Trailer Hitch Installation - 2004 Honda Pilot
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How to Install a Trailer Hitch on a 2004 Honda Pilot
Today on this 2004 Honda Pilot we are gong to be installing Curt hitch part number 13328. We are underneath the vehicle, and we need to do a few things in preparation before we can get started installing our trailer hitch. The first thing we are going to do is lower our spare tire and get it out of the way. Next over here on the passenger side we need to go ahead and lower the exhaust down, it will give us a little more working room. :21
There are three hangers here at the rear that are holding the exhaust in position. Two here on the inboard side and one here on the outboard side. To lower the exhaust off its hangers what we are going to do is take a spray lubricant, like a WD-40, and spray down the studs of t he exhaust hanger. Then we can take either a pair of pliers or a pry bar and separate the rubber hanger from the stud. We want to repeat that for all three hangers, but before we remove them we want to make sure we put a support strap across the front exhaust tube because when you remove the three hangers the exhaust could fall and damage your system. :56
With the exhaust lowered we are taking a look at the driver side frame rail. You can see over here we have a factory installed tow hook, we are going to need to remove this. There are three bolts holding it into position. Those are going to provide our three attaching points over here on the driver side frame rail. Over here on the passenger side we are going to be using the same three weld nuts, you can see there is nothing in position here, the weld nuts are exposed. And then we have two final attachment points here at the backside of the bumper. With our mounting holes pointed out, I am coming over to the passenger side of the vehicle where we had the exposed weld nuts on the frame. Any vehicle that has seen at least one winter is going to have some rust and road grime built up into these weld nuts. As well as the weld nuts in the center of the vehicle. If that is the case, you want to thoroughly clean those out before you attempt to put your bolts in. To do that, we are going to use a spray lubricant, like a WD-40. We just want to spray those threads down and take a wire brush and run that into the weld nuts a few times, you may need to do this a couple of times per weld nut. It is a good idea to do a test fit with your bolts before you put the hitch up in position. 2:10
Now that we have all the weld nuts thoroughly cleaned out, we can go ahead and put our hitch up in position. We just want to make sure over here on the passenger side we go up and over the exhaust, into the passenger side weld nuts, as well as on the driver side weld nuts we are gong to be using the 12 millimeter bolts along with the conical tooth washers. At the center attaching point, at the back of the bumper we are going to be using the 10 millimeter bolts along with a conical tooth washer. If you notice when putting the bolts on the back side of the bumper that your tab here a little bit of flex to it, or you have a little bit of space here. That is okay because when you tighten these bolts down this tab will flex towards and mount flat with the bumper. Now that we have all our bolts tightened down we are going to go back through and torque them down. You want to check with the directions to verify the appropriate torque rating for each individual bolt. You can see now that I have the bolts here on the bumper torqued down that our hitch is now flat against the bumper. With the bolts torqued down we want to make sure we put our exhaust back up on its hangers and our spare tire back up in position and our installation will be complete. 3:23
Now with our hitch installed we are going to give you a couple of final dimensions that will help make choosing your hitch accessories a little bit easier. From the top of the receiver tube opening to the ground is going to be approximately 16-3/8 inches. From the center of the hitch pin hole to clear the rear edge of the bumper is going to be approximately 5-1/2 inches. This will conclude the installation of Curt hitch part number 13328 on this 2004 Honda Pilot.
Info for this part was:
Test Fit:
Joe V
Test Fit:
Nicholas E
Video Edited:
Zack K
Video Edited:
Dustin K
Video Edited:
Chris R
Video by:
Andrew K
Video by:
Joshua S
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