Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver with Standard Drawbar - Custom Fit - Class I - 1-1/4"

Video Transcript for Trailer Hitch Installation - 2004 Mazda 3 - Curt

Today on our 2004 Mazda 3 5-door we're going to be installing the CURT trailer hitch receiver, part number C11386. Now here's what our hitch looks like installed on our vehicle. Now we'll go ahead and give you a couple measurements in helping you chose some accessories for your hitch, such as a ball mount, a bike rack, or a cargo carrier. From the center of the hitch pinhole to the outermost edge of the bumper is approximately 4". From the top of the opening in the receiver to the ground is approximately 10-1/2". Now let's go ahead and install our hitch. Now let's begin by pointing out our mounting locations.

We'll begin over here on the driver side. We'll be using this hole right here as well as this hole right here. Over here on the passenger side it will be the same two locations. Now all four of these locations will need to be drilled out to a 1/2" diameter using a 1/2" drill bit. Now in order to gain access to these two holes, as well as to put our hitch up later, we're going to need to remove these two push fasteners, one here and then one right here over on the driver side.

To do that we'll just take a small flat head screwdriver, slide it in so that it opens up the push fastener, and then either use a trim panel removal tool or you can use another flat head screwdriver to work the center of the push fastener out. We'll also go ahead and remove the Phillips-head screw that's right here that will allow this to bend up out of the way so we can put our drill up here and drill out this hole. Now that we've got the passenger side side completed we'll go ahead and move over to the driver side and repeat the same process. Now that we have all four of our holes enlarged to the 1/2" size we're going to go ahead and put the two little Phillips-head screws back into the plastic tabs here that hold the lower fascia into position. Push fasteners will go back in once we install the hitch. Now here's the hardware that we'll be using to attach our hitch to the vehicle. We'll be using a 7/16 carriage bolt, square hole spacer block, and a 7/16 flange nut.

Now to get the carriage bolt and the square hole spacer block into the vehicle's frame we'll be using a fish wire or a pull wire to do that. We'll be using the same hardware at all four locations. Now we'll go ahead and start over here on the passenger side. We'll take the coiled end of our fish wire, go through the hole, and pull it out the end of the bumper. We'll then take our square hole spacer, feed it onto the fish wire, followed by threading on of the carriage bolt.

Then slide both of them into the end of the bumper, where we'll pull them out the hole we just drilled. Go ahead and repeat this same process at the other three mounting locations. Now that we've completed the passenger side installation we'll go ahead and repeat the same process over on the driver side, with the exception that we'll leave the fish wire attached to the carriage bolt that comes out the side of the vehicle's frame. Now we've gone ahead and gotten another pull wire for the passenger side here. It will make things a lot easier if you can have a pull wire on both of these bolts right here because you can simply push it back into the frame like that. Then as you're raising the hitch up into position you'll feed it through the hole in the hitch and then pull the bolt into position on both sides. The additional fish wire that we're going to be using is part number C58410. Now it's a good idea to get an extra set of hands to help you raise the hitch up into position. Now as you raise the hitch up into position you'll pull the pull wire through each of the side mounting locations. Once the hitch is up into position, being careful that you don't push the bolts back through that are in the bumper itself, go ahead and pull your bolts through on each side. Then you can remove the fish wire from each side and then install one of the flange nuts hand tight. Once each of these flange nuts are on we'll go ahead and move to the two center locations where we'll add our flange nuts there as well. Now that all the hardware is loosely installed we'll go ahead and tighten it down and then torque it to the manufacturer's specification. Now with our hitch torqued down to the manufacturer's specification, we can go ahead and put our two push fasteners back in. That will do it for the installation of the CURT trailer hitch receiver, part number C11386, on our 2004 Mazda 3 5-door. .