Curt Class III Trailer Hitch Installation - 2023 Hyundai Tucson

Products Featured in this Video

Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Class III - 2"

243 reviews

Code: C94WR

Price:  $232.83

• Trailer Hitch
• Custom Fit Hitch
• Class III
• 525 lbs TW
• 3500 lbs GTW

• 2 Inch Hitch
• Concealed Cross Tube
• CURT

This fully welded trailer hitch receiver bolts onto your vehicle's frame with no welding required. Powder coated steel is sturdy and corrosion resistant.

Do you have a question about part C94WR?more information >     

How to Install the Curt Class III Trailer Hitch on a 2023 Hyundai Tucson

Hello neighbors, it's Brad here at etrailer and today we're taking a look and installing the CURT Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2023 Hyundai Tucson. Now this is what it's gonna look like when it's installed and it's a great looking hitch because it's a hidden cross tube meaning the only thing that you're really gonna see hanging down from the bottom of your vehicle is going to be the receiver tube opening. So you get all the usability and having the rest of it hidden just kind of maintains that nice clean OEM look. And there's other hitches available for this. There's an etrailer hitch as well as the Draw-Tite and they're gonna install just about the same. They're gonna be hidden cross tubes so really you can't go wrong with any of them.

But something I will point out is this one has a gloss black powder coat finish and that's gonna hold up to any of that road grime. And the same with the Draw-Tite. And the e-trailers is kind of nice 'cause it's got a matte black finish and I really like that because it's a little cleaner look, it's a little less noticeable and it also it holds up to scratches just a little bit better. So with whatever hitch you go with they're all gonna be about the same and kind of up to you what you're looking for. You need two inch by two inch receiver tube opening means that you're gonna have tons of options available for ball mounts, bike racks, and cargo carriers as this is the most common that you're gonna find on hitches on vehicles.

Now all of your accessories are gonna stay in place with a 5/8 pin and clip. And this is not included with the hitch. So when choosing accessories, a lot of 'em will come with one already included so keep that in mind. But if you wanna pick up a locking one it's really nice to be able to have that. You can leave your accessories loaded in place, locked in and no one can walk away with them.

We have plenty of options available here at e-trailer. With a rolled style safety chain loop here makes it easy if you're planning on towing a trailer to get your standard S style hooks or even a larger clevis style goes on nice and easy. Now if you do plan on towing a trailer or even just loading up any cargo carriers or bike racks, you wanna make sure that you're not going over the weight capacities of the hitch as well as the vehicle. So check the vehicle's owner's manual to see what it's capable of. And then also adhere to the weights on the hitch.

