etrailer | Setting up the Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2023 Toyota RAV4

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-c...
Hi, John with etrailer. If you're looking to do more with your Toyota RAV4, we have the Curt Class III receiver hitch and it's on our 2023 Toyota RAV4. Let's go ahead and take a closer look at the Curt hitch here. We have a Class III hitch. That means it's two inches by two inches square and that's gonna be the industry standard for your Class III receiver hitches. This is gonna be a gloss black powder coat finish.

It has a hidden cross tube, which is a feature I like on these, that way you just see the receiver section of it and it looks like a factory neat finish on the back of your Toyota here. As far as the chain hangers, we're looking at a wire type which gives you plenty of room for the S-style hooks or the Clevis hooks. This is gonna accept a 5/8 inch pin and clip. Now the pin and clip is not included. If so, if you're new to towing, we have these available here at etrailer.

We also have a locking style here, so if you're looking at bike racks and cargo carriers you won't necessarily need a pin and clip like this, because most of the cargo carriers and bike racks come with an anti-rattle device, which is just a pin that tightens down so that everything is nice and tight on the hitch. So let's talk about some capacities on this hitch. I think this is the best hitch for you if you want to get into either a towing field or if you're looking at accessories like cargo carriers and bike racks. This is the most popular type. This is gonna give you a ton of options for all of those.

So this hitch can take up to 600 pounds of tongue weight rating. Now that's the force pushing down on the hitch. That's plenty of weight if you're looking at a two-bike carrier or a four-bike carrier or a big cargo rack. As far as towing goes, we're looking at 4,000 pound gross trailer weight. Now that's gonna be the weight of your trailer plus any cargo that you put on top of it, which is quite a bit.

So you do want to check your owner's manual on the Toyota to make sure that you can actually haul that much. Let's look at some heights here, and we're gonna go from the ground to the top of the inner collar here, and we are looking at 11 1/4 inches. So keep that in mind if you're looking at a ball mount, you might need to get one that raises up or your bike racks or cargo carriers. That's quite a bit of distance and that's fine, or maybe you get one with a slight incline. The other option or measurement that we do is from the center of the pin hole to the edge of the bumper, and that's gonna be about five inches and that's gonna be five inches. Now that's important if you have any fold-up accessories like the cargo carriers and bike racks. You need to know how far they'll come out so they don't impact your bumper. So final thoughts on the Curt hitch. I like this size hitch. This is a two-inch receiver, like I said, this is gonna give you the most options if you're looking at towing or accessories like bike racks and cargo carriers. As far as the finish goes, if you don't like the gloss black, we do have an etrailer hitch and that's also a Class III, same weight rating, same everything, but it's in a matte black finish, which is what I prefer on cars like this that have this matte finish on the back. As far as installation goes, it's really an easy installation. I just wish that on the passenger side there wasn't such limited room. You will need tools like maybe a ratchet wrench and what they call a dog bone. If you're interested in seeing how this installs, stick around and we'll show you how we did it. Okay, so let's get this install started. Now, first thing we're gonna do, it's not stated in the instruction manual, but when we we're trying to test fit this hitch earlier, it was just kind of tight to get it in between the exhaust with these tips and we don't wanna scratch stuff up. This exhaust is really easy to lower down and that's what we're gonna do right now. I've got a cam buckle tie-down strap right here and I just hung it from the coil springs on either side and that's gonna help us control the exhaust as we lower it. Now we're gonna go ahead and got a pry bar here. I'm gonna loosen this exhaust right here. First, you can just take a pry bar, go in, give it a twist and push, and if you've got some silicone spray, that'll help it come off easy, too. On either frame rail, the passenger and the driver's side, we've got two 12-millimeter bolts. We'll just go ahead and zip these off there and that should give us enough room. Now we're over here on the driver's side. You're gonna have two stickers on either side of the car here. These are gonna be covering the w