Most Popular Draw-Tite for Ford Explorer

The hitch looks good but tore through the box from shipping and has the powder coat rubbed off on the side that faces out. I had to touch up with paint . Is there anything you can do for me? I needed it so don’t want to exchange or return. Thank you

Product is ok overall but it was packaged carelessly and arrived poking out of the box. No padding or support whatsoever. Paint was scuffed off the edges from being bounced and dragged around during shipping. Additional smaller boxes were inside the main box and all had holes or were also crushed. Response from seller was that the packing worked as intended.

Great customer care and service from Chris and the Etrailer employee's. Got back to me to let me know of a item was back ordered from a manufacturer, didn't try to over sell me on products, asked what I'd like to do. Helped me make changes to my purchase that I needed right away. Two days later they now have my business shopping loyalty from here on out. I can't thank you guys enough.

Fit well and I have towed several times from Stroudsburg to Baltimore (a four hour trip each way).

Ordered on a Thursday with arrival expected the following Monday. Arrived that Saturday! Instructions for the hitch and wiring were pretty good, but would still prove challenging for a novice DIY to complete. Took several hours to install. Finished product was clean and seamless.

I was pleased with both the price and the packaging, as well as the product. Unlike some other vendors, the hitch receiver was properly boxed. Installed on 2022 Explorer, used video from 2023 Explorer. Installed it by myself with little difficulty. Quite happy with fit and finish.

I had a little trouble starting out buy the etrailer team was patience and assured me that the trailer hitch fit my 22 explorer. To be honest I found a video for the installation and it showed the the couple pulling down the plastic trim and sliding hitch up into cavity above the trim cover.

2021 Ford Explorer. Perfect fit! My concern was delivery time, spoke to Lori at etrailer, she assured me that the order would be processed and shipped in a timely manner as my hitch was “in stock”. She was right on the money. The instructions were simple and easy to follow. I installed the hitch in a parking lot with no problems. Thank you etrailer and Lori for a personalized experience as a consumer; something that is far too rare these days. HIGHLY RECOMMEND etrailer!!!

Well built hitch and easy to install. 2010 F150.

Exactly what we needed. Your platform works perfectly for getting us the correct hitch for our make, model and year. Excellent quality product.

Well made, well finished and heavy duty product! If you are even halfway handy, you can install this yourself. Like anything, fitting is exact.

Product was all there but arrived with shipping damage. Might want to think about how to keep the heavy items from moving in the shipping carton or protect the outside edges with cardboard or something. I'll touch up the paint but wanted to give some feedback, you guys seem pretty receptive to input. Other than that there was good communication through the whole process. Fast service. Thank you.

It came within a few days of ordering. Packaged well, no shipping damage. Installation took an hour only because I had to cut the bolts to the bumper mounted hitch that was already installed. I also had to drill two holes due to my Ranger being the older model. After that it bolted right up with no issues. All the necessary hardware to install the hitch was included. Oh, yeah, it came with instructions, but who reads those!

This is the third time we have purchased a hitch from etrailer along with other products. Every time we have purchased from them we have been very happy. We really appreciate the helpful videos that show step by step how to install the products we have purchased. We also appreciate that they care enough to follow up and see how things are going. We bought this to replace a Hidden Hitch that had been damaged due to and accident. The original had been on the truck for many year and served us well. We were glad to find this hitch and that it is exactly like the original. We like that, other than the receiver, the entire assembly hides up behind the bumper making for a very clean install. It is on a 2001 Ford Ranger with the Edge package. The truck has a full size spare and the hitch does fit well even with the full size spare. When you install the hitch removing the spare makes for a much easier install. The spare fits right back in place when you are done. The hitch has been on the truck for about a year now. The finish has held up well and it does exactly what we need it to do.

