tganci

I spoke with my cousin, he said judging from the pictures I sent it could be done for roughly $450-500. Does that seem like a fair enough price? I've only done a quick search, the prices seem to be all over the board. What was the price for the OEM hitch? Could anyone post some detailed pics. The only OEM pics I saw were from gragavar's hitch install on the allroad FAQ. Thanks. Allroad Ed, I'm very curious to see what an actual hitch co. would charge.<ul><li><a href="http://www.fabritek.com">Cousin's website</a></li></ul>

allroad'Ed now

ultimately so he can fab a copy of it for us. I'll let you know pricing soon.

Trango

I would say that a shortcoming in the factory hitch is the lack of a standard, 2" ID square receiver. If you bang out a new design, see if there's a good way to, say, attach a good, gusseted 6" long piece of DOM square tubing on the bottom, so standard hitch pieces can be used.

For instance, if that piece would be too obtrusive, one possible method to gain this might be to terminate the hitch in a downward facing square bolt pattern (Transferplate-style), with captive female fasteners that would enable a receiver to be quickly bolted into place when needed.

I'm sorta slammed for the next two days (buying steel and casters and welding a new rack for my storage room, and if time, redoing my buggy's front suspension, incidentally), but if you want to brainstorm, drop me a line via email. I may not be the most ar-savvy guy here, but darn if I don't speak metal pretty well.

Seriously, those "adaptors" I've seen fabbed to serve as a right angle coupler for standard 2" accessories.... they're dodgy, especially when people talk about hauling big trailers. JMO - if I turned out a piece like that, I wouldn't sleep for weeks while the customer "alpha" tested it (I can elaborate on this if interested, but it's tangential otherwise). There are alot better ways to get a horizontal interface, that if you incorporate into the design now (even as an option), could make interface with standard 2" receiver accessories and hitches easier.

kingfishgrapejam

I would be very interested

allroad'Ed now

hitch... compromised toward looks and ground clearance vs. structural integrity. Personally, I'd rather cut a notch in the bottom of my valance and have a traditional 2" receiver horizontal to the ground. Might even toy with the idea of looking at the BMW X5 (and others too) cap that is snapped in place when the dropout is removed from the receiver, thus being totally stealth but still structural.

allroad'Ed now

under the car. Yes, I STFA, and browsed through 300+ threads and only came up with one pic. Any other I can print and take with me?

paulroad

Its in the "pockets" that the rear bumper's telescoping components slid into. Two bolts through the floor of the cargo deck, go through holes in the hitch and into threaded weld nuts that are in the body/frame itself.

paulroad

based on the fact that the OEM hitch @ 517.00 comes with the electrical plug that addapts the 2003+ prewired 16 pin socket to the standard flat multi pin plug that most trailers use.

The hitch actually becomes the bumper so there is a bit of insurance to figure in as well.

allroad'Ed now

I know, but he wants to see pics of an installed hitch if he can't see the real thing.

Steve_Ag Arrow

I will let you know when I get it and we can take pix or whatever.