etrailer | Installing the Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2017 Subaru Forester

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Today on our 2017 Subaru Forester we're going to be taking a look at and installing the Curt class-2 trailer hitch receiver, part number C12100. What I like about this hitch is that where it comes out to, it's not too far out to where you'll hit it, but it's far enough out to where it's going to give you plenty of clearance with any accessories that you may have in order to put and use. That way they shouldn't get too close to the rear of your vehicle. It gives us a pretty clean look because primarily what you're going to see is the receiver tube here. This receiver tube is a 1 1/4 by 1 1/4-inch receiver tube opening with a nice reinforcement collar around it that gives it a nice heavy duty look. Here we've got the 1/2-inch hitch pin hole. It's got a plate style safety chain connection point and on both sides it's got nice large diameter holes in order to attach your safety chain connections.

Just about any size that you may have, you shouldn't have a problem getting them attached there. When behind the vehicle unless you're down low, you really can't see much of this cross tube here, so it's pretty well hidden. Maintains a nice clean look on the vehicle. It's got 3 attachment points on either frame rail. This hitch is really going to be good if you've already got inch and 1/4 accessories such as bike racks or cargo carriers, or even ball mounts. This hitch features a 350-pound max tongue weight rating and a 3,500-pound gross trailer weight rating.

You want to be sure that you check the owners manual to see that your vehicle is rated for that type of weight. Now with this hitch Curt requires a stabilization strap with all non-trailer loads. If you need to pick one up, you can get that on our site, part number 18050. Now let's give you some measurements to help with your selection of hitch mounted accessories such as ball mounts, bike racks, or cargo carriers. The distance from the center of the hitch pin hole to the outermost part of the rear bumper is about 3 1/2-inches.

The distance from the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening to the ground is about 14 1/4-inches. Now let's show you how to install this hitch. First thing we're going to need to do to begin our installation is we're going to need to get this exhaust out of our way so that we can access the holes that we'll be using in order to put our hardware through in the frame. We've got 2 hangars that we're going to need to remove. We've got one over here on the driver side of the exhaust and then one over here tucked inside the fender. I'm going to take those off.

You can put a little bit of spray lubricant on here to help with the removal, it'll just help them slide a little bit better. In order to take those off you can use a pair of channel lock pliers, you can also use a pry bar. Then just let it hang there. Once we've got it loosened up here at this flange here it's got 2 bolts that go through it and so you'll need a 14-millimeter socket and a wrench. I'm just going to go ahead and take this whole muffler off because that's going to give me plenty of room to work. I'll loosen those most of the way. Then I can support the muffler and take the nuts off the rest of the way. Then I can just work it out of there. Then I can set my muffler carefully off to the side. Now we'll need to take a 10-millimeter socket and remove the 4 screws that are holding in this heat shield because we'll need to take this heat shield down so we can trim it to gain full access to all of our mounting points. Then here are our 3 mounting points right here. We'll just need to take these little rubber plugs out in order to gain access to the holes. You can take a pair of needle nose pliers and just pull them all out of there. Then we'll repeat that same process for the other side. Then on our heat shield here what we doing is the holes that we're on the frame rail, we're just going to trim up along this line almost to that front hole in order to cut across so that way we'll have full access to our mounting holes that'll run right along here. That's the area that I'll be cutting out. I'm just going to use some tin snips in order to trim this heat shield. Then once I've got it trimmed here, I can reinstall it. Now as you can see, that gives me good access to my 3 mounting holes. Now the next thing we'll need to do on both sides, the middle hole that we'll be using for the mounting, we need to enlarge that a little bit, and I'm going to use a step drill bit to make it a little bit bigger. Then I'll use a grinding bit in order to widen it a little bit so we can fit our hardware through there. You can also use a file if you have one in order to do th