etrailer.com Trailer Hitch Installation - 2017 Ford Escape

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Speaker 1: Today ln our 2017 Ford Escape, we're going to take a look at and show you how to install the etrailer custom-fit class 3 trailer hitch receiver, part number is E98866. Here's what the hitch is going to look like installed on your Escape. As you can see, that cross tube remains mainly hidden. I think it's a really nice-looking hitch and not changing the cosmetics of the vehicle all the much. It's a class 3 hitch, so that means it has the 2" by 2" receiver tube opening. That makes it very, very versatile.

Bike racks, cargo carriers, ball mounts, just about any type of hitch accessory that they make is probably going to come in a class 3 variety. To hold all those items in place, we're going to use the 5/8 diameter pin hole. You want to choose a class 3 rated accessory, but regardless of what type you choose, whether it's just a standard pin and clip, a locking hitch pin, or anti-rattle device, should have more than enough room there to make that happen.We've got safety chain connection points here on the bottom. This is a rounded steel stock style. Should have more than enough room to get whatever size chain connected you might want.

The hitch offers a 350 pound tongue weight rating. That's the maximum downward force we can put on our receiver tube opening. And it has a gross trailer weight rating of 3500 pounds. That's the total weight of your trailer, anything you might load up on it. It is also rated for use with weight distribution.

When using weight distribution, the tongue weight rating goes up to 500 pounds, and your gross trailer weight's going to go up to 5000 pounds, but definitely check the owner's manual on your Escape to see what it's rated for and don't exceed that.A few measurements that are helpful when selecting your ball mount, bike rack or hitch cargo carrier, will be from the ground to the inside top edge of the receiver tube opening we've got about 14-1/4", then from the center of our hitch pin hole to the outermost edge of our bumper, it's about 4".To begin your installation process, we need to get the exhaust down. That's going to give us access to our mounting locations. We've got two hangers. One's going to be on each side. In those hangers you'll see two bolts.

One here, and one here. We want to remove both of those. We use a 13 mm socket, and we've got different bolts to replace these with, so want to hang on to them in case you ever remove your hitch, but you're going to set them aside, these won't be re-used. We'll do the same thing over here on the driver's side. Now if we follow this exhaust tube up, we've going to go over this crossmember. There's an exhaust hanger right up there we want to also separate. To help get that off, we're going to use a little bit of spray lubricant here. Then we can use a big screwdriver to pop that off.Once that's off you'll see that exhaust is just going to come down and rest on that crossmember here. Here on the driver's side we've got this small fastener at the very front of our heat shield. We're going to use a 10 mm socket and remove that. Then we'll trim off our heat shield. We want to go 1" in front of this hole, over, and then all the way back. On the passenger side, we don't have this screw or this area. Just going to have an area from here to here and we'll trim that off entirely. To do this we're going to use just some aviation shears, tin snips. I think it's probably a little too thick to use scissors, but anything heavier duty will work for you. Once we've got that trimmed, we'll reinstall that nut on the front side. Just looking to access this hole, this hole, so you've got plenty of room.This is our access hole we're going to use to get our hardware in place. What we have is a square hole spacer block here. That's going to go in fairly easily. This is what we need to open it up a little bit for. So we're just going to notch it out. Notch there, the same thing here. That should give us enough room to get our bolt up in there. We're going to use a little cut-off wheel here to do it. You could also get a file in there and just work back on the edge. You can see the notches we've created. We're just going to touch this up with a little rust preventative paint. That way we won't have to worry about any corrosion on that bare metal. Once that dries, we'll get our hardware put in place.To get our hardware in place, we're going to take one of our pull wires. We've got three attachment points. We've got this one, this one, and then there's one right here on the side of the frame. We're going to start with that one. We'll place the pull wire in, and direct it towards the hole we enlarged. It's goi