Trailer Hitch Installation - 2011 Toyota RAV4 - Curt

How to Install a Trailer Hitch on a 2011 Toyota RAV4

Today on this 2011 Toyota Rav-4 were going to install part number 13509 from Curt. This is what the hitch looks like when its installed on the vehicle. Next, well give you some measurements that will help you out in selecting some accessories such as a ball mount, a bicycle rack or a cargo carrier. From the top of the receiver opening down to the ground is going to be 13-1/2 inches. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outside edge of the spare tire carrier is going to be about 6-1/2 inches. Now well go ahead and show you how the hitch is installed.

The first thing were going to do is get underneath the vehicle and well go ahead and show you where the attachment points are. The attachments points are going to be threaded fittings inside the frame or weld nuts. On the drivers side we have to remove the factory tie down hook. There will be two bolts that we have to remove. To begin our install well go ahead and remove the tape covering the weld nuts.

For the bracket therell be a fitting thats covered with some tape. On the passengers side therell be two holes as well that are covered up with tape. Sometimes the stickers are easy to peel off and sometimes not. In this case we use a scraper to help get things started. Then well go ahead and remove the bracket on the drivers side.

Now well go ahead and clean up the threads. Were going to spray it down with some lubricant and then use the tube brush to help clean up the threads just to make sure we dont have any dirt and debris in the side. This will be part number 814092. Now to make things a little easier, you can actually snip off the end of the handle of that tube brush and put it in your drill and you can use that to clean up the threads. With our threads cleaned out, with an extra set of hands we can go ahead and install the hitch.

Now our hardware will consist of the bolt and the conical toothed washer. Make sure the teeth on the conical toothed washer are always facing towards the hitch as shown here. Well go ahead and put the hitch up and install the hardware. Once all four bolts are installed well go ahead and tighten them down and then torque the bolts down as specified in the instructions. With that our hitch is already installed. That will finish it for part number 13509 from Curt on our 2011 Toyota Rav-4.