DIY Install: etrailer Trailer Hitch Receiver on your 2017 Ram 1500

Опубликовано: 06 Октябрь 2024
на канале: etrailer.com

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-e...
Hello neighbors, it's Brad here at etrailer and today we're taking a look at installing the etrailer trailer hitch receiver on a 2017 Ram 1500. Now if your Ram didn't come with a factory hitch, a lot of times there's gonna be a factory bumper beam that allows you to bolt up a hitch, that's just this small section here. And that's gonna utilize the bumper pole mount and it makes for a really nice hitch here. It sits perfectly well on the bumper, it just slightly extends from it, and it's a two inch by two inch receiver tube opening. So when it comes to any accessories, whether it be bike racks, ball mounts, or cargo carriers, you're gonna have tons of options available. Now all of those accessories are gonna stay in place with a 5/8 pin and clip.

And keep in mind the hitch does not come with the pin and clip. A lot of times when you pick up accessories, they'll have one included. But if you wanted to leave your accessories on the back of your truck and know that no one's gonna walk away with them, you can look at a locking pin and clip. And we have plenty of options available here at etrailer. Now if you're doing truck things and you're pulling a trailer, you do have some safety chain loops here.

It's a plate style and it's nice and oval here. So putting the standard S hook is no problem. Even a larger clevis style with a little bit of angle here, we can get that to pop in place. Now speaking of towing, you're gonna wanna adhere to the weight capacities of the hitch as well as the vehicle. So check your vehicle's owner's manual to see what it's capable of towing, and then compare it with the numbers on the hitch.

And this one, the gross trailer weight rating out the gate is 6,000 pounds and that's gonna be the weight of the trailer plus the accessories loaded. Decent weight capacity there. Your tongue weight rating's gonna be 600 pounds and that's gonna be the weight push down on the inside of the receiver tube opening. So a lot of your suspended accessories are gonna fall into that category. And with 600 pounds, if you're putting a bike rack or cargo carrier, you could really load that thing up and I don't worry too much.

Now you can use a weight distribution hitch on this and it's gonna give you some serious numbers. With a weight distribution hitch, it's gonna bump it up to a 10,000 pound gross trailer weight rating and 1000 pound tongue weight capacity. And when choosing ball mounts or any accessories, you're gonna wanna make sure that it sticks out far enough to either hook up to the trailer or stow some of those accessories in their stored position, which is gonna be upright. And measuring from the center of the hitch pin to the furthest point of the bumper, it's at two inches. The receiver tube opening sticks out further than the bumper, so I don't worry too much that you're gonna have any clearance issues and pretty much any ball mount's gonna put it at a good point to where you're gonna be able to hook up to your coupler. If you need to determine the rise or drop necessary, we'll measure here from the top of the receiver tube opening to the ground, coming in at 19 inches. So you can get the measurement of the coupler of your trailer and then compare that with the 19 inches and determine the riser drop necessary to get your trailer nice and level. As far as installation goes, this one is pretty easy to do. It's just three bolts. But I will caution you the top bolt that goes on the top is gonna require a pretty heavy duty torque wrench. So that might be something you need to go out and rent or borrow from someone to accomplish that. But other than that, it's a pretty straightforward installation and I'll walk you through all the steps to make sure you get yours installed. So let's take a look at that. To begin our installation, we're gonna head to our bumper and we're gonna have this cap that just kind protects the hole here where we're gonna be putting our hardware, so you can pop that out. And then we'll take our hitch and there's gonna be an open portion here, but there is a little bit of a lip that we need to slide this into and that should align this hole to where we can put our large bolt in place. And I'm just gonna get a few threads started here. Now we also need to get the hardware that goes on the backside here in the bumper beam support through here that way we can get it all bolted up and we're gonna be using some fish wires to accomplish that. To accomplish that, we're gonna take our fish wires and we're gonna have the coiled end, that's where we're