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

Video Transcript for Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver Installation - 2003 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Today on our 2003 Mercedes Benz E-Class, we're going to be taking a look and showing you how to install the CURT Custom Fit Class 1 Trailer Hitch Receiver, part number C11701. So here's what our hitch looks like fully installed. Going to tuck up nicely behind our bumper and all we're going to see sticking out is the receiver tube and it's not going to distract from our Mercedes. This is a Class 1 hitch so it's going to give us that 1-1/4" by 1-1/4" receiver tube opening and it's going to feature a reinforced collar giving it added strength and a nice clean look. Our hitch is going to use a standard 1/2" pin and clip which are included in the kit. The safety chains are going to be a rolled steel stock style welded to the bottom of the receiver tube. And as you can see, we're not going to have too much trouble getting most sized hooks on or off. Our hitch is going to feature a 250 lb tongue weight along with a 2,500 lb gross trailer weight rating. Now I want to mention you always want to double-check your vehicle's owners manual to make sure that your care can handle pulling that amount of weight.

Also, our manufacturer of the hitch recommends that you use a stabilization strap for any non-trailer loads, such as a bike rack, cargo carrier or anything that doesn't have wheels on it. Now I'd like to give you a few measurements to help you when you're deciding for accessories for your new hitch, such as a bike rack or even a cargo carrier. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outermost edge of the bumper, it's going to be 4-1/2". Now from the ground to the inside top edge of the receiver tube opening it's going to be right about 12-1/4". Now let me go over some of the feature, let's show you how we get it installed. To being our installation, we're going to need to get inside of our trunk because we are going to need to remove our rear fascia. Now we're going to go ahead and pull out the center section here of the carpet of our trunk and we're going to set it aside.

We're going to remove the panel that's above our spare tire, along with our spare tire. Now the foam piece right in front of our spare tire, we're going to pull that out as well. Underneath the foam we're going to have two bolts that are holding this plastic cover in place and we'll be using a 10mm socket to remove it. Now we're not going to pull this cover completely out. We just want to lift up on it and make sure it's loose from the vehicle. Now here on the driver's side of my trunk, where we're going to see the arm that attaches to the trunk lid, we're going to have a plastic fastener right behind it and then if we come up where our trunk meets our windshield, we're going to have one towards the top here also.

We're going to be using a trim panel tool. You're going to go underneath the center section of the plastic fastener and pop that out first which will allow the bottom section of the fastener to come out. Now we're going to repeat that for the other fastener that's back here, as well as on the right side. We're going to have to remove our cargo anchors, one at the very back of our trunk, and then one towards the front. Now I'm going to be using a T-20 TORX bit to remove those bolts. With the left side removed, we're going to remove the right side as well.

