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

Video Transcript for etrailer Class III Trailer Hitch Installation - 2018 Infiniti QX60

Hey everybody, how's it going today We're gonna be going over and showing you how to install the etrailer trailer hitch receiver here on a 2018 Infiniti QX 60. So this is what our trailer hitch is gonna look like installed on our vehicle. Now, this trailer hitch does have a hidden cross tube design meaning the cross tube is actually gonna be tucked up behind the bumper here making for the best overall appearance. And what we can see has a nice matte black powder coated finish. So it's gonna help protect the hitch from rust and corrosion. It also helps it blend in with the underbody paneling on the vehicle here.

So adding a trailer hitch to your QX 60 it's gonna be an excellent option because it's gonna make your vehicle that much more versatile. Now, in addition to towing we could also use this trailer hitch for a hitch mounted bike rack if we wanted to hit the trails or a hitch mounted cargo carrier, if we just simply wanted to free up some space inside the vehicle for us and the family on those long road trips. In regards to towing our trailer hitch is gonna provide us with a 4,000 pound gross trailer weight rating. That's the amount we can pull outward on our fully loaded trailer. It also has a 600 pound tongue weight rating which is a downward force on the receiver tube.

Now keep in mind, these capacities are for the hitch only which is actually tested separately, the vehicle. Therefore you do need to verify your vehicle's towing capacity in your owner's manual and abide by the lower of the two rated components, whether that's the hitch or the vehicle. On the side of our receiver tube we're gonna have our industry standard 5/8 inch diameter hitch pin hole. It's gonna work great with our industry standard 5/8 inch diameter hitch pin and clip. Keep in mind your hitch pin and clip is holds separately, doesn't come with the trailer hitch.

And the reason for that is a lot of your aftermarket accessories are actually gonna come with their own, but if you need one, we do have plenty of options here at etrailer. Then welded to the bottom of the receiver tube we have our safety chain loops. Those are gonna work great with both the larger clevis style as well as the smaller S type hooks. So now just a quick couple measurements for you guys. The first one as the distance from the ground to the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening.

You're looking at about 14 and a quarter inches and that'll be useful when you're selecting a ball mount. So you can make sure you get the correct horizon drop to tow your trailer level. Now keep in mind, that's just the baseline measurement. This can vary from vehicle to vehicle. And then we have the distance from the center of the hitch pin hole to the outside edge of the bumper. And you're looking at about four inches there, and that's gonna be useful when you're selecting a folding accessories. That way you can make sure that while they're in the folded up and stowed position, they don't contact the vehicle. Now in regards to installation this is very straightforward. It's definitely someone with little to no mechanical experience can do at home by their selves and around an hour depending on your experience level. It doesn't require any specialized tools or anything like that. There is one tool you're gonna need, you might not have and that's a torque wrench, but you can actually rent this for free from most local auto parts stores. Now you will see us lift the vehicle up in the air but you guys certainly don't have to do this. You can still do this on the ground at home. Let's go ahead and walk you through the entire process step by step now. The first step of our installation today is underneath the vehicle over here on the driver's side frame rail. We're gonna be removing our tow hook here. So there's gonna be two bolts holding it on the bottom and then two on the side at the top there. We'll remove these with an 18 millimeter socket. Now keep in mind the tow hook and the hardware are not gonna be reinstalled on the vehicle, but don't worry. You can use your trailer hitch for vehicle recovery. Next, we need to temporarily remove our spare tire but we will be placing it back into position. So in order to do this, you're gonna open up the hatch, lift open the floor covering, and inside here there's gonna be a cap you remove which is gonna reveal a hex head. That's gonna allow us to operate the wench to lower our spare tire. Now, if you need further assistance with this be sure to reference your owner's manual. The tools that you need for this should be located inside your vehicle as well. So next we need to remove the fasteners that are holding the bottom of the fascia to our fascia, your support tab. So there's just gonna be a pushpin fastener one on either side, they're pretty easy to get out. You can use either a combination of a trim panel tool or a Flathead screwdriver. So you're just gonna be prying out the center section there. Sometimes it can be a little bit harder than others to release it. And then once you get that center section out the rest should come out with it. So sometimes they fight you a little bit but we're able to get this one out. We'll just do that same thing on the other side. And you can see now we can pull down on our fascia. Going to be unbolting those brackets from the vehicle there. There's just a single bolt up top attaching it to the bumper beam. We'll use a 12 millimeter socket to get that out. Now, next thing we need to do is we need to trim a small section of our bottom bumper fascia. here. You can see it's very minor. And the easiest way to do that is to measure from a reference point on one side all the way across and then you'll divide that by two. Make a mark for your center line. And then you're gonna measure out a few inches on either side and then a few inches on top. The exact amount is gonna be specified in your instructions but once we get that area marked out here we're gonna be taking a Dremel tool to remove the material. Now you can use a number of different tools as plastic isn't super heavy duty. So if you have some shears or even a razor blade knife you can score that and then break it off. So there's a number of different tools you can use. The best tool's a Dremel but if you don't have one, there's plenty of others. So let's go ahead and take some time now to remove that material. So now that we have the material removed I'm gonna go ahead and take off my tape there. And you guys really don't have to do that. I just do that so I can give you guys a greater visual of what we're gonna be removing. So you can see there's some rough edges here and we can easily clean that up with a razor knife or if you just take a file, some sandpaper, again there's tons of different tools you can use to complete these next few steps here. Just use whichever ones you have at hand. I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy something just for this. We're just gonna take a little bit more time here; clean up those edges for a nice, smooth finish. We're gonna turn our attention to the attachment holes underneath the vehicle. We're gonna gonna have three on either side. It's these three weld nuts closest to the inside of the frame here. So we're gonna make sure these are nice and clean. And the best way to do that is to spray some spray lubricant in there, and then come back with a wire brush and just get all the dirt and gunk out of there. And once I do that, I'm gonna take one of the factory hardware that comes in your kit and we're gonna try threading that into those weld nuts. And if it threads in cleanly you don't have to do any more cleaning but if you have some resistance, it's a good idea to go back and spray some more lubricant in there and use the wire brush a little bit more. Now in extreme cases, it could actually require a tap. That's just really gonna depend on how old your vehicle is though. You do need to be careful when you're using that so you don't cross thread the holes. We've got all of our weld that's clean, so now we're gonna go ahead and prep our hardware. So we're gonna have three hex bolts per side along with three conical tooth washers. So the only thing you wanna make sure of is that the teeth on the conical tooth washer are facing up towards the hitch. Now with an extra set of hands we can raise our hitch up into position. You do have to come up and over the exhaust on the passenger side first. So now that we have our hitch installed with all of our hardware in place, we'll come back with a 19 millimeter socket and we'll snug everything down. And now we'll come back with our torque wrench here and torque all of our fasteners down to the specifications in our instructions. Next we're gonna be reinstalling our fascia support tabs and raising our spare tire back up into position. And that's gonna do it today for our look at installation of the etrailer trailer hitch receiver here on our 2018 Infiniti QX 60..