I need to get hitched!

Hi guys. I need a trailer hitch out back. Any recomendations?

I've never installed one. I've been looking around for about 15 minutes, but can't find any tutorials. Anybody know where I can find one? I'm not sure how to do the mechanical OR electrical parts.

Advice?

TIA
-Adam

@dam said:

Hi guys. I need a trailer hitch out back. Any recomendations?

I've never installed one. I've been looking around for about 15 minutes, but can't find any tutorials. Anybody know where I can find one? I'm not sure how to do the mechanical OR electrical parts.

Advice?

TIA
-Adam

Click to expand...

go to etrailer.com or ebay, do a search for your specific year on your XJ. Hitches are not really hard to install, but very time consuming, unless you got a friend and air tools. Took me half a day to install a OEM Mopar Class III hitch from ebay. Using only hand tools and a jack. Mine came with a nutsert for the passenger side, your mileage may vary.

before the install, you gotta take the bumper plastic end caps off first, then slide them out, they are mounted on slides. then take the steel bumper off, i believe there are about 4 or 5 nuts on either side. then you should see two rails... that is the foundation of the Cherokee to sit on. On Cherokees, there is no "frame" to speak of. I know on my 2000 XJ, the drivers side rail already has a nutstrip installed from the factory. a nutstrip is a piece of metal bracket that has nuts welded on it... it makes life alot easier to line bolts up from below the rail when you mount the hitch. after you install the hitch, everything is reverse when you put things back together. the only exception is that you will not use all of the nuts and bolts that you have taken off from the bumper earlier... why? the hitch will make it next to impossible to have access and install the bolts back on. dont worry you should be ok. as long as everything is tight and lined up. Also for the plastic end bumper caps, I just used plastic black zip ties, the recessed screws were a PITA to take out.

One word of advice... spray the bolts and nuts with lubricant, give it a good long soak with WD-40 or PB Blaster before attempting to do any wrenching. Learned the hard way... a $20 lesson to get a bolt that broke off and had to take it to a muffler guy to get it torched off. Be sure to put on anti-seize on before installing, it really helps if you need to take the hitch for some reason in the future. Let me know if you got any questions. Good Luck.

Well, I'm afraid I had an aftermarket place install mine, I believe it was a Hidden Hitch, it tucks nicely under my rear bumper unlike the stock version which is anything but hidden. The physical installation doesen't look too difficult, but they had to add spacers to mine so it would clear my aftermarket bumper. I installed the 4-way flat harness myself, you can purchase one almost anywhere that sells towing supplies, but they handled the brake control and the 7 pin round connector our camper required. After inspecting their work, it doesen't look like it would be too difficult to as long as you are comfortable with working with basic wiring, if you buy a kit made specifically for your jeep it should bolt right up to existing holes in the unibody. I have heard that the bolts by the gas tank can be really tough to get to, but I have no experience firsthand. I just didn't want to mess with it at the time.

I have and like Hiddenhitch, true to the name it is very tucked up high behind the bumper for the most part.

XJguy

The aftermarket hitches use carriage bolts and square washers that are fished in with a wire and point down from the uniframe. The threads are exposed to the elements. If you ever have to take the hitch down, remember that you have to keep downward tension on the bolts to keep them from spinning.

The OEM hitch came with nutstrips, and the bolts go up, keeping the threads out of the weather. It's probably a hair stronger than the aftermarket method. The downside is that you have to take the rear bumper off to insert the nutstrips.

I had a Draw-Tite installed 4 years ago, and the shop took maybe 25 minutes to install it. Since then, I picked up a Mopar gas tank skid, and started using the OEM nutstrips.

I had a buddy who worked at Uhaul and got me the biggest hitch they had and he did the install all for I think $50 bucks

92jeeper said:

I had a buddy who worked at Uhaul and got me the biggest hitch they had and he did the install all for I think $50 bucks

Click to expand...

sounds like a "five finger discount"........

I installed my own reciever that I built myself. It is literally hidden by the bumper, so much that I had to notch the bumper about an inch to make room. When I installed it, I just used big thick round washers. That was a mistake. The rear bolts on each side are now tearing their way through the unibody. Use the factory nut strips or get a piece of thick flat metal that runs the length of the holes in the unibody. This will distribute the load across more of the "frame rail" and prevent the problem that I'm now having.

Admittedly, the bolts were fine until I used the hitch for a tow point. We were moving a HUGE rock and hitting the end of the towstrap numerous times, lifting the front wheels of the Jeep off the ground with the force. So, maybe the big ordinary washers would be fine for normal trailering use. I'd still recommend the OEM nutstrips or the metal plate idea though. Sure wish I'd done it differently... :doh:

Jared

Hey, I paid for it