MJ trailer recievers

I am working on getting a trailer towing package attached to the rear of the Honcho project.
I'm looking for pics of various towing recievers mounted to the back of the Comanche.

I've seen Draw-tite's setup. It utilizes the three stock locations on the factory step bumper. I'm curious to see if all manufacturers jumped on that mounting system, or if a couple looked into alternative mounts.

I have a class III from a Cherokee just laying here. I have some extra heavy walled 2.5"x2.5" tubing and some 1/4" plate laying around that I can "stretch" the bar out to the chassis width on the rear of the Comanche.

I lost the stock step bumper for a heavy duty piece off of another truck that's been turned into a drop center with diamond plate, so I'll come thru the face of it, but i'm not interested in attaching the reciever tube to it at all.

I have a Class 3 hitch made for an MJ that's a different brand from Draw-Tite. Don't remember what the brand name is at the moment, but my dealer just started carrying them because they are so much beefier than Valley. The one I have has side plates that bolt to the stock weld nuts in the sides of the frame rails.

I have seen an installation using an XJ-type hitch mounted to the flat surface of the stock step bumper support extensions. Does not look very safe to me.

Eagle said:

I have a Class 3 hitch made for an MJ that's a different brand from Draw-Tite. Don't remember what the brand name is at the moment, but my dealer just started carrying them because they are so much beefier than Valley. The one I have has side plates that bolt to the stock weld nuts in the sides of the frame rails.

I have seen an installation using an XJ-type hitch mounted to the flat surface of the stock step bumper support extensions. Does not look very safe to me.

Click to expand...

That's how the draw-tite unit secures. It utilizes 3 of the four welded in nuts in the frame on each side and it also attaches to the bumber underneath. I'm not sure if this is for the bumper's sake or the hitch's. I'm pretty sure that I'll just cut my existing pieces legs (the tabs and plates that mount to the unibody of the XJ) and push a couple of pieces of heavy walled square tubing over the exposed ends . I'll also replace the cheesy plates with a 1/4" thick piece of plate to attach the whole works to those weded nuts. I'll probably go all out and attach to all four locations on each side.
Thanks for the feedback. I suppose all of the class III units utilize those welded nuts. I think any less construction/placement would allow a heavy trailer load to break-away .

A word of caution: "R-U-S-T"

The OEM bumper was rusted to less than a dim memory on the red '88 MJ so I removed the remains of the bumper and the frame extensions, and swapped over the integrated tube bumper/class 3 hitch from the grey '87 I hope to restore. That also used the factory mounting bolts into the weld nuts.

I had trouble getting all of the bolts to torque up, and when I towed a flatbed with an XJ hulk on it they started to loosen up. I had used lots of PB Blaster and the bolts came out okay, but PB Blaster is a rust eating catalyst. I think both the nuts and the bolts had actually lost metal, so it was a very loose fit. After my tow, I took out the factory bolts and installed new, longer ones. They still wouldn't tighten down, so I reached in from the end of the frame and put a second nut on each bolt. Now the weld nuts will retain the bolts in position longitudinally, but the clamping comes from the second nuts. A touch of Locktite Blue would be a good idea, too.

id make one that slides inside the frame rails and bolts in place, make an entire bumper hitch combo out of it.

Hunter

Stryker -

Do you want pics of the bumper on the red MJ? I haven't taken the film from the NAC Maine weekend to Wal-Mart yet -- I can snap a couple of pics to finish up the roll and I'll be getting the pics put on CD anyway.