Hidden Hitch Trailer Hitch Receiver with Drawbar - Custom Fit - Class II - 1-1/4"

Video Transcript for Trailer Hitch Installation - 2009 Ford Taurus

Today on this 2009 Ford Taurus, were going to be installing Draw-Tite hitch part number 36360 and this installation will also apply to Hidden Hitch part number 90090. Ok before we get started with our installation, were going to go ahead and give you a couple of final installed dimensions which will help make choosing your hitch accessories a little bit easier. For the top of the receiver tube opening to the ground is going to measure 12 inches and from the center of the pinhole to clear the rear edge of the bumper is going to measure approximately 5inches. Ok now well go ahead and move on to our installation. All right, starting off up beneath the vehicle, the first thing we need to do over here on the driver side of the frame is go ahead and lower down our exhaust system. Were going to go ahead and remove the hanger from the frame rail.

And there are two bolts holding the hanger to the frame rail that we need to release. Were going to go ahead and point out the mounting holes that were going to use. Starting over here on the driver side as well, were going to go ahead and use the two weld nuts that were holding the exhaust bracket up. And a little bit more forward of that were going to use that existing hole as well. And theres a fourth attachment point over here on the driver side, and thats actually on the in-board side of the frame at the rearest part of the frame and theres the bumper.

And then moving over here to the passenger side frame rail, there are two odd-looking holes in the frame here and these are actually non-threaded weld nuts. Were going to be forming threads into those two in using those as our two attaching points at the bottom of the frame. And then on the in-board side of the frame towards the end of the frame as well, there is a third one of these non-thread form bolts. Ok, so while were over here on the passenger side of the vehicle, we might as well go ahead and form the threads in these non-threaded bolts. To do that well take the 12mm flange bolts that are provided with our installation kit.

And what we want to do is just take the bolt and if you use your hand you can get it to somewhat start a little bit, and you can either take a ratchet or an air gun and go ahead and run that in there. And you could see sometimes you have to run it in once or twice to get the thread to fully form. When the threads are formed weve now got a new weld butt inside the frame. Well want to go ahead and do that for the other two as well. Ok with that accomplished, well now move over to the driver side, what were going to do is take the provided bolt leader that comes with our installation kit and were going to first do the one at the bottom of the frame and were actually going to be using this larger hole at the end of the frame as our access point.

What well do is take the threaded end of our bolt leader slided through our attaching hole and back out our access hole. Well next take one of our 1 by 3inch blocks slided out of the bolt leader followed by our carriage bolt and what well do is take and wrap threads of the carriage bolt with the threads of the bolt leader. Go ahead and insert them inside the frame and pull them down into place. Ok, were going to do the same thing for the existing hole on the side of the frame. This attaching point, instead of the 1 by 3inch block, well be using the 1 by 2inch block, same size carriage bolt however, were going to go ahead and feed it inside the frame, but were not going to pull it down into position just yet. Were just going to let it sit inside there until we get the hitch up into place and then well use our bolt leader to pull it through the hitch that will help to ensure that we dont push it back inside the frame when we go to put the hitch up. With that accomplished, we can now go ahead and put our hitch up into position. On the driver side, were going to go ahead and first attach to the carriage bolt to the bottom of the frame. On the passenger side well use the form threading weld nuts. Over here in the driver side, as were putting it up we want to make sure we go up and over the exhaust, and this time well want to go ahead and slide our bolt leader through the hole in the hitch for the side attaching point. And then well continue on to the carriage bolt. Im going to go ahead and add conical tooth washer and hex nut and go ahead and pull our bolt into place. And again to that were going to add a conical tooth washer and hex nut. Next were going to take the exhaust bracket here the part that was attached to the frame and we need to actually remove it from our rubber hanger on the exhaust system. To do that, Im just going to spray down the stud here with the spray lubricant. Go ahead to make it a little bit easier to get it off and it will separate it from the rubber hanger here. Then all we need to do is on the hanger itself, we need to cut off the end that was going inside the frame to uphold it into place. We can go ahead and cut that off using either a hacksaw ruddery tool, a cutting tool, whichever you have available to you. Well then next go ahead and take our exhaust bracket and go back over to the vehicle. And what we want to do is go ahead and mount it to the frame before we reattach to our exhaust. What were going to do is put one of the large baser block thats included with the kit and its going to go in between the hitch and the exhaust bracket and then going back into the weld nuts. Well be using the new 8mm bolts that come with the hardware kit. Well go through now and tie each one of our bolts down. Were going to start by hand tightening it first and then well go through and torque each one of our bolts down to the specified torque rating thats listed in the instructions. Ok, then finally over here on the driver side we just want to go ahead and reattach our exhaust to our exhaust bracket. And with that, that will conclude the installation of Draw-Tite Hitch part number 36360 on a 2009 Ford Taurus.