etrailer | Trailer Hitch Installation - 2017 Ford Escape - Curt C13186

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Today on our 2017 Ford Escape we're going to be taking a look at and also showing you how to install the Curt Custom Fit Class 3 trailer hitch receiver. This offers the 2 inch by 2 inch opening. It's part number is C13186. Here's what our hitch is going to look like installed. As you can see, this one remains very hidden behind the fascia. I like this style of hitch that's available for the Escape rather than the other style.

I think this is really going to complement the rear of the vehicle, where the other one tends to really hang down quite low you can see from some of the pictures we've got. This is going to be a Class 3 hitch, so it offers the 2 inch by 2 inch receiver tube opening. This is going to be ideal for bike racks, cargo carriers, hauling trailers. Whatever your need may be, this is going to be the perfect solution. You see aesthetically we've got a nice flush reinforcement collar. This is going to be tucked in under the bumper, so we're not going to have to worry about bumping into it or running into it.

If we have safety chains we need to connect, we've got a nice rolled steel stock style here, plenty of room in there to get those connected. For securing our items we're going to use the 5/8th spindle you can see here on the side. We want to be sure we use Class 3 accessories, but whether it's a regular hitch pin and clip, locking hitch pin, or even anti-rattle bolt, it doesn't look like we're going to have any kind of interference here, so we could really take advantage of it and get our items nice and secure if we choose to. When it comes to the weight ratings on it, we've got a 360 pound tongue weight rating, so that's the maximum downward force we'll be able to put here at the receiver tube opening. We've got a 3,500 pound gross trailer weight rating. That's going to be the total weight of our trainer and anything that we might load up on it.

If we go into a weight distribution setup, the tongue weight is going to go up to 500 pounds and the gross trailer weight rating goes up to 5,000. Of course we do want to consult the owner's manual on the Escape. We want to see what its rating is, and we'll go off of whichever of those numbers are the lowest. A couple measurements that you'll find helpful in selecting ball mounts, bike racks or hitch cargo carriers will be from the ground to the inside top edge of the receiver tube opening. They've got about 13-3/4 of an inch. From the center of our hitch pin hole to the outermost edge of our bumper is about 3-1/2. The first thing we need to do is get our hardware up in 2 locations.

On each frame rail we're going to have an access hole. You just go straight behind where the tailpipe is here, right up on the frame rail. It's going to be right inside of that exhaust hanger. We need to get our 7/16th inch inaudible 00:02:31 bolts up in there. You can see there's just a little bit of metal that we need to get out of the way to make that happen. What you can do is use a file and just go in there and file the edge. It's going to take a little bit of time. You could also use a high-speed rotary tool and make a little notch. Just a little pass-through like that is all we need. We'll do the same thing over on our driver's side now. With the access holes enlarged, it's time to lower down our exhaust. We've got 2 exhaust hangers. We're going to use a 13 millimeter socket to pull those down, but first we'll want to come forward if we follow the pipe up, right up here kind of above this cross member we've got one. This is a rubber isolator on a hanger. We want to get that separated. Typically a pry bar is going to be our best bet. With that loose, we can take out the 4 bolts. We'll use the 13 millimeter socket. We've got 2 here on the driver's side and 2 on the passenger side. That will allow that to come down. We just turn these down and out of the way. That's going to give us room to trim our heat shield right here. What we're going to do is come about an inch behind this rear attachment hole. You'll see there's going to be another attachment hole up in there. There's kind of little divots there, little insets. We're just going to come straight across there like that and then come right up that curve and we'll be removing this section. This is a pretty flexible material, so you could use tin snips, even heavy duty scissors. I'm just going to use a little cut off wheel. We're going to have 3 attachment points for our hitch on each side. Basically directly above the turn in the exhaust we've got our frame rail. If we come out on the outside, we've got a round hole here. When we come down to the bottom, it's going to be an oblong hole here, and