Trailer Hitch Installation - 2009 Ford Focus - Draw-Tite

Products Featured in this Video

Draw-Tite Sportframe Trailer Hitch Receiver - Custom Fit - Class I - 1-1/4"

96 reviews

Code: 24805

Retail: $362.64

Price:  $214.65

• Trailer Hitch
• Custom Fit Hitch
• Class I
• 200 lbs TW
• 2000 lbs GTW

• 1-1/4 Inch Hitch
• Visible Cross Tube
• Draw-Tite

This fully welded, corrosion-resistant vehicle trailer hitch receiver is perfect for your light-duty towing needs. Draw-Tite's Tested Tough guarantee ensures that this hitch exceeds industry standards. Drawbar sold separately.

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How to Install a Trailer Hitch on a 2009 Ford Focus

Today on this 2009 Ford Focus, we are going to be installing draw-tite hitch part number 24805. It is a 1 inch class one hitch. Before we get started with our installation, we are going to go over couple of measurements that will come in handy when selecting accessories like bike racks or cargo carriers, for your new hitch. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the outer most portion of the rear bumper facia measures 4 inches of rear clearance, from the ground to the top of the inside of our receiver tube, measures 12 inches of ground clearance. Now, we are going to get started with our installation. The first thing we need to do is start prepping the car for installation of the hitch.

We will take some spray lubricant and spray the rubber isolators on our exhaust hanger here behind the muffler and up here over the rear axle. Next, we will take either a screw driver, a pry bar or an exhaust removal tool and get the hangers out of rubber isolators, so we can get the exhaust out of our way. We have to the lower hitch shield, so that we can trim it so that our hitch will fit. We will just start by removing the nuts at the various attachment points along the hitch shield to lower it. The hitch shield is not removable, so we will just be able to lower the hitch shield, mark our trim and then make our cuts.

The hole for one of our mounting points is underneath the hitch shield here, we can pull it down and expose the hole. That is the hole where our bolt is going to sit. We are going to cut that spot in our heat shield so that we can have access to the frame in our hardware. Now, we will take the pair of tin snips and cut along the lines that we marked for our notch. Now, we can take the tab we cut on our hitch shield and fold it back over on itself up and out of our way, and that will leave us plenty of access to our bolt location.

The key to trimming the hitch shield is to expose this notch along the frame rail. We are going to put this space block in there later, so we will want to make sure that the notch and our frame is completely exposed. Now I will go ahead and tighten down our heat shield. We have got three attachments points on each side of the vehicle. The first one here along the frame rail where our notches to get this bolt in the position, we are going to feed a pole wire from a hole in the end of the frame rail and we will secure our bolt and block here, so we are going to take our pole wire, put the head of the pole wire inside the hole where we want our bolt to come out and along the frame rail until it comes out at the end, and we will go ahead and put a kink in the pole wire, so it does not go inside the frame.

Next, we will slide our carriage bolt over the pole wire and set it up inside the frame rail. Remember you want to keep the bolt and block separate until you pull it in to your final placement hole. Now, we will take our carriage bolt thread it in to our pole wire where you can pull the assembly in the position. We are going to go ahead and leave the pole wire on the bolt. We will use it to guide our hitch up into place. We will repeat the same procedure for the driver side above our muffler. Since we have a notch here in our frame rail, we are going to take another block and use it as a spacer to pick up the gap between the frame rail and the hitch. We will just use a little bit of electrical tape to help hold it up in the place where we fit on our hitch, and we will do the same again on the driver side. Now, we are going to take our hitch and fit it up over our carriage bolts. It will be a lot easier if you get somebody else to give you hand and hold the hitch in the place. Once the hitch is fitted over carriage bolts, we are going to slide on our conical tooth washer with the tooth side of the washer facing the hitch, and then we will tighten on our nut. Now, we are going to take our smaller blocks and carriage bolts. We are going to feed them through the two holes at the rear on each side of the vehicle, and then each of these two bolts, we will take a flat washer, a split lock washer and a nut. We will repeat the same procedure over on the driver side. The hardware is exactly the same there. With all of our hardware finger tight we are going to go back and tighten it down and then we will torque it down as specified in the instructions. Now, we have our hitch torqued down, all we have to do is reattach our exhaust hangers at the rubber isolators, and then that is it for the installation process of draw-tite hitch part number 24805 on a 2009 Ford Focus.