CURT 31083 2-Inch Front Receiver Hitch, Fits Select Ford F-150, Expedition

Curt Manufacturing built an excellent front hitch and devised a creative way of working around Ford’s chassis. While I give this product a five star rating for it’s excellent quality, you should know that it was incredibly, indescribably frustrating to install because of the way Ford designed their chassis. The chassis should have solid sections with pre-tapped threads where accessories can be easily bolted to the chassis. Since ford did not design their chassis that way, Curt had to design a “fishing wire” installation process where you run a wire from a wide opening “access point” down to the attachment points and guide the bolt and plate down the wire. PRAY you don’t drop any hardware into the chassis like I did. If you do, you’ll have to remove parts from your chassis in order to expose lower access points from which you’ll retrieve the dropped hardware. I was not paid to write this review, nor did I receive any parts for free.

If you are a mechanic or mechanically inclined, you should have no trouble installing this front hitch on an F150.I rolled my truck up on ramps.Removed the front plastic guard.Then I used two tall jack stands and carefully lifted this hitch one notch at a time - left/right/left/right.It helped to use a rubber mallet or dead-blow hammer to tap it into place. Take one of the bolts and just make sure you can push it through from the outside first - this assures you won't have any line-up issues when you fish from the inside.The jack stands hold the hitch up for you as you fish. The front bolts are easier but yes you do have to use the fishing wire. Its not a big deal though as I had each bolt in place and hand tightened the nuts on the front mounting bolts in probably 5 minutes per side, maybe less. Once you have the front bolts and nuts on hand-tight you can remove the jack stands.Use the dead-blow hammer or rubber mallet and get the rear mounts lined up. I then slid the spacer with hole hardware between the hitch and frame on one side. Test fit a bolt from the outside to make sure it slides through easy before going in through the inside.Fishing the rear mounting bolts wasn't hard at all for me. I bent the fishing wire in 2 places and then was able to loop through a larger hole 3" away from the mounting hole with no issue. Once through I was able to hand tighten the nut on one side.The last side might be the toughest - because the spacer plate may be very tight fitting at this point. I used a 6" handheld crowbar to flex the side of the hitch in order to create space to drop the spacer into place. Once close I lined up the holes and then again - test fit the bolt from the outside. Finally installed from the inside using the same bent fishing wire I used from the other side. Hand tighten.At this point all 4 bolts are basically hand tightened. I wanted to make sure the hitch was as high as possible - so I put a car jack under it to lift it up high and tight.110 foot pounds on the nuts per the instructions. I think the nuts are 19mm head, but I used a 20mm no issue. Probably SAE though.On my hitch, I had to trim the front lip from the bottom up. I used tin snips and a sharp razor blade.Maybe a 60-90 minute for 1 person.

I installed this front hitch on my 2017 F-150. It’s very strong and well made but the rear passenger side hole did not match up with the hole in the frame. That was a game changer since I already had the bolt and bracket threaded through. I had to redirect the fish wire through the access hole temporarily, drill the frame and then thread the fish wire back through the mounting hole. I’m glad that I had the right tools to do the job. Either Ford modified their frame or Curt put the hole in the wrong place but it made mounting very difficult. The hitch also sits much lower than shown to the point that I’m concerned about ground clearance on steep grades. Since I did this myself on the floor of my garage it was difficult. I also spoke to my Ford dealer about installation they would not do the job because it’s not a Ford part. I think some dealers would do it just depends on their policy.

This is a well built hitch, very strong. Install was straight forward, would be easier if you can get the front of the truck up in the air, I couldn't. My only complaint is the hitch rides very low at least on my 2017 F150. The hitch design has not changed but the alignment holes on the F150 frame did. This causes the hitch to ride down low. Videos I have seen and pictures show the hitch about 2 inches higher on 2016 and earlier. My current clearance is about 5 inches. Unfortunately drilling new mounting holes in the hitch would not fix the problem because of the fit around some frame members.

Only the rear holes align for bolts. Frame rails of truck come right up to the bumper. Had to call Curt for advice because the notes don't address the issue of no access for the front bolts. Without removing the bumper, I figured out there WAS barely enough room in the upper gaps of the bumper/frame to feed bolt then washer through to the mounting hole. MAGIC!!! Called curt and suggested to their tech to update this exception to their notes. Will they?

This is my photo of the 31083 hitch on my stock 2019 F-150. As you can see it is one inch below the air dam. It scraps curbs and concrete parking stops and anything in the way coming off a steep grade. I sent this picture to Curt customer service and they verified that this is how low the engineers want it to be and if there are enough complaints they may consider modifying it.

A little wonky going on my 2018 F150, but once I figured out the instructions were nothing like my truck frame, it went on fairly smooth. Used a floor jack to position and installed it by myself without lifting the truck. Took maybe about an hour to do, and most of that time was trying to figure out how it lined up since the instructions didn’t seem to make since. No YouTube help either, since they were putting it on different models or year trucks.

Perfect , good product ,good seller. It was very easy to install but you need some help beacause it is heavy . I install it by myself in the garage on ford 150 2020 . The wholes matched perfect. Initial I schdualed the installation at u-haul but a day before they called me and said they dont dont know how to install, have no experience. Got upset , looked on youtube and able to install by my self. 5 star!!!

This was my second Curt front receiver purchase , one for a 2013 Chevrolet 1500 and most recently a 2018 Ford F150 and both units "fit like a glove".I get a lot of looks and inquiries about the front receiver(s) and I praise the Curt products for the function, fit and quality of their product. Thank you

Easy to install and good instructions....best to have a helper as this thinf is heavy...

S’installe bien , tel que décrit!!