Hello... I'm new here....

I bought a class III hitch for my new 2004 Ford Escape the other day. I brought it to my local gas station (friends of the family) to have my buddy install the hitch. He looked at it and said he did not recommend installing it... he showed me where the hitch attached to the bottom of the truck and he told me to hit (with my hand) the metal where the bolts for the hitch were going to go.... it seemed to him and me that the metal there was VERY THIN... he was afraid that it was not strong enough to hold the class III hitch, much less anything that might get hooked up to it.... I called the MFG of the hitch (not Ford) and asked about the mounting location... he told me he has sold 100's of these and it has never been a problem... hmmmm... I'm just concerned....

The way this hitch goes on is that you have to fish the bolts down inside the thin metal piece and drop the bolt through some existing holes and the hitch bolts to that... is anyone out there familiar with this truck??? Don't you think that metal is too thin?

Please let me know what you think....

 

What mfg. for the hitch? Drawtite makes a no drill receiver for the Escape.

 

Well... its not from that MFG... I've never heard of this MFG before, BUT, this one does not require any drilling either... the holes are already there, but you have to snake the bolts through the holes so that you can put the bolts on. The concern here is that the metal that the hitch is going to bolt to may not be strong enough.

 

I don't know what that area looks like on your Escape but if you have doubts, use large diameter metal reinforcing washers made for the bolt size (as large as you can fit inside the head area) between the head of the bolt and the metal it goes through. This spreads the load put on the thinner metal by the head when it is tightened or is jerked by a heavy load or bump.

 

I've seen several people install the draw-tite class III and push their Escape to the weight max w/o problems. I'd be more concerned about the transmission holding out. There have been issues with the CD4E transmission.