Got factory hitch from junk yard... how would a shop install this thing?

for example... if today i said "Im going to go buy a trailer hitch from U-Haul"... how would they attach it?

Reason i ask is because today at pick-a-part i got a factory hitch... took it off, didnt think anything of the nuts behind it... looked as if it were tack welded to the inside of the unibody...

come home, go to install and damn, i dont have those nuts (lol, i have no nuts... sorry, drinking already)... and im 1 hour from the yard to go back and get the straps (even if its possible to get those out?)..

so, before i go and either fab some kind of strip of sorts threaded or with nuts tacked to it... How would a simple shop install an after market hitch?

Thanks

JOe

What i would do is buy some 1-1/2"x 3/16" flat bar and cut some "squares" out of it. Then drill some 1/2" holes in the center of the squares and weld some grade 8 1/2"x20tpi 2" long bolts to the squares dropped through the hole of course. Then remove the rear bumper and feed the bolts/squares trough the opening at the end of the frame rails. You may have to make the openings bigger to feed them trough. There is one, I think on the drivers side that can be a tight fit due to the filler neck from the gas tank, you may have to use a shorter bolt there. Use grade 8 nuts, lock washers, and flat washers.

I have done this on my DD that I tow with, I didn't trust the wimpy grade 5 1/2"x13tpi bolts that came with the hitch.

Hope that helps!

after pulling the bumper off and looking into it... forget it..

im gonna get some steel and just make my own bumper for the rear for recovery.

i think id spend the same ammount of time on the "strips" to keep an ugly stock bumper and dragging tow hitch..

live and learn... free factory tow hitch in santa clarita, ca.. hahaha

JOe

Those nut strips you saw are about 25 bucks brand new, and your Jeep probably already has 1 in it. You could buy one, use the hardware you pulled, and be done with it, or hit the JY, pull both, and be done, which would probably be cheaper still.

Here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79dNP8ZISuU

You don't want to build a bumper for recovery without tying into those nutstrips in the framerails anyway.

Robert

Robert 771 said:

You don't want to build a bumper for recovery without tying into those nutstrips in the framerails anyway.

Robert

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