etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Matte Black Finish - Class III - 2"

Video Transcript for etrailer.com Trailer Hitch Installation - 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Hi there, Cherokee owners. Today in our 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee, we're going to be taking a look at, and showing you how to install etrailer.com's Class III 2" Trailer Hitch Receiver. And this is what our hitch looks like when it's installed. You are going to be able to see the cross tube, but it's tucked up pretty well underneath the bumper so it's not too visible from your normal standing heights. It's a class III, two-inch by two-inch receiver, so it's going to be great for all of your towing needs. Whether you're going to be hooking up a trailer to it, hooking up jet ski trailers, boats, bike racks, or a cargo carrier, it's going to be able to handle just about anything.It uses a five-eighths-inch hitch pin and clip.

Now one doesn't come included with the hitch, but you can pick one up here etrailer.com. It features plate style safety chain loops, and they've got a medium size opening on them that should be able to accommodate just about every shape, size, and style of safety chain.It features a 600-pound tongue weight, and that's the force going down on top of your receiver. That's going to be more than enough for a four bike rack loaded up with four bikes or a cargo carrier fully loaded up to capacity as well as your medium-size trailers. If features a 6,000-pound gross towing capacity, and that's how much you can pull behind it. And this will be more than enough for your medium-size campers.

When using a weight distribution system, the tongue weight is going to increase the 750 pounds, and your gross towing capacity is going to increase to 7,500 pounds. As always, I recommend that you verify in your vehicle's owner's manual and ensure you don't exceed any of its towing capacities.Now I've got some measurements for you to help you when deciding on accessories. From the center of the hitch pinhole to the edge of the rear bumper, it measures about five inches. This is important when determining if any of your folding accessories can be placed in the upright storage position without contacting the bumper. And from the ground to the top, inside edge of the receiver tube, it measures about 14-and-a-half inches.

This is important when determining if you need to drop, rise, or raise shank on any of your accessories.Now that we've gone over some of the features, let's go through the installation together so you can have the confidence to do that at home. We'll begin our installation under the vehicle by removing any tow hooks if they're present. We don't have any on ours, so we're going to move on past that, and we're going to remove the bolts located in our frame on the inside. There's going to be three on each side. We're going to remove all three of those on each side with a 21mm socket,And we're going to do that on the other side as well.

Make sure to leave the lower bolt in place as your bumper beam back here. These are the bolts that hold it in. So if you take out this last bolt, this could potentially come loose and they might get out of alignment, making it difficult to get your hardware reinstalled.Now with an extra set of hands, we're going to lift our hitch into position, lining up the holes in our hitch with the holes in our frame, and then we'll use the hardware that we removed and just re-install it. Now we did remove three bolts on side. We're only going to be able to re-install two as that third one here is going to be covered up by our hitch. Once you've got a bolt started on each side, the hitch will hold itself up, making it easier to install the rest of your hardware. We can then go back and tighten down all of our hardware. We can then go back and torque down all of our hardware to the specifications found in our instructions.And that completes our installation of etrailer.com's Class III 2" Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee.