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Tools required: 10 mm socket
17 mm socket
Drivers for sockets above and various extensions
17 mm fixed, or adjustable open end wrench
Long nose pliers
Phillips screwdriver [or a drill with a Phillips bit]
Slot screwdriver
Safety glasses [lots of stuff can fall in your eyes]
Irish coffee [optional]
Total Installation Time: ~2.5 hours
Wiring: ~1.75 hours Hitch: ~.75 hour
Trailer Harness Right Turn/Stop GREEN W/YELLOW STRIPE
Wiring Color Code: Left Turn/Stop YELLOW
Running Lights BROWN
Chassis ~ Electrical Ground WHITE
Receiver Bottom Unloaded ~17.75"
Inside Edge Height
Above Level Surface 275 lb. Tongue Load ~15.50"
Hitch Installation Procedure (Hitch installed is a Draw Tite)
1. With an impact wrench, remove rear tow hooks on both sides. I had this done at the Dealer for free. Retain the 4 long 17 mm bolts and hardware to mount trailer hitch. Lower and remove the spare tire; you'll definitely need the working space.
2. Remove both tail light assemblies. This is done by removing the 2 Phillips screws on each assembly by the rear hatch door gasket. Then, tuck a slot screwdriver under the outer vertical edge of each tail light midway down the light after wrapping the screwdriver handle with paper or duct tape to protect body paint. Pry the lamp assembly straight back. This will pop the 2 outer friction fit pins of the light housing loose from their mounting holes. This little "light prying out trick" is missing from Step 1 of the factory wiring harness instructions.
3. With a 10 mm socket, remove all 8 exposed bumper fascia bolts mounted around the bumper fascia top.
4. Using long nose pliers, start under the bumper on one side and squeeze the clips holding the black bumper step down. With your other hand, simultaneously pry this bumper step up and remove it. Other Writers and the factory instructions suggest using a deep 10 mm socket [or 9 or 8 mm] to compress these 14 clips, but that technique didn't work for me.
5. Remove the 6 plastic rivets in the bumper top by first prying up the rivet center with a slot screwdriver. In a 2nd step, pop the rivet up and out using long nose pliers. Easy does it.
6. "Step 4" to loosen 8 bumper bolts in the factory instructions can be skipped IF you feed the wiring up through the far outer edge of the bumper rather than installing the wiring harness from above as the factory instructions recommend. I think this step was intended to gain more flexibility in the bumper fascia for wire feedthrough, but I did not note any difference.
It might even be possible to skip other steps above, but I followed the factory instructions until realizing that mounting the wiring harness from under the bumper would be better.
7. The wiring harness sockets and the small wiring harness converter box will barely clear when fed up through the furthest outside hole in the bumper. I'm guessing that this little sealed converter box has circuits to prevent reverse voltages from harming the electrical system.
8. Pull the wiring sockets up from underneath the bumper. One has to pull back damned hard on the outer edges of the bumper fascia no matter how much hardware has been removed. The factory instructions make this step of pulling back the fascia to feed through the wiring sound easier than it is. Fortunately, the bumper fascia is flexible, forgiving material.
9. Run the wiring up into each tail light assembly, as in the factory instructions. Note that this wiring is inevitably exposed for ~6" just outside the hatch door gasket - from where it emerges at the top edge of the bumper fascia - until it enters the lower inside edge of each tail light assembly.
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