Install: etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2018 Subaru Outback Wagon

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Hey everybody, Ryan here at etrailer. Today on our 2018 Subaru Outback we're gonna be showing you how to install the etrailer trailer hitch receiver. But before we get into that why don't we just take a minute, check this out and make sure it's gonna be the right one for you. Putting a trailer hitch on an Outback, makes sense. You know, it looks right at home and that honestly holds true for just about anything you put on here accessory wise, from roof boxes to bike racks to you know if you're hooked up to a trailer and so on. And so if it we're me, I'd want a hitch that would be able to do just about anything you throw at it.

And this one here is gonna allow you to do just that. And that's really in part, due to the clearances that it's gonna give us. So where the hitch is gonna be positioned as well as some of the capacities and what it's gonna be able to handle. This is gonna be a class three hitch that has a two inch by two inch receiver tube opening. Super common size, ton of different things are gonna work with it.

And it's gonna use your standard five eights pin and clip. A pin and clip doesn't come with it. Not really a big deal though. If you need one you can grab it here at etrailer. A lot of times if you end up picking up a new accessory, one will come with it.

So, just look out for that. These safety chain openings are gonna be a loop style and give us more than enough space to use pretty much any size hook that our trailer might have on it. The hitch is gonna have some good weight capacities and matter of fact, it's right on par with all the other class three hitches available. With that said, it's gonna have a 600 pound maximum gross tongue weight rating. That's the amount of weight pushing down on the hitch and you'll be able to use just about any size bike rack or cargo carrier that you'd want to, for example.

As far as the maximum gross trailer weight rating goes that's gonna be 4,000 pounds or the amount of weight that is pulling on the hitch, that's the weight of your trailer plus anything that you might have on it. I do always like to suggest, it's never a bad idea just to grab your Subaru's owner's manual. That way you can check in there and make sure that your Outback can pull that much weight safely. I did talk about the good clearance that the hitch gives us and what I mean by that is it sits up a little tighter against the bumper compared to some of the other ones which it gets it higher off the ground as well as the receiver tube opening coming out pretty much flush with our bumper, maybe even just a little bit past it, honestly. So a lot of folding accessories and things like that are gonna work out a little bit better, but to be on the safe side we'll take a couple of measurements and kind of go from there. So on the ground to the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening, it's gonna be about 15 inches. So if you plan on pulling a trailer around, chances are pretty good, a lot of you can use a ball mount that has a slight rise in it. For example, this one here, this is what our neighbors could use. It has a one inch rise. And we'll set it just about just about where it needs to be. So that's always an option. And if you go from the center of our hitch-pin hole to the edge of our rear bumper that looks like it's gonna be about two inches and you can use that to figure out exactly if those folding accessories can be stored upright without hitting the back bumper. And with that amount of clearance area you really shouldn't have to worry about running into any issues as far as that goes. Compared to some of the other hitches available because there are quite a few. Personally I would go with something like this one that is less visible like this one here. Being that you can only see the receiver tube opening I think it looks a little bit better than some of the other ones that are completely visible and hang down. I particularly like this one because of the finish, it's a matte black finish and I feel like it matches our bumper plastic good and kind of puts off the most factory look. But that's just my opinion, you know, there's ones that are glossy and semi-gloss and everything else so you can always grab whatever one you think looks the best if that's what you're going for. In terms of the installation, the fascia does have to come off but honestly don't really let that scare you away. You know, Subaru makes it pretty easy and even compared to the other ones where you don't have to take the fascia off, with those it's almost more work to get underneath there and drill and do all that kind of thing as opposed to just get