etrailer | Curt Trailer Hitch Installation - 2014 Ford Escape

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-c...
Clayton: Hey guys, Clayton here at etrailer.com. Today I have a 2014 Ford Escape. I'll be showing you how to install the Curt Class 2 hitch. So this is what our hitch is going to look like installed. This hitch is a steel construction with a black powder coat finish so it'll hold up to rust and corrosion well over time. The cross tube is fully concealed, so it keeps that nice tight look underneath the vehicle.

This hitch has a half inch hitch pin hole. It does take a standard half inch hitch pin. The pin and clip are not included, but you can find them here at etrailer.com. They do have a rolled style safety chain loop, and they accept plenty of safety chains, different sizes, and the inaudible 00:00:39 looks nice underneath the vehicle. So this hitch is going to work great for cargo carriers and bike racks.

But when you're using the cargo carrier, it gets all the extra cargo from inside the vehicle outside of the vehicle to create more room for your passengers.And if you're using a bike rack, you can get those bikes off the roof or out of your trunk to save more space for passengers as well. But keep in mind with the bike rack, you'll only be able to carry two bikes. So as far as our measurements are concerned on this hitch, from the ground to the upper part of the inner side of the receiver tube is about 13-3/4". The measurement from our hitch pin hole to the outermost part of our fascia is about 4 inches. This will be important for when you're buying cargo carriers or bike racks that fold up, so they're not making contact with the rear of your vehicle.

So as far as our weight capacities are concerned, this hitch is going to be rated for 350 pounds of tongue weight. That's 350 pounds pushing down on the lower part of our receiver tube.This hitch is going to be rated for 3,500 pounds of towing weight. Keep in mind that's the weight of the trailer and the load on the trailer. So you'll want to check your owner's manual to make sure that the vehicle is capable of towing at those capacities. Now that I've walked you through some of the features, I'll show you how to get it installed.

To start our installation, we need to hang a strap under our exhaust. This will support our exhaust once we remove those mounting brackets. So this exhaust is kind of tricky because there's not a good spot to really put the strap to. So we're going to have to go to the coil. I'm going to go around the exhaust pipe and back through, and then come around to the other side and put it on this coil. That way, when we lower that exhaust, it'll still catch it.inaudible 00:02:14 strap in, we're going to go ahead and take a 13 millimeter socket and remove our exhaust mounting brackets. So we're going to remove this bolt and this bolt. Then we'll repeat that process on the driver's side. After removing our mounting bracket hardware, we need to remove our rubber isolator that holds our exhaust. We're going to spray that with a lubricant. I like to use soapy water because it dries fast. We are going to come back with a pry bar and pry against our isolator to work that off. This can be kind of tricky. And just in mind, the exhaust might lower a little bit more. So the next step is to remove this part of our heat shield. I'm going to take a marker, mark right down the frame rail, then come back with some snips and remove that part of the heat shield. So once we have our mark made, I'm going to go ahead and bend this shield down just so it's a little bit easier to work with.Now, I'm going to come back in with some snips and snip off our heat shield. So it's kind of hard to get going right here. So I'm going to come up from the middle and snip here and snip here. And then I'll work down this line and then come back and hit this line. After you've got our heat shield trimmed, we're going to go over to the passenger side and repeat the process. Next thing we need to do is is open up this hole for our hardware. I'm going to use a grinding bit on the end of the drill and just work that bit around in there until you can get the carriage bolt through. So when you think you've got it, you can grab your hardware check and make sure it gets through the frame rail. In this case, it does. So I'm going to spray our hole with some clear coat and make sure to do this on the other side.So next we're going to take our fish wire to install our hardware. Put the spring in through this hole and pull it out this hole. Then we'll feed our hardware back through and pull the fish wire through. It's a good idea to put a couple of bends in this, just so it's easier to get it out of th