etrailer | Setting up the Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-c...
Hi there, Mercedes owners. Today on your 2017 Mercedes GLS 450, we're gonna be taking a look at and showing you how to install CURT's Class 3 two-inch trailer hitch receiver. This hitch will secure its accessories with a 5/8 inch hitch pin and clip. Now one doesn't come included with the hitch, but we've got plenty available here at etrailer. And I'd also recommend locking ones so you can protect your investments. On bottom, it has plate style safety chain loops.

It does have a moderate size opening. Our bigger chain here does click on there though without too many problems. I don't know that you can go too much bigger than a chain that size without having some issues but, and of course the smaller ones work with ease as well. This hitch offers a 900 pound tongue weight, which is the force going down on top of our receiver. And with 900 pounds available to you, that should be enough for a four bike platform rack fully loaded up with four bikes, as well as the largest cargo carrier that we have here at etrailer fully loaded up to the max.

It has a 7,500 pound gross towing capacity, which is how much that it can pull behind it. And with 7,500 pounds available, this thing has a ton of options that it could do. You could pull plenty of different size boats with it. Small, medium boats, no problem. Jet skis should be no problem.

If you've got a smaller pop-up camper, that should be no problem. And even some of the medium size campers, like full size, more middle size ones. You should have no problem with those as well. Now, as always, I do recommend you verify in your vehicle's owner's manual and ensure you don't exceed any of its towing capacities. So now I've got some measurements for you to help you when deciding on accessories.

From the center of our hitch pin hole to the edge of our rear bumper, that's about seven inches. So it is tucked under pretty nicely. This is important though, when determining if your accessories can be inserted into the receiver without contacting the bumper and if they can be placed in the upright storage position without contacting the bumper. And from the ground to the top inside edge of our receiver tube, we're right at about 12-1/2 inches. This is important when determining if you need to drop, rise or raise shank on any of your accessories. And since this one does sit so low, I would recommend a raise shank on your accessories. We'll begin our installation here at the back of the vehicle. The rear of our fascia here that's attached from the bottom, we're gonna loosen that up. There's a fastener here and here. We're gonna use our 10 millimeter socket to remove those. All right, so we can pull that back a little bit. Now the attachment that it went to, we're also going to remove that. So right here and here, this is a y shape of bracket that goes up to the center. We're gonna remove that bolt there in the middle. So grab a 10 millimeter wrench or you might be able to fit a socket up in there. It just depends. And go ahead and get that loosened up. And it is just a plastic fastener on here. All right, after the fastener is removed, that piece will slide off and then we can drop it down out of the way. We're not gonna remove the exhaust tips that are located here at the back. There's a fastener on each side of our tip. We'll use a T40 torx to remove those two fasteners. We'll zip that one out and we'll zip this one out and then hold your tip. It shouldn't slide off of there, but it potentially could. So just brace it there. Once you get both fasteners removed, it should slide out towards the rear. It feels like we got a clip we might have to release here. Ah, so it's here at the top. You have to actually push it in just a little bit. So you can pull down to clear those clips and then we can drop it out of there. That was the little clips that was holding in up there. We'll remove the other side the same way. Now we can go ahead and lower our exhaust down. I am gonna take a strap here and I'm hooking it on our sway bar, just on the outside of each side on the outside of the bushing clamps. And then we'll cinch that up there. That's just to support it and then we can use that to lower it down. But we don't wanna lower it too far where it causes any damage to anything. The exhaust is held up by the hangers. You'll have one on each side. Right there, so we're gonna remove those. To take those off, I recommend using some silicone spray and a pry bar. We're gonna spray the hanger to lube it up a little bit to make it slide off of there easier. And then we'll use our pry bar to push the hanger off. There we go. Push that one off, then we'll do the other side