etrailer | Trailer Hitch Installation - 2014 Ford Escape - Curt

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Today on our 2014 Ford Escape, we're going to be taking a look at and installing the Curt Trailer Hitch Receiver to the Class 3 hitch, part number C13186. Here's what the hitch is going to look like once it's installed on the vehicle. As you can see, there isn't a whole lot visible other than this receiver tube because that cross tube is nicely tucked up behind the fascia here. If you're looking for something that is going to be primarily used for bike racks and cargo carriers but occasionally to pull a trailer, this is going to be a really good bet. Here we've got the standard 1/2-inch hitch pin hole that's going to be used to secure anything into our receiver tube, along with our surrounded steel safety chain loops that are just welded to the underside here. This hitch features a 350 lb. tongue weight rating along with a 3,500 lb.
gross trailer weight rating. Those weights are upped to a 500 lb. tongue weight rating and a 5,000 lb. trailer weight rating with a weight distribution system. You will want to be sure to refer to your car's owner's manual to see what type of weight it's rated for.
Next, we'll give you some measurements to help assist in selection of hitch-mounted accessories such as ball mounts, bike racks and cargo carriers. The distance from the center of the hitch pin hole to the outermost part of the rear bumper is 4-1/2 inches and the distance from the top inside edge of the receiver tube opening to the ground is 14 inches. Now let's go ahead and install it. The first thing we'll need to do to begin our install is take a 13 mm and remove the bolts that are right here on the exhaust hanger and just let it hang. There are two more on the other side and we'll remove them the same way. Now we can take a 10 mm and loosen this little nut right here, which is going to allow our heat shield to come down.
I'm going to trim this from here. I'm going to trim it about an inch past this hole. Now I want to make sure that I have clearance to my larger access hole here along with the smaller hole that's just behind it on the vehicle. Now that I've got it trimmed, I can put this little nut back on to re-secure the end of our heat shield here. We'll move the passenger side and trim that heat shield, so that we have access to those same holes. Here's our access hole that we're going to be sending our carriage bolt through.
The problem is the head doesn't quite fit all the way through. I'm going to take a carbide bit and just grind that down a little bit. You can also use a file, if you have one. Now it will fit through there. Keep in mind that, at this point, what we'll be doing on one side, we'll be repeating on the other side. The first one I'll be fishing it through is going to be this hole right here on the outside of the frame rail so I'll take the coiled portion of it, feed it through and push it so that then it will come down through the access hole. Then I can grab one of my 7/16ths carriage bolts and the big square-hole spacers. I'll thread that into the coils there. Than I'll send that spacer up a little bit so I can send it through first. Then I'll put the carriage bolt through. Then I'm going to leave that just back inside there so that it doesn't interfere when we're trying to put that hitch up into place. Next I'll go through this hole that's more towards the rear of the vehicle and install another carriage bolt and spacer. When putting these two in on both sides, something you want to be aware of is there are these two weld nuts right up here where our exhaust brackets we're bolted. You want to make sure that those spacers that are up in there don't get caught on those and leave the bolt off at an angle. Finally, I'll be putting the one that goes in our access hole there, so I'll feed the carriage bolt through, thread it into my fish wire. On this one, I'll feed the carriage bolt up first, let it go off to the side there and now I can feed the spacer in and then pull it back through into position. Now you want to grab a second set of hands so that you can feed it up into place. You want to feed it over the driver's side first in order to get it past the exhaust and not risk scraping up the underside of the bumper there. We've got these four holes here. We're going to be using the second and fourth ones, coming from the front of the vehicle. I'll feed this fish wire down through and then be able to push it up into place. Make sure to feed through the one on the side as well. You can take one of your flange nuts and get it started onto one of the carriage bolts to help hold it in place. Now we'll be able to pull our bolt through here on the side of the frame and we can remove