Trailer Hitch Installation - 2007 Ford Mustang - Draw-Tite

How to Install a Trailer Hitch on a 2007 Ford Mustang

Today on our 2007 Ford Mustang we'll be installing the Draw-Tite trailer hitch receiver in a class one with an inch and a quarter opening on the receiver, part number 24747. Here's what the hitch looks like installed on our vehicle. Now we'll go ahead and give you a couple of measurements in helping you choose some accessories for your hitch such as a ball mount, a bicycle rack or a cargo carrier. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outermost edge of the bumper is approximately five and a half inches. From the top of the opening on the receiver to the ground is approximately 12 and a half inches. Now let's go ahead and install our hitch. We need to first go ahead and remove some exhaust hangers so we can lower the muffler down out of the way to give us room to install our hardware into the frame.

We'll go ahead and first remove this rear exhaust hanger as there's two bolts that hold it. One on the bottom and one on the side of the frame. Once we get these two bolts out, we'll go ahead and slide this hanger off. Next we'll need to go ahead and remove the rubber exhaust hanger up here on the front portion of the muffler. To do this, we use a little spray lubricant and a large pry bar.

There's one final exhaust hanger that we'll need to remove. This has two bolts, one on the side of the frame and one on the bottom in between the muffler and the frame. The one on the bottom between the muffler and the frame is a little difficult to get to. If you have a ratchet wrench, it makes it much easier. Now that we have this exhaust hanger removed as well, now let's go ahead and point out the mounting locations that we'll be using. There's two for each side.

Now we will be using the fishwire technique. The fishwire 7/16 carriage bolts as well as spacer blocks into the frame. We'll do this for both sides. Next we'll need to take the exhaust hanger that we've moved from the rear of the muffler. We'll need to ream out the horizontal hole to allow for everything to be shifted over enough once the hitch is put up into place. We did find that you'll need to ream out the hole to where you only leave about an eighth of an inch of material to the edge of the bracket.

Now at this time it's a good idea to get an extra set of hands to help you raise the hitch up into place as you're feeding the fishwires through the hitch as well as putting the exhaust bracket back on and working it through the hole on the side of the hitch. Now as you're raising the hitch, make sure that you don't pinch the fishwires between the hitch and the frame. You'll also notice how the exhaust hanger over here on the passenger side, the horizontal portion slides through the large opening on the hitch and then the other hole on the hitch will actually line up with the vertical ball pole. Once you have the hitch up into place, you can go ahead and pull the carriage bolts through the frame and through the hitch. Once you do that, go ahead and unthread the fishwire from the carriage bolt and then put the conical toothed washer followed by the hex nut. Go ahead and do this for all four locations. Now that you have all the hardware installed loosely, you want to make sure that the hitch is level before you tighten it down. Once you have everything tightened down and the hitch is level, we'll go ahead and torque it to the manufacturers specification. Now that we have the four hitch bolts torqued down, now we'll need to install the two bolts that hold the rear exhaust hanger into place. We did find that if you put the rear exhaust hanger on, before tightening down the two bolts over here on the passenger side, it does not allow enough access for you to get your wrench and torque wrench up in to tighten these two pieces of hardware down. You'll need to wait to put this rear exhaust hanger on once the hitch bolts are torqued. Now that we have all of our exhaust hangers back up into place and tightened down, that will complete our installation of the Draw-Tite trailer hitch, part number 24747 on our 2007 Ford Mustang. .