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Today on this 2007 Mercury Mariner we are going to be installing Hidden Hitch part number
87585. This installation will also apply to Draw-Tite hitch part number 75693. We are
underneath the vehicle. The first thing I have done is lowered the spare tire out of
our way to give us a little bit more working room. Over here on the passenger side the
instructions do not indicate this but I am going to lower the exhaust down as well. It
is going to give us a little bit more working room. There are two hangers here that I am
going to be lowering the exhaust off of. One here at the rear and one just forward of the
muffler itself. To remove the exhaust off of its hangers we are going to take a spray
lubricant like a WD-40 and spray the studs down. Then we can take a pry bar or a pair
of pliers and separate the two pieces. Now with the exhaust lowered we can point out
the mounting holes we are going to be using to attach the hitch to the vehicle. 00:45
Starting over on the driver side if you look towards the end of the frame you can see on
the inboard side we have got two existing holes and those are going to provide our two
rear most attaching points for our trailer hitch. If you follow forward at the bottom
of the frame we have got an existing hole right here and that is going to be our third
attaching point for our trailer hitch. Into each one of those holes we are going to be
placing a 7/ 16 carriage bolt along with the 7/ 16 carriage block as well. We will be using
this hole at the bottom of the frame as our access point to get our hardware inside of
the frame. That is going to be the same on both the driver and passenger sides. What
we are going to do first is fish the carriage bolt and block assembly inside the frame to
our attaching hole at the bottom of the frame. To do that we are going to be using the 7/
16 bolt leader that is provided with the installation kit. What we are going to do is take the threaded
end of the bolt leader and slide it through the attaching hole and back out the access
hole here. Next take the block and slide it on to the bolt leader followed by the carriage
bolt. Feed them up inside the frame and pull them down into position. We want
to do the same for the passenger side as well. 01:49