Trailer Hitch Installation - 2007 Ford Edge

Installation of a Trailer Hitch on a 2007 Ford Edge

Today in our 2007 Ford Edge we're going to install the hidden hitch part number 87433. Before we can put our hitch in place we need to go ahead and lower the exhaust. Before I lower the exhaust I want to install a safety hanger to support the exhaust after we remove the hangers. Now we have three rubber hangers that we need to remove so that we can lower the exhaust. To remove the rubber hangers it's best to take some spraying lubricant and spray down each one of the hangers first. Now we can take our pry bar push the rubber isolators off the hanger.

With the two mufflers done now we move the exhaust hangers. Now with our exhaust lowered we can go ahead and remove the fascia center support, there is one screwed. Now our fascia center support here is going to get pushed up underneath in behind the bumper support against the fascia itself. This will not get reinstalled. Now we can go ahead and reinstall the fascia support screw.

Next we need to remove both heat shields above the mufflers. To do this I'm going to lower the exhaust down some more to give myself some more working room. We have a total of four fasteners on each heat shield. We have three bolt fasteners and one plastic fastener. First we'll remove the three bolt fasteners.

We've got one on the inside then two fasteners that bolt to the frame. Now we can go back and remove the plastic push pin fastener. Now we go and repeat the same process on the driver's side. On the driver's side when removing the heat shield there's one extra step that you need to be aware of. There's a wiring harness that is connected with the plastic push-pin just above the heat shield.

Once you have it removed also you can remove the drivers side heat shield. Next we need to trim the heat shield. To trim the heat shield we are going to take a notch out just around the fastener here and we are going to cut the tab off that goes up into the frame here. We'll do this to both heat shields. This allows us to reinstall the heat shield without obstructing the hardware for the hitch. You can use a pair of tin snips while I'll be using a 4-inch grinder. Like to complete the cut outs for the driver side I will repeat the same process for the passenger side. Next we need to install our fasteners here into the frame. We've got our forward fastener and our rear fastener. To do this we're going to use the pull wire supplied in our install kit feeding into attachment point out to the end of the frame where there's an access hole. Then we'll pull our fasteners into position. Now we've got our pull wire in place we'll go ahead and feed on our inch by three-inch block and our half inch carriage bolt. Put the block on to the pull wire first and then thread on our carriage bolt. It's easiest to feed your block into the frame first. You do not want the block and the carriage bolt to come together until they are up into the frame. With my block in the frame I'll now go ahead and take my carriage bolt up in to the frame through our access hole, we'll pull the bolt into position. We'll go ahead and remove our pull wire and do our rear attachment point. Now with the rear attachment point in place, since I have two pull wires I'm going to go ahead and leave it in position as it will make it easier to put the hitch up in place without pushing my hardware back up into the frame. Now I'll go ahead and repeat the same process on the passenger's side. Now with our fasteners in place we can go ahead and reinstall the heat shields. There'll be a slight variation to when we removed them as we will not be reinstalling the frame fasteners. I'll light it up, put our push pin first so we can install the inside bolt then when we put the hitch in position it will hold the frame portion of the heat shield in place as it gets smashed between the hitch and the frame. We are on the driver side only we can now go ahead and reinstall the wiring harness also. Again it's just the push pin fastener that will push it back in place. Now we can go ahead and repeat the same process with the heat shield on the passenger side. Now we'll take our pull wire and run it through the rear fastening point of our hitch as we put it up into place. You'll need to be careful not to push the forward fastener back up into the frame. Now the forward fastener is in place and supporting the weight of the hitch we'll go ahead and remove the pull wire and install the rear conical tooth washer with the teeth of the washer facing the hitch and our half hitch nut. Now we have all our fasteners finger-tight we'll go ahead and tight them down. With all our fasteners tightened down we are going ahead and torque the specifications as indicated in the instructions. Now we've got all the fasteners torqued to specifications, we can go ahead and reinstall the exhaust. With our exhaust rear installed we'll go ahead and remove the safety hanger and that will complete the install of our hidden hitch part number 87433 on our 2007 Ford Edge.