You're gonna wanna take the lowest of those numbers. Now this one has a gross trailer weight rating of 3,500 pounds, which is gonna be the weight of the trailer plus the accessories loaded onto it. So it's not a bad little weight there. As far as tongue weight and this is pretty good at 525 pounds that's gonna allow you to put a cargo carrier or bike rack on here, even a four bike bike rack loaded up and you shouldn't have any problems with that. So it's really nice to be able to get some usability out of the hitch with those numbers. I'm gonna give you a few quick measurements and that way you can choose accessories that are gonna work well with your Tucson. And when it comes to folding accessories like cargo carriers or bike racks sometimes they can make contact with the fascia without actually being able to go in the upright position. And also when choosing a ball mount, you wanna make sure that it sticks out far enough to be able to put the coupler of the trailer on here without hitting your bumper as well. You're gonna wanna look at the center of the hitch pin and the furthest point of your rear fascia is 4 inches so choose accordingly your accessories with that. Now as far as your ground clearance this one comes in at 15 inches which is pretty good and you shouldn't have any issues with your accessories hitting in the ground. But also keep in mind as you go up an incline those are gonna want to tilt towards the ground. So just keep that in mind when driving with those loaded. This is also important to determine if you need a rise or a drop for a ball mount so you can measure your coupler on your trailer and then figure out the difference. That way you can choose the right rise or drop. Now as far as installation goes, this one's pretty simple and you can definitely do this in your driveway or garage in probably about 30 to 40 minutes and I'm gonna walk you through all those steps to make sure you get yours installed. So let's take a look at that. Now to begin our installation we are gonna be removing this center panel here and it's not gonna get reinstalled and that's gonna allow for the hitch to actually have a place to go. And in order to get this off I'm gonna be using a trim panel tool. If you don't have one of these you can use a flathead screwdriver and we'll come to our plastic push pins. There's gonna be a total of four of these. And to get these removed, pretty easy there's notches on all four sides of it so that's gonna allow you to get that in, pry that center part out and the rest of it should come with it. If the center part comes out and the back part's still there, not to worry you can still pry that out, but again this is not gonna get reinstalled. So you can keep these for spare if you want to but we will not be putting 'em back up. Now we also have these plastic nuts in these little spots here. It's kind of inset there. Now these you can kind of get with your hands sometimes and that'll come down with it, but being plastic sometimes you wanna put some pressure on it and pull it down as you do that. And if you want to, you can use a 14 millimeter socket as well to loosen those up if you can't get it by hand. But again, putting that pressure on it and kind of pulling down as you do this is gonna make it a little bit easier. And sometimes they'll push back up. If you need to you can also kind of just pry on these and that's also gonna work. And then since this is not gonna be put back up after the hitch installation you can do whatever you want with this. So we'll just set this aside for now. On our passenger side we also have this underbody panel that's gonna be removed. Same way we have two plastic push pins and two of those plastic nuts up top. So go ahead and get this removed and this will be reinstalled later, so keep this handy. (drill grinding) Now on our frame rail here we can see that we have our weld nut and that's gonna be one of our attachment points. And on the outside of the frame rail there's also gonna be two weld nuts that's where we're gonna be attaching. So while we're here, we do want to take off this plug and not that it's sticking out too far but we want that hitch to sit nice and flush against the frame rail once it's tightened. So with a flathead you can kind of just pry this out here and we'll be doing the same thing on the other side so go ahead and do that. Before we get our hitch in place you're gonna wanna take a look at your hardware. You have six bolts with a conical tooth washer. These teeth are gonna face into the metal there. Now we have a mounting point that's right here on our weld nut. There's also two of them up here on the outside of the frame. So that's where we're gonna be bolting it up and you do want to check to make sure that your bolts go through nice and easy. If you live in an area where you see salt or road grime quite a bit, these can actually corrode and make it a little bit difficult. So highly suggest running these through just make sure they go in nice and even. And that way these are gonna thread up when you have that hitch up. So if you need to clean 'em out, you can use a tube brush. You may have to get a tap if it gets a little more extreme but hopefully yours are nice and easy. But again, just a nice little helpful tip. That way it makes it easier. Now we're gonna raise our hitch in place and we're gonna raise it up over the exhaust side first. And really what we're gonna try to do is raise this up enough to get our hardware started on each side. Now, we have six bolts and we have conical teeth washers. You want those teeth biting into the hitch. So I suggest getting this bottom one on there first and just get a few threads started and that way it's gonna support itself. And once you have bolt sides in place it's gonna make it easier to get your side bolts in place. All of our hardware hand tightened in place or at least hand threaded in, we're gonna tighten this down and come back with a torque wrench later. So we don't really need to get crazy as far as over tightening, we just wanna snug this up. And I recommend doing the bottom one first that way I can pull the hitch up making it easier to get our side bolts in place. And to accomplish this we're gonna be using a 17 millimeter socket. (drill grinding) To get these torqued in place we're gonna be using a torque wrench and the torque settings found in the instruction manual. Now if you need a torque wrench we have these available here at etrailer. You can generally go to an auto part store and rent one for free. But this is gonna make sure that these are gonna be tight enough for the lifespan of the hitch, but also not too tight putting stress on the weld nuts and the threads of the bolt. With all of our hardware torqued properly with our torque wrench, we can go ahead get our small passenger side panel put back in place. Now with our panel put back in place all that's left to do is start using our hitch. And that was a look and installation of the CURT Trailer Hitch Receiver on our 2023 Hyundai Tucson.