. We're not gonna need a high-low adapter to try and raise that up a little bit more and give us more clearance. Now, the other thing is, if you have a folding bike rack or folding cargo carrier, when that folds up, there's the potential that it could come into contact with your fascia. So what you're gonna wanna do is measure from the center of your hitch pin hole on that appliance or accessory, and then with our hitch, it looks like we're getting about three, maybe 3 1/4 inches from the center of that hitch pin hole out to the furthest part of the fascia.

So all you gotta do is just take that measurement over to your accessory and just make sure that that folded part doesn't come within that 3 1/4 inches. Now, this is gonna have a hole for a 5/8 hitch pin and clip, which you're gonna need to lock in whatever accessory, whether that's that cargo carrier, bike rack or a ball mount. I highly recommend getting one that is anti-rattle and also locking, so that way you don't have to worry about anybody taking off with your investment. Now, if you are gonna pull a trailer, you're gonna also need trailer wiring, which our neighbor's gonna be getting later on today. But you're also gonna wanna check out how the safety chain loops work with it. So this larger clevis style, probably not something you're gonna be towing that weight class really when it comes to this vehicle. But we can still get it on, there is a little bit of movement out of it. Don't like it so much that way 'cause it kind of binds up. But the standard S hook, that's what you're gonna see on most of your lower-end capacity trailers. That is gonna slide on no problem, not getting really bound up no matter which way I put it. So that's what we like to see. Now we've gone over some of the basics with our hitch, why don't we talk about the install This one, super easy. You can get this done in probably about five minutes. You will wanna lower your spare tire just so that you get a little bit more room to work with in there because you're just gonna be popping out some factory bolts that are already in the frame, which means that that weld nut that's in the frame should pretty much be clear too. A lot of the time when we get hitches where they use the weld nuts in the frame, you usually gotta kind of clean it out. But this one went on perfect, super easy to do in just a couple of minutes, like I said. So while I do feel like you could do this yourself, if you don't want to or maybe you just don't have time to get it put on before you need to go on your trip, definitely feel free to use our dealer locator, and you can enter in your zip code to find a shop near you and get it professionally installed. If you are wanting to do this, but just want a little bit of a walkthrough, stick around and I'll take you through the process. Speaking of our installation, you'll first want to obviously figure out if you have a diesel or non-diesel model. Your diesel models will have a def tank that's gonna be in the way that you'll need to lower. I don't have a diesel model here to show you that. So we're just gonna get right into it here. It's gonna be just simply removing these factory bolts that are on our frame right here, and we're gonna actually be reusing these. And to do so, you're gonna need a 21-millimeter wrench. (metal clanking) And I'm gonna be using a socket wrench on this side. Over on the passenger side, you have the spare tire kind of in the way. So you might want a ratcheting wrench over a socket wrench just so you can get into that tighter space. But really all you gotta do is just kind of break it free. (wrench clacking) And once you do, you can pretty much just get it out by hand. (metal clanking) Now, I've got Matt here, he's gonna help me pop our hitch into place. It is gonna be that simple. We're just gonna push this right up where we took those bolts out of, pop those bolts right back in and then we can torque those down. So get this up in, Matt's probably go in a little bit first just 'cause we got the spare tire in the way. And then just simply, once you get one of these in, you can kinda relax and let that help hold up the weight. And we'll get a second one in. (metal clanking) Now, for the bolts that are closest to the rear, those ones you can easily get, but for the back ones on both sides, you're gonna need to just lower the spare tire a bit. As you can see, I got it behind me. But I've got my front ones or rear ones torqued here. I'm gonna get these back ones. (torque wrench beeping) Check this one. (torque wrench beeping) There we go. Let's go to the other side. (torque wrench beeping) Now, with all of our hardware torqued, our spare tire fully pulled back up, that is gonna do it for the rest of our installation here on the Trailer Mate trailer hitch receiver here on our 2023 Dodge Durango. My name's Kevin, and if you still have some questions about what's gonna be the right trailer hitch for your Dodge Durango or you just need help with the install, definitely 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, and we'd be happy to help you out on your journey.