Towsmart Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Class III - 2"

Video Transcript for Installing the Towsmart Trailer Hitch Receiver on a 2025 Kia Sportage

Hi everyone, Bruce here at Trailer. Today we're gonna take a look at and install our TowSmart Class 3 Hitch on our 2025 Kia Sportage. Now we do have a two-inch-by-two-inch receiver opening here, and we have some nice safety chain loops that are welded on that will accept pretty much all your safety chain hooks, and your standard S-hook, fits nicely. We also, your hitch will not come with 5/8 pinch, which you're gonna need for any of your accessories. And clip will slide that in, put your clip in. Now, we also have the option of lock cores here that you can have extra security with a lockable pin.

Now, our gross vehicle trailer weight on this hitch is 4,500 pounds with a 675 pound tongue weight, which is the down force on any weight you have that you're towing, whether it be a cargo carrier or a trailer. So now, we're gonna take some measurements. The first measurement I'm gonna take is actually from the middle of the pinhole to the outside of the bumper. And you're looking at about five and a half inches. And the reason we're looking at that is it's gonna, you may need a longer tube that connects here, especially if you're doing a bike rack or any folding accessories that may fold up to clear your bumper.

Now the second measurement we're gonna take is our ground clearance and you're looking at about 12 and a half inches to the bottom of the tube. That is plenty of space there, but keep in mind if you've got a shank that is dropped, just keep that in mind for any steep inclines or the weight you may put in a cargo carrier or any accessories. As far as the installation goes, it is pretty easy. This hitch was a little bit tight going in, but it is very manageable. If you don't want to tackle that yourself at home, check out our dealer locator on etrailer.com.

But if you want to do it yourself, stick around, I'll show you how. First thing we need to go ahead and do is remove our underbody panel here. We've got four push pins, 1, 2, 3, and four. We're gonna take a screwdriver, go ahead and push in on the side, pop that down and then pull it out. Skip this one.

That one stays, so do not remove that one. Go to the next one, remove it, the third one, and we will skip this one and go to the last one, and pop it out. Now we've got three plastic nuts that are remaining that we need to go ahead and unscrew and pull this whole panel down. And once you get 'em partially off, you can just go ahead and pull the panel down. It'll kind of ratchet on those screws a little bit. We're gonna remove that, and we'll set it aside, and we don't need to reuse it. Now I did find it easier to go ahead and remove this because we do have bolts that are going in on the side, it kind of gets, makes it difficult to get a ratchet up in here. So we're gonna go ahead and remove this panel. It's just got two push pins on the bottom. We'll poke those out like we did earlier on the other one. And we will take our 14 millimeter socket just like we did earlier. Go ahead and with a little downward pressure, loosen these up. And once we pull that down, we do need to set this aside. Keep it because we will put this path. Now with that extra set of hands, we're gonna go ahead and lift the hitch in place and get our bolts started. We're gonna go with the bottom one. I am gonna run this bolt up so we can align our side holes. This hitch is a little tight, so if we can make this work. (drill drilling) We're just gonna repeat that same process on the passenger side. Now keep in mind it kind of one side went in and the other side was a little tough to get around the frame here, but it looks like it will be a good fit. Now with those holes aligned, we can go ahead and put our other bolts in. Keep in mind, I do want to show you something on the washers, the teeth on these washers, there's teeth on one side. Make sure that's facing the hitch. Yep, we're gonna come back with our 17 millimeter and go ahead and snug these down and then we'll come back by and torque them down. (drill drilling) Now that we do have those bolts snug down, we're gonna go ahead and grab our torque wrench and torque them down to the manufacturer's specifications. If you don't have a torque wrench, we do carry 'em here at etrailer, or you can rent one from your local auto parts store. With everything torqued down, and our hitch in place, we can go ahead and put our panel that we removed on the passenger side back in. That does complete our installation of our TowSmart Class 3 Trailer Hitch on our 2025 Kia Sportage. I'm Bruce. Thanks for watching.