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Installed Front Hitch

C

cshontz

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Lancaster, PA
xjhitchtransparent.jpg
 
its kinda scary
 
nice! I am gonna do the same this week! :chef: I already got my draw-tite front hitch too! is the bottom plastic air dam been cut with no bottom? or is there a small piece of plastic left? can you do a closeup shot?
 
On mine I just cut the opening for the reciever to poke thru.
Wayne
 
ylojelo said:
trimming the airdam was the hardest part[/QUOTE]

Like hell! :) ... er ... I mean it [b]was[/b] relatively easy, but nothing ever goes smoothly for me, no matter what I'm doing. There is always something. I could be installing new valve stem caps and something would go wrong. :p

In this case, the holes in the hitch didn't line up well with the holes in the uni-frame channel for the swaybar brackets. For most, something like that isn't a big deal, but I'm not well-equipped equipped for metal working. I spent a good amount of time elongating the holes in question with a dremel.

Eventually, I got 3/4 of the bolts in, and the 4th one was [b]so[/b] close. I used my dremel to grind away at the hole in the hitch a little bit more and I got a bolt in with some resistance. I think I may have been too forceful, but it [b]seems[/b] to be okay. I may have bitched up some threads. :(

That wasn't too bad. It was just tedious, and all I had was one dremel bit that was adequate to do the necessary grinding, so I had to make it count. Its just the tolerances on these Jeeps are just a little different from vehicle to vehicle. It can be frustrating. I like my bolt-on to be bolt-on. :)

That was the only [b]gotcha[/b] I encountered. The rest of the work was gravy. I'm glad I pulled the front bumper. If I hadn't read somewhere to do that, it probably would've been a slightly more difficult ordeal.
Click to expand...
 
i did the same thing but i used a HiddenHitch... if at all possible i would chose the drawtite hitch since the box is mounted on the front of the bar and the HiddenHitch has the box mounted below it... i had mine cut and chanelled the box inside the bar itself... hides nice now but a drawtite would make that mod unnessecary...
mike
 
cool guys thanks a bunch for the pix and stuff! I guess you did the cuts to the air dam by feel and eyeballin it?

and second question... when lining up the holes from the reciever to the frame... did you guys also make the third holes by bolting it up to the 4 rear holes first and using the holes from the hitch to be used as a template?

on the instruction sheet... what is that lip for? it shows it being circled but not explained to be used for anything besides flattening it for the provided block supplied with the front hitch... what was its original purpose... as a guide or what?

I have a brand spankin new dremel tool waiting to be used for the holes in the air dam and what not :D

maybe i should put on http://www.trucknutz.com/...
hmmm on second thought that looks gay
don't wan't to be a cum target for any: :moon: :pirate1:

thanks guys!
 
Last edited:
oh yeah, where ya get the D ring? What would I look for in terms of pulling capacity rating? How much are they usually? thanks again!
 
I also have something strange go wrong with every install. Here I did an easy one, installing a diff guard on my unlifted XJ, and it took me a while to find out its hitting the steering linkage. any way, the bolts on mine lined up easily and I used the hitch itself to line up the holes I had to drill. The airdam was all eyeballed. Mines an 01, so its attached to the bumper. (and take the bumper of to do this ) I used a big drill bit (probably the same one I used to drill the holes) at the corners and a jigsaw to connect to dots. The d-ring I think I got from jeepin.com. its a warn about $35 (ouch) and wasnt yellow when I got it :laugh3: its solid,but I canrember its cap, but its way higher than the xj can pull.
 
dogtired said:
oh yeah, where ya get the D ring? What would I look for in terms of pulling capacity rating? How much are they usually? thanks again!
Click to expand...

Mine is a Warn, too. I got it from OK4WD.

http://www.ok4wd.com/product.asp?id=383

dogtired said:
and second question... when lining up the holes from the reciever to the frame... did you guys also make the third holes by bolting it up to the 4 rear holes first and using the holes from the hitch to be used as a template?
Click to expand...

You got it! When I drilled the 2 remaining front holes, the hitch was pretty much bolted in place using the 4 rear holes. Just poked the drill through the holes in the hitch to drill into the uni-frame channels.
 
ylojelo said:
I also have something strange go wrong with every install. Here I did an easy one, installing a diff guard on my unlifted XJ, and it took me a while to find out its hitting the steering linkage. any way, the bolts on mine lined up easily and I used the hitch itself to line up the holes I had to drill. The airdam was all eyeballed. Mines an 01, so its attached to the bumper. (and take the bumper of to do this ) I used a big drill bit (probably the same one I used to drill the holes) at the corners and a jigsaw to connect to dots. The d-ring I think I got from jeepin.com. its a warn about $35 (ouch) and wasnt yellow when I got it :laugh3: its solid,but I canrember its cap, but its way higher than the xj can pull.
Click to expand...

thanks for the response ylojelo!

mine is a 2000, so it shouldn't be any different than yours in terms of uninstalling and reattaching the front bumper.

ya my last project was installing the OEM Mopar hitch a month ago, and that was a pain, had to do it all by myself and using hand tools :banghead:, took me half the day installing it, the instructions said it would take about 1 1/2 hours to install... yeah... RIGHT! and yes I had problems with it too, I guess it goes with the territory, the nut broke off on the bolt, had to pay 20 bucks to torch it off :( learned a valuable lesson, spray with PB blaster or WD-40 before wrenching anything! and to top it all off, that same night I was finished installing my hitch to the Jeep, some mofo broke into it and jacked my stuff! :flamemad:
 
Good job on that. Looks like you really don't loose much if any front end clearance. I like the fit.

Curt
 
h.curtis said:
Looks like you really don't loose much if any front end clearance.
Curt
Click to expand...


?????Thats alot of lost clearance/approach angle!And if you are going to leave the adaptor and shackle on(you may not be able to put it in later) youll lose even more!
 
Don't fear about the holes not lining up, when I did mine (DrawTite) it worked beutfifully, the only problem I had was that my 1/2" drill but was dull and had to get another.

Sequoia

Oh - And CShontz...killer picture, don't care what anybody else says!
 
RCP Phx said:
?????Thats alot of lost clearance/approach angle!And if you are going to leave the adaptor and shackle on(you may not be able to put it in later) youll lose even more!
Click to expand...

hmmm maybe with a skid plate sheild i guess i will lose even more clearance/approach angle... it is on order, it fits right into the hitch
 
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