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

Video Transcript for Trailer Hitch Installation - 2009 Toyota Matrix - Curt

Speaker 1: Today on our 2009 Toyota Matrix we'll be having a look at and installing the CURT Class 2 trailer hitch receiver, part number C12221. Here's what our hitch looks like installed. As you can see, our hitch is nice and concealed underneath our vehicle. The frame of it is tucked back far enough that you really can't see it unless you're down on the ground looking directly underneath it. You can see our frame here. It's well hidden behind the fascia but you can see it if you're directly on the ground underneath the vehicle.Welded to the bottom of our frame and our receiver tube is our safety chain plate.

It's an angular steel design. If we have larger diameter safety chains, we may need to switch them out to a smaller diameter one so they can easily hook onto our loops right here. At the end of our receiver you find this nice collar that's welded on to give it a nice finished appearance and to help improve the strength on it a little bit. On the side of our receiver you'll find our industry-standard 1/2" diameter hitch pin hole to secure any of our hitch-mounted accessories that we may have.This hitch features a 250 pound max gross tongue weight rating. That is the amount of force pushing down.

And a 2,500 pound max gross trailer weight rating, which is the amount that we can pull. We'll want to consult with the owner's manual of our Toyota Matrix and not exceed the limits that the vehicle is rated for. We don't want to cause damage to the hitch or the vehicle itself.Now what I like about this hitch compared to others on the market is it does offer us more clearance around our Class 2 1-1/4" receiver opening than we get with some of the other hitches. This makes it an ideal hitch to use with bike racks or cargo carriers. Now for using this hitch for a non-trailer application such as with a bike rack or a cargo carrier, CURT does require the use of a stabilization strap to help support the load.

We have those available on our website if you need to purchase one.Now for a few measurements to better assist you in choosing any hitch-mounted accessory you may need, such as a ball mount, bike rack, or a cargo carrier. You're looking at about 10-1/2" from the ground to the top of the receiver opening and about 4" from the center of the hitch pin hole to the rearmost part of the back bumper. Now that we've gone over some features, we'll show you how to get it installed.The first thing we want to do is identify where our hardware attachment points are on our vehicle. If we look at one of our frame rails we can find our attachment points. Both frame rails on our vehicle are the same on both sides.

We have three weld nuts: one, two, and three. We'll be using the two weld nuts that are closest to the rear of the frame rail. Now it's a good idea to clean out your weld nuts before you start. You can spray in some lubricant. We have a wire brush which we have available on our website as part number 814092. We'll run it in and out a couple times, and that will help loosen up any dirt, debris, or rust that's inside, which will make it difficult for your bolts to thread in and out.From this point forward, everything that we do on one side we'll repeat on the other side. Here's our hardware we'll be using to attach our hitch. We have a bolt and a conical tooth washer. Slide the washer onto the bolt, making sure the teeth will face up towards the hitch. All four of our attachment points use the exact same bolts.Now with an extra set of hands we'll raise our hitch on up over our exhaust. Hold it in position over our weld nuts. With our hitch in place under our weld nuts we'll secure it into place with our hardware. With our hitch in place we'll tighten down our hardware now. With all of our hardware tightened, we'll now torque it to the specifications found in the instructions. That completes our look at and installation of the CURT Class 2 trailer hitch receiver, part number C12221, on our 2009 Toyota Matrix.