DIY Install: etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2023 Kia Telluride

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Hello, neighbors. It's Brad here at etrailer, and today we're taking a look at the etrailer trailer hitch receiver on a 2023 Kia Telluride. This is what your hitch is gonna look like when it's installed on the vehicle. And the great part is it's a hidden cross tube, so the only thing that you're gonna see hanging down from the vehicle is gonna be the actual receiver tube opening. So just the business end as the rest of it is hidden behind the rear fascia. And this one is a two inch by two inch receiver tube opening which is gonna be a great size for whatever ball mount, cargo carrier, bike rack you may pick up.

It's kind of the standard, so you're definitely gonna have lots of options. And when putting your accessories in place you're gonna be using a 5/8 pin and clip, and the hitch does not come with one. A lot of times when you pick up an accessory, it'll actually have that pin and clip with it. But if you wanna pick up a locking version we have those available here at etrailer, and it's kind of nice to be able to load your accessories up, lock it in place, and not have to worry about someone walking away with it. You also have two safety chain loops, one on each side.

It's gonna make it nice and easy to hook up your standard S style hooks, or even a larger clevis style when pulling a trailer. Speaking of towing, this has some decent weight capacities. It has a gross trailer weight rating of 5,000 pounds which is gonna be the weight of the trailer plus the accessories loaded on. You also have a 750-pound tongue weight which is pretty solid. That's gonna be some of your suspended accessories like your cargo carriers, your bike racks, and you're gonna be able to really load those up.

Even a four-bike bike rack with bikes all loaded onto it, it's gonna be really hard to exceed that. Now, this can be used with a weight distribution hitch, and that's gonna bump your gross trailer weight rating up by 1,000 to 6,000 pounds for that. But your tongue weight's gonna stay the same at 750. Now, before hooking up to your trailer and towing, you are gonna want to check the vehicle's owner's manual and compare that with what the hitch is rated at. Take the lowest of those numbers, and that way you're not overloading anything and staying safe in the process.

Now, when choosing accessories, you wanna make sure that if you have folding accessories like your cargo carrier or bike racks that it's not gonna make contact with your fascia. And also when hooking up to your trailer, you're gonna wanna make sure your ball mount is gonna have clearance. And this one from the center of the hitch pin hole to the furthest point of the rear fascia is coming in right at about three and a half inches. You also want to determine if you need a rise or a drop when choosing a ball mount. So this one has a ground clearance of 16 inches so that way you can measure your coupler on your trailer and pick up a rise or a drop as necessary. Now, when having your accessories loaded up, 16 inches is a good amount of ground clearance, but if you have a cargo carrier or bike rack, it is gonna extend past the vehicle, and when you go up an incline they're gonna want to tilt down. So just keep that in mind when you're loaded up and going uphills. Now, as far as the installation goes this one is not too terrible. You're gonna be using some factory spots to put the hardware in place. You do need to lower down the muffler to be able to gain access to that, and you'll be removing a small panel. That's pretty easy. And the only trimming that you're gonna have to do is just on this bottom panel to make clearance for the hitch and there's no drilling required. And it can definitely be done in your driveway or garage in I would say about an hour, hour and a half. And you might want to have an extra set of hands while doing it. Now, I'm gonna walk you through all those steps, so follow along so you can get your hitch installed. To begin our installation, we're gonna wanna lower down our spare tire, and that's gonna give us the space to be able to put our hitch up. And if you've never had to lower your spare tire on your Telluride, it's pretty easy. In the back hatch here you're just gonna pull your cargo cover up and you're gonna see this plastic cover. It says, "Spare tire." Just pry this open real quick. And we have this bolt. To lower this down you can use your spare tire tools. They're gonna be located in this cabinet, so just pry this up. And in this nice little bag that they have all the tools, we want to grab this wrench, and that's gonna allow us to spin this and low