How to Install a Trailer Hitch on a Ford Escape Hybrid
- 1). Slide under the rear of the vehicle and locate the two factory-drilled holes on the inboard vertical surface at the end of each frame rail. Insert a fish wire through the open end of one of the frame rails. Guide the wire through the rail and out the rearward-most vertical hole in the rail. Ensure the coiled end of the wire is protruding out the open end of the rail.
- 2). Insert a flat bolt block onto one of the hitch mounting bolts. Twist the bolt onto the coiled end of the fish wire. Pull the fish wire through the frame until the bolt threads protrude from the hole in the frame rail. Leave the fish wire attached to the bolt.
- 3). Install a bolt block and bolt in the rearward-most hole in the opposite frame rail using the same fish wire procedure. Leave the fish wire in place.
- 4). Position the hitch on the ground under the rear of the vehicle. Ensure the hitch draw bar tube is facing the rear of the vehicle. Insert the fish wire hanging from the driver's frame rail into the rearward-most mounting hole on the driver's side of the hitch. Insert the fish wire hanging from the passenger side rail into the passenger side hole in the hitch in the same fashion.
- 5). Raise the hitch to the bottom of the vehicle, guiding the rear holes over the bolts installed in the frame. Use care not to push the bolts into the frame rails. Twist the fish wires off the bolts. Place lock washers and nuts over the ends of the bolts and tighten them finger-tight.
- 6). Use the fish wire procedure to install the two remaining bolt blocks and bolts into the forward-most holes in each frame rail and hitch. Place lock washers and nuts over the bolts and tighten them finger-tight.
- 7). Tighten all four hitch bolts with a socket attached to a torque wrench. Use the torque specifications required by the manufacturer -- usually 60 foot-pounds.