Trailer Hitch for Body Lift

[taxx]

I know this has been discussed many times, however it has been a few months and I would like to see if anyone has come up with an easy solution or new hitch. I want to do a 2 or 3 inch body lift but my hitch will then look stupid! I cannot get rid of it, then I wouldn't be able to fish from my boat. What can be done to raise the hitch or is there an aftermarket solution?

 

[Robert]

It does look somewhat bad, but I haven't found an easy fix yet though. There is a guy down my street, around the corner that does a lot of welding. He makes his own sand rail frames. One of these days I'm going to ask him if he can do anything with it. I'm thinking that all he would have to do is grind off the weld where the round tube goes through the two end supports. Rotate it up so it is closer to the bottom of the bumper and then cut and reposition the receiver slot to make it level again. I also am trying to find time to get to an exhaust shop and have them reposition my Borla so it is closer to the bumper as well. This is what it looks like right now:

 

[Diff Whack Daddy]

That is about the only fix. I raised my reciever hitch by welding it directly to the bottom of the fram rail and then I cut and rdrilled the brackets to add extra support for the reciever.

 

[taxx]

I will have to play with the brackets on there and see if there is anyway to mount it higher on the frame. Mine would look even uglier than Robert's pic. Mine is a very large and obtrusive hitch. It isn't round bars like that it is a long sqaure 2" bar.

 

[jimbo74]

what about a www.jamesduff.com rear bumper?

 

[jasonb]

i don't know if this would work, but maybe try flipping it over so the brackets are below the reciever part? depending on whether it would fit then, you could probably just drill a new hole to match in the frame. i don't think it would cause it to loose strength since it is just the square kind. i was thinking about this when i was planning to put a body lift on my truck. also, welding it to the frame itself would probably work, but make sure its a good weld!

 

[taxx]

ever get the hitch back? How does it look?

 

[go off road]

On my 95 I just cut my old hitch and moved it up and rewelded it and bolted the bumper to it too it worked out great.

Wade

 

[Robert]

Originally posted by taxxman2k
ever get the hitch back? How does it look?

Yeah a few weeks ago, but my neighbor changed his mind about doing it though. I think it had something to do with the fact that I am on our HOA Architectural Committee and he was turned down for a request due to liability issues. A couple weeks later he showed up at my door with my hitch and said he had second thoughts about it. If I was towing something and my hitch broke he didn't want to be held liable. Now I have to find another reputable welder that has reasonable rates. Our idea doesn't seem hard to do. Basically what we came up with was grinding the original welds off the round tube through the vertical supports. Cutting off the receiver box. Rotating up the hitch in the supports and rewelding it back to the supports and rewelding the receiver box back on so it was level. He was only going to charge me about $30 to do it.

 

[Lifted95X]

Im modifying mine right now just by cutting off the support that mounts to the bottom of the frame....moving it down two inches...slicing some off the vertical supports...and transfering the holes down two inches...shouldn't it just be as simple as that?

 

[Robert]

My hitch mounts to the top of the bottom edge on my frame via 4 tabs & 5 holes. The tabs rest on top of the frame and lineup to holes already there.

You brought up an interesting idea though. I will look at mine to see if I could maybe put some metal spacers between the frame and hitch tabs that would lift it up some. I don't remember there being much room above the frame where the hitch bolts on though. I think there might have been something in the way. I can't remember attacking it from that direction though so I'll take another look. Maybe it will be simpler than I first thought.

 

[Robert]

Well I looked at my hitch last night and my idea won't work. It has three pads that rest on top of the frame (2 on one side, one on the other) and two pads that are at a 45 degree angle that bolt to the bottom of the rear cross-member. I am thinking though that if I cut off the two rear pads, put a 3" block between the other three pads and the frame and weld two new pads to the vertical supports that line up with the original holes in the cross-member it might work. The only way to find out though is to cut off the two rear pads off my perfectly good hitch. I'm not quite sure I want to do that. If it doesn't work