Our threshold is going to have to come out. We're going to have three plastic fasteners holding in on each side, one in the center on the flat piece of our threshold, and then two on the inside going towards the top. Now the way we're going to remove them is we're going to take a flathead screwdriver and we're going to pry up, again, on the center section, which that's going to release the tension off of the clip and will allow the whole clip to come out. Now we're going to repeat that for all the remaining clips. We come to the outer edge of our threshold where it comes up, we're going to grab it and slightly start pulling away from our trunk and we're going to need to come to the bank and disconnect the light right here. We're just going to push on this tab and we can disconnect it. We're going to need to do the same thing on the other side as well. With our two outer edges disconnected, we're going to start moving towards the center and pulling away from the trunk with our threshold, so unclip it. We can go ahead and set this aside for now. Now we're going to want to come to the carpet on the side of our fender here and if we pull the carpet away we're also going to notice that there's a small notch in our carpet right where our trunk arm is and we're going to want to slide that around the trunk arm and this plastic piece should pop out from around the carpet and slide down the arm. Now we're going to need to pull both sides away, we're not going to have to fully remove the carpet, we're just going to want to pull it away so we can gain access. Now on the left side of our trunk here, our application doesn't have it, but if you have a CD changer or a big box right here, it's going to be the dynamic seat pump, those are going to have to be removed. You don't have to disconnect everything, but you are going to need to remove the mounts and move them out of the way because we're going to need to bring our attention to these two bolts right here that are right up against our fender. Now I'm going to be using a 10mm socket to remove these two bolts. Now we're going to remove the two bolts on the right side as well. If we come underneath our bumper here, we're going to have a support at the bottom of our fascia that's going to go into our bumper. Now there's going to be a fastener holding it in place and I'm going to be using a 10mm socket to remove it. Each car is going to have two supports, but if you come to the right side on ours, you'll see that it's already broken here. So if yours are broken, you're not going to have to worry about it. But if they are intact, you are going to need to remove both bolts. Inside of our wheel well liner here at the very back of our vehicle, we're going to have a couple of 10mm plastic nuts that are going to be holding it in place, and we're also going to have a couple plastic rivets that we're going to be holding it in. Now it'll be easy with a 10mm socket to remove those nuts. It may be a little bit difficult for you to see just because of where they are. Now we're going to need to remove all the plastic nuts and rivets on the inside of our wheel well liner here that's holding our fascia on. The push pin fasteners we're going to have one on the very bottom corner and if we follow this panel up past the 10mm bolt we removed we're going to have another one right here in the top corner. We're going to do the same thing we have been doing with our push pin fasteners, we're going to come underneath the center of it and pop it out and that's going to release the outer section so we can get the whole plastic fastener out. Once we have this one removed, we're going to remove the top one and on the other side as well. We're going to want to pull the liner back once we have all the fasteners out. And if we look up in here we can see where our fender meets our bumper, we're going to have a fastener holding it in place. Now I'll be using a 10mm socket to remove that fastener. Now that we have that bolt removed, we're going to go to the other side and remove the other one as well. Come back to the inside of our trunk here, right at the corner of our taillights, if we come in, we're going to find a nut holding it in. Now we're going to need to remove that and I'm going to be using a 10mm socket. Now we're also going to need to remove the one on the passenger side as well. If we go right below our trunk latch on the inside of our trunk, we're going to have two more 10mm fasteners on either side. Now we're going to remove those as well. You're going to want to verify that your fascia is free from the vehicle and we can do that by coming to the side and making sure that there's a slight gap in between our fender and our fascia. Now with an extra set of hands we're going to remove our fascia and we're going to pull slightly outward and then we're going to pull straight back and the fascia comes right off. Now we're going to set this aside so it won't get damaged. With an extra set of hands, we're going to put our hitch in place and we're going to take it and we're going to have it straddle around the tube of our bumper here. With the hitch straddled around the tube, we're going to take our U-bolts and we're going to go around the tube and we're going to line it up with the holes in the bottom of our hitch here and then we're going to secure them down with some 3/8" flange nuts. Now I'm only going to get these on hand tight for now, just so I can get the rest of my hardware in place, then I don't need to worry about my hitch falling. Using a 9/16" socket I'm going to come back and snug up all my nuts holding my U-bolts in place. Now I do want to mention, you want to alternate or do kind of a star pattern so you don't get a binding when you start tightening everything up. We'll repeat that for the other side as well. We're going to have one more attachment point on our hitch. We're going to need to drill a couple holes right here where this tab is and on the other side as well. But since our exhaust is in the way, we're going to go ahead and lower it down just a little bit so we can get a better angle and drill our holes straight. I don't want any damage caused to my exhaust, so I'm going to put a strap up that's going to keep it from coming down too far, but just enough so I can have a little bit of room to work with. Now right here is where our hangers are going to be and I'm going to take a little bit of penetrating oil and I'm going to spray it on the rubber hangers and on the post of our hangers so that we can slide them off a little bit easier and we don't have to worry about fighting them. I'm going to do this to both sides. We can just go ahead and slide the rubber off the hanger and allow the exhaust to come down a little bit. The exhaust didn't come down quite as much as I wanted it to and it still didn't give me enough clearance to drill my holes, so I'm going to move farther back and disconnect the hangers farther back. So, again, we're just going to slide the rubber hanger off the post and that'll allow it to come down a little bit more. We're using a smaller drill bit to start out with to make a pilot hole right here and then I'm going to follow it up with a 3/8" drill bit for my final hole. Now I just want to mention, you always want to double-check inside the trunk or behind what you're drilling to make sure that there's nothing that's going to be damaged if you start drilling. On the passenger side, you're going to be extra careful because the battery is right there. Now you may find it a little bit difficult because of the angle, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the inside of my trunk and finish drilling it out the rest of the way. Now going from the outside of our hitch, we're going to take our 3/8" bolts, followed by a 3/8" flat washer and we're going to put it into the inside of our trunk pan. Now on the inside we're going to secure our bolt down with a 3/8" flange nut. When this side is secured, we're going to do this on the other side as well. Now, I'm going to come back with a 9/16" wrench and socket and tighten up my bolt and nut. I'm going to come back and I'm going to torque all my hardware down to the specified amount in the instructions. With our hitch torqued down, we can go ahead and lift our exhaust and put it back into place. With an extra set of hands we'll put our fascia back in place. You want to line up the tabs on the sides and they're going to slide into place. But you also want to make sure that the center piece here goes over our metal bumper beam. With the fascia put in place, I'm going to secure it down using the bolts and the nuts that we took off from the inside. That way I don't have to worry about it falling off or causing any damage. Now we're just going to start working on putting all the panels that we took off back in place. Now we can go ahead and put our spare tire back and start to put all our truck panels back in place. Finally, we can put our floor covering back in. You want to make sure that you hook the backend in so it'll stay in place. That'll finish up our look at the CURT Class 1 Custom Fit Trailer Hitch Receiver, part number C11701 on our 2003 Mercedes Benz E-Class.