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

Video Transcript for Trailer Hitch Installation - 2016 Kia Soul - Curt

Today on our 2016 KIA Soul we're going to take a look at and also show you how to install the Curt custom fit class one trailer hitch receiver. Part number is C11419. Here's a good look at what our hitch is going to look like installed and see that cross tube's going to remain hidden all that's really going to leave that with is our inch and a quarter opening, inch and a quarter by inch and a quarter is going to come out right here in the middle, it offers a nice flush looking reinforcement inaudible 00:00:29 around the end and you'll see that's going to be tucked in under our bumper slightly so we don't have to worry about bumping our legs on it or anything like that. Rounded steel stock safety chain connection points going to come around the bottom, should have enough room there to get any kind of chain connected that you might want and then we're going to have a half inch pin hole that's designed to hold all our items in place once we get them in our hitch. Now there's going to be room on each side it looks like to use anti-rattle devices, hitch pin locks, regular hitch pins and clips, I would just avoid anything maybe bigger than the size of a golf ball in diameter. Now when it does come to towing or maybe moving around some cargo carriers or bike racks, a few numbers you want to keep in mind is that the hitch is going to offer a 200 pound ton weight rating, so that's the maximum downward force we can put here at our receiver tube opening, and it offers a 2,000 pound gross trailer weight rating, it's going to be the total weight of our trailer and anything that we we're to load up on it. Of course we want to check the Soul's owners manual see what it's rated for and we'll just go off whichever of those numbers are the lowest. Curt does recommend the use of a stabilization strap anytime we're using something that would be considered a non-wheeled load.

Now a couple measurements that are going to be helpful in selecting your bike rack your hitch cargo carrier, will be from the ground to the inside top edge of our receiver tube opening we've got about 11 inches, then from the center of our hitch pin hole to the outermost edge of our bumper it's about six and a half. Now the first thing we'll need to do for our installation is to lower our exhaust down and give us a little room to work. We just have to remove one hanger it's going to be located right here on the side of the exhaust. Little bit of spray lubricant on it and then a pry bar we should be able to pry that right off. Like that and then that'll just come down and rest out of our way. Now we've got a couple push pin fasteners that we're going to need to remove on each side, one's right here underneath the bottom, we'll just pull the middle part of it out and then that outer section will come.

And then if we go right up our fender, right up here on the inside we're going to have our second one. Now this is going to be located just above our brake line here and just like the other one we want the center to come out then the outside will come then we'll have to Philips screws that we want to remove in the fender lining here and you can see there's one here and one right here just below it. Now a little stubby screwdriver can fit in there, I'm just using a right angle driver ratchet here. With those out of the way we should be able to gently push our fender liner up and back, that's going to give us access to our mounting locations, we have one located right here this is closer to the front of the vehicle and then just a little bit further back. The idea of removing this fender liner is so we have some room to work. Now directly underneath that forward attachment point in the side of the frame we're going to have our third attachment point here, this is on the bottom, now we need to go over to the driver's side and we'll do the exact same thing to remove that fender liner. Now we're going to grab a little bit of spray lubricant and a tube brush and we want to clean all six of our attachment points out.

If you don't have a tube brush this is part number 814092 we just want to make sure we don't have any dirt or any build up in these threads that might make it difficult to get our hitch in position. Now with an extra set of hands we'll get our hitch lifted up into position, we'll guide it up over the exhaust and you remember those break lines that we're over on that side we want to be careful to avoid those. We'll then take our provided hardware, see we've got a conical tooth washer, we want the teeth of that washer to face in towards our hitch and we're going to thread it right into the existing nuts that we just got done cleaning out. Once you've got that started with four or five threads we'll just let our hitch rest there while we start the rest of it. Now the most difficult bolt to get in place is going to be the one right here, have to get it close and then work it in. Now we want a full back on our hitch as far as possible to make sure we've got it set back and then we're ready to snug down our hardware.

Now our bolts are going to require a 17 millimeter socket. Now for your bolt here on the bottom this is probably going to require a wrench that we can get up in there far enough to get on the bolt. Now we'll want to look in our instructions find our torque specifications and get everything torqued down appropriately. Now it's time to put our fender liners back down into position, remember on each one we took out two push pin fasteners and two screws. Now we'll get our exhaust slid back on the hanger and that's all there is to it. Our hitch is ready for use. Now with our exhaust back in place that's going to complete our installation of the Curt custom fit class one trailer hitch receiver, part number C11419 on our 2016 KIA Soul.