Trailer Hitch Installation - 2008 Ford Edge

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2008 Ford Edge

Today on this 2008 Ford Edge we are going to install part number 75526 from Draw-Tite. This will also apply to part number 87433 from Hidden Hitch. The first thing we need to do is lower the exhaust. There are three rubber hangers we need to remove from the exhaust system to lower it. Also we are going to use a strap to hold the exhaust system so it does not fall down and damage anything else on the exhaust system. To take off the rubber hangers we are going to spray them down with some lubricant to help make removing them a little easier. With the hangers disconnected we will use our strap to lower it safely out of the way. 00:52

Next we will lower the heat shields that are on the frame and go towards the center of the vehicle. There are three bolts that we have to remove and a plastic fastener. We need to take these down and trim them so we have proper access for our hitch to bolt up to the frame. The heat shields will get reinstalled but they will get sandwiched between the hitch and the frame. We are going to mark our heat shields now to trim them. This tab right here will be removed and we need to make a nice round notch like this next to this bolt hole here. That should give us the clearance we need. Then we can make a quick test fit and make sure we have clearance. 02:07

Line up the original holes, this one looks good, but this one looks like we could trim some more off. Much better. We have got clearance. We have got our driver side done. Lets repeat the same process back over for the passenger side. We are going to be using these two holes here and here. We are going to start off running our wire pull through the hole we are going to use and then out the access hole. Our access hole is going to be at the end of the bumper behind the bumper cover here. Then what we are going to do is slide our block on and push that into the frame. Push everything inside and pull it on through. 03:08

Lets reinstall the heat shield now. You can see how the trimmed parts fit now around the bolts and then we will line up our plastic fastener and put that back into place to hold it for us and reinstall the bolt right here. The hitch will do the rest of the work holding the heat shield in place. Before we can put our hitch up into position there is one more thing we need to do. Remove this screw right here and just push back this plastic assembly up towards the bumper fascia just to get it out of the way and it will rest on top of the hitch when we are done. The screw will not be doing anything else, we will just reinstall it and leave it there. In that case if the hitch is ever taken off you can put everything back to factory. 04:00

The slots in the hitch are oval so you may have an opportunity to move the hitch left or right to center it in the vehicle the way you want it. Once we have the hitch in position the way we want it we will snug down the bolts and then torque them down as specified in the instructions. At this point we can reinstall our exhaust now. We will reuse the same hangers as we did before. We will use the strap to push it up and then we will work from the front of the vehicle on the way to the back. Take off the strap and we are done with the install. Now we have got our vehicle off the lift. Lets give you measurements that might be helpful in ing hitch accessories for your vehicle. First off from the top of the receiver opening down to the ground on this particular vehicle is going to be 13-1/ 4 inches. From the center of the hitch pin hole out to the outer edge of the bumper is going to be 8 inches. With that, that will finish our install of part number 75526 from Draw-Tite.