etrailer | Installation: Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2008 Honda Civic

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Speaker 1: Today on our 2008 Honda Civic we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install the Curt class one custom fit trailer hitch receiver, part number C11391. Here's what our hitch is gonna look like, it is gonna sit just right below the bumper and that cross tube is gonna be visible but mainly what we're gonna see is we're gonna see that receiver tube sticking out which is gonna pretty close to flush with out back bumper so we're not gonna have to worry about bumping our knee or our shin when we're walking by.Now it is a class one hitch which means it's gonna give us that inch and a quarter by inch and quarter receiver tube opening and as you can see it's got that nice reinforced collar not only giving it the added strength but also it's just gonna give it an overall clean, finished look to it. Now the way we're gonna attach any of our accessories is gonna be right here to the hitch pin hole here and it's gonna accept a standard half inch pin and clip which are included which is always a nice added bonus.Now as far as the safety chain connection point's go it's gonna be a plate style welded to the bottom and we're gonna have plenty of room to get most sized hooks on or off and the slight off set from the hitch pin hole is gonna be nice because we're not gonna have to worry about any kind of interference if we're using a locking device. Now as far as the weight capacity goes our hitch is gonna feature a 200 pound tongue weight, which is gonna be the maximum force that is gonna be pushing down. It's also gonna have a 2,000 pound gross trailer weight rating which is gonna be the maximum amount that it can pull. Now with all that in mind I do want to mention you always want to double check your vehicle's owner's manual to make sure that you're not gonna exceed the manufacturers weight rating.One thing I do want to mention is that Curt does recommend that you use a stabilization strap anytime that you're towing anything, any non trailer loads, or anything that doesn't have any tires on it such as a cargo carrier or a bike rack.
I'd like to give you a few measurements that's gonna help you when 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 gonna be right about two and a half inches. From the ground to the inside top edge of the receiver tube opening that's gonna be right about 11 and one quarter inches.Now that we've seen what our hitch looks like and gone over some of the features let's show you how to get it installed. To begin our installation we're gonna come to the bottom of our car and over here on the passengers side we're gonna have a muffler and if we look up just right behind the bumper we're gonna have the rubber isolator that's on the hanger and we're gonna need to lower the exhaust down. I'm gonna take a little bit of spray lubricant and I'm gonna spray the hanger down, making it a little bit easier to slide that off.
You grab a pry bar or whatever you have available and the end result is you just want to slide that rubber off of the hanger. Normally I suggest using a strap anytime you lower the exhaust but the control wall here on the back is gonna prevent the muffler from going down any farther and there's no where else that we can put a strap to support it so we're not gonna have to worry about any damage.Now if we move to the center section underneath our vehicle we're gonna have this big plastic appearance panel. Now at the very back we're gonna have two bolts and then if we go to the drivers side we're gonna have another bolt holding it on on the side, we're gonna be using a 10 millimeter socket to remove those. Now the only thing holding our plastic panel in place is gonna be these plastic push pin fasteners, we're gonna have one towards the very back on the drivers side and then two at the very, very back of the panel right at the bumper. You're gonna want to take a flathead screwdriver and if you look closely at these push pins there's gonna be a center section and a little notch and we're gonna try to pop out that center section first.
I'm just gonna take the tension off of the clip and once we have that center section pried out or popped out we can go ahead and remove the outer section. We'll repeat that for the other remaining clips.Now we're gonna set this aside because we are gonna be reinstalling this panel. The panel we took out over on the drivers side where we have that real slight flange where it mounts to the frame this section I marked out that's gonna need to be trimmed just to make just enough room so the hitch ca