This is a nice, heavy duty hitch. Probably heavier duty than the 2011 Rav4 I put it on, but I like the 2" size reciever for the flexibility. You can always adapt down, but going up can be tricky. It was about a 20 minute install with about 40 minuets of up and down looking for a tool. Mine dod not have the bolt on muffler hanger the instructions referenced, but that was just a couple of bolts I didn't have to worry about. One trick I have learned with installing hitches on the ground by yourself is to use a jack to hold it up and in place while you start the bolts. The other is to run the bolts into the holes before you get the hitch into position. If the hole wasn't use, it ca be full of grit and road grime and it is a lot easier to deal with it before you have an 80 pound hitch hovering over you head. As always, eTrailer was a great source. I think this is the seventh hitch I have bought and installed from them over the years. I still the they need to include an "I got hitched at eTrailer" bumper sticker with every purchase, but I suppose solid service and affordable pricing is good enough.

The vertical plate on the passenger side was visibly bent, maybe from weld - hard to say. This made the holes for mounting the hitch to the car frame too tight by about an 1/8". I had to auger all 4 holes out with a Dremel cutting wheel and then repaint. This made the installation quite a bit more difficult and time consuming. The hitch is on and works fine but it didn't need to be this hard. The first image is the bent passenger's side plate (the part coming off the round tubing and running up to where the hitch bolts to the car frame). The second shows the straight driver's side plate. Two images of the resulting misaligned holes. I removed about an 1/8" of metal from the outsides of all 4 holes which juuustt barely allowed me to get all four bolts threaded. One other note: This hitch went on a 2017 Toyota Rav 4. 3 of the 4 threaded frame holes were unusable: rust and corrosion made threading the bolts impossible. I had to purchase a 12mm x 1.25 tap and clean out the threads first. The one good set of threads had a pre-existing bolt in it which kept those threads clean. The other three were open to the elements and didn't fare so well. They were fine after using the tap to clean them out.

I bought the Draw-Tite for a 2018 Ford Edge Sport. I saw lots of discussion about throwing out the heat shield, which left the rear bumper flimsy. I was able to trim the heat shield, reinstall it, which firmed up the rear bumper cover. Attached are some pics showing how this was done. Basically, trim off the ends and center piece, anything that would extend back towards the hitch. I used a Dremel cut off wheel and Tin snips, worked great. Then, cut a 3 inch square next to the centerpiece opening. Do not cut the heat shield material. This allows the receiver part of the hitch to fit in the opening. Then, trim the ends by following the heat shield material. Slide the heat shield back in place starting from one end and pushing it across and back into place. Reattach all bumper cover bolts, that will firm up the bumper cover. Pull wires worked great. I used jack stands to hold the hitch in place and installed it myself. Just watch the video a couple of times, it was not that hard. I bought the Curt wiring harness as I wanted to keep the pigtail inside when not using, which will be about 95% of the time. Good product, easy install.

The install went easier than expected. 3 Hours start to finish by myself. There were a few bare edges where paint was removed during shipping, which will be the first to rust. I might try to touch it up but in past experience this doesn't help much. Adding some padding on the edges of the frame might prevent damage during shipment. To the install. I am a moderately skilled shade-tree mechanic, and anyone who can do minor car repairs should be able to tackle this install. Removing the trim was easy. Using a strap to lower the muffler was not too bad (even detaching the hangers wasn't too bad). I would definitely go this route instead of removing the bumper cover as some others have mentioned... much easier. The hardest part was getting the hitch frame in place without a helper. I ended up using some landscaping bricks and an old empty car battery to lay one end of the frame on while I attached the other. Having someone to hold one side while you attach the other would make this part MUCH easier. Still, I was able to tackle it without too much trouble. Note the frame IS heavy, so you won't be able to just hold it up while you get the bolts attached. After that, I tightened the bolts, re-hung the muffler, and put the trim back on and it looks and works great! Now I can go fishing again with my new Edge. Also of note, the backup camera and the automatic rear hatch sensor still work fine. You do have to "kick" to just one side of the hitch or the other... but it works no differently than before. Very satisfied with the product, as long as it lasts the life of the car without rusting to pieces... which time will tell on that front.