Has anyone installed a F-series hitch on a E250

[evy]

Hi Again,

I am looking to save some money by buying a used hitch, but there's not a lot of used hitches for sale out there for my 2010 extended Ford E250, There are plenty of F-series hitches tho...

Do they fit?

I don't mind drilling a whole but not every holes, looking for a 2"x2" female receiver.
I don't want to pull a heavy trailer, I want to install a DIY outside storage box on some sort of a "T" I would slide in there.

[Bellpilot]

I have no idea if the F series hitch would fit a E series. However, I would be a little scared of mounting a hitch that was not capable of handing it's typical weight bering. Someone later may come along and assume it was mounted correctly and hang a trailer off of it. With the safety chains and the hitch all relying on how this is mounted it could be disastrous.

[ANZAC]

My assumption (based on no information whatsoever) is no. Hitches have very specific shapes for each application and if there was a way to re-use a hitch design, they would to keep costs down.

FYI I use a Draw Tite 41926 class V hitch, they cost around $170-180 new on eBay.

I don't know what a used hitch costs but personally I'd rather save money in other areas.

[my3kids]

If you have a factory step bumper then you could use one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpower-81 ... mper+hitch

The factory step bumpers are rated (I believe) 500/5000 although about 99% of the time you see real receiver hitches bolted to the frame. etrailer.com has a large selection.

If you're only going to mount an external box or maybe a bike rack this may work for you. Personally, I wouldn't want to tow anything with it as I would like a large margin of safety and would use an actual 2in receiver hitch.

There's always the risk that someone else down the road could assume that just because you have a 2in receiver (either mounted to the bumper or an F-Series hitch modified to bolt to the van's frame) that they can tow a heavy trailer. This can be disastrous.

If you want to go big (1500/10000), this one is great:

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Tite-41945-C ... ords=41945

If you want something okay (500/5000) then this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Curt-Manufacturin ... ords=13053

There isn't much of a price difference (the cost of a few lattes maybe) so I would go big then never worry about it again.

If you're not in a hurry then hit up your local Pick-n-Pulls every couple of weeks. Look for the E250/E350 vans with the factory hitches. Those are rated 750/7500 (I think). If you find one then also cut out the factory 7-wire connector as far back through the wiring harness as you can go. Makes for wiring up a 7-wire connector later so much easier.

Hope this helps™,
Ray

[ANZAC]

Originally Posted by my3kids

If you want to go big (1500/10000), this one is great:

http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Tite-41945-C ... ords=41945

The 41926 I posted has the same weight rating and clears the XL storage box if you have one.

[evy]

Originally Posted by my3kids

If you have a factory step bumper then you could use one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpower-81 ... mper+hitch
Ray

That might be perfect in my case, thanks!

[E350]

Just a suggestion: I have always had U-Haul Service Center install my hitches on, if I remember correctly, four different vehicles I have owned. Never had a problem and weren't expensive.

[carringb]

F-series frames are narrower than E-series frames. There's lots of hitch receiver options on eTrailer.com

[rob_gendreau]

Another issue to check is clearing the spare if you keep it down there. My OEM barely clears my 285 75 16's, and I mean very barely, like it requires a touch of ooomph.

You could contact etrailer.com; they're the Gods of Towing.

[BrianW]

Every time I go to the local Pick-n-Pull junkyard there are at least two, usually more, E-vans with nice 2" receiver hitches on them. My local yard charges something like $35 for a hitch. You might explore that avenue to find a cheap one, rather than messing around with trying to fit an F-series hitch.