Hitched By Michael

Grinding a hole in the frame

Sometimes things just go smoothly. It rarely happens, and it isn't the way of things, but sometimes--just sometimes--if your expectations are low enough and Murphy is out to lunch, things can go unexpectedly well.

A week ago, I had no idea folks installed their own trailer hitches on their vehicles. Of course, there are exceptions, guys like my brother-in-law Shawn who keeps industrial-grade welding equipment in his garage and will build a full-blown monster truck over the weekend out of scrap metal. I would expect him to install his own trailer hitch. But normal folks?

I found etrailer.com. They sell hitches and wiring kits for what seems like every vehicle on earth, for cheap. The hitch bracket came in a giant box with sparse instructions that had me detaching the muffler, unbolting a heat shield, removing the charcoal fume canister, enlarging existing holes in the frame, and drilling new ones.

I saw so much room for disaster. If the thing was tweaked and holes didn't line up, I'd be sunk. If my bit wasn't up to drilling through the frame, I'd be sunk. Could they really have configured this thing to fit just my vehicle? (It's not an F-150--how many 1999 Ford Escort Wagons are there with trailer hitches?)

Well, total success. The Dremel I bought recently for boat use was a huge help, making it easy to enlarge existing holes in the frame as required. I started this project tonight after work and was finished in a couple hours. I still have the wiring to do, but otherwise we are ready to buy our trailer for the Big Trip.

The appraisal is scheduled for tomorrow. Damn, things are happening fast. We've got our fingers crossed.

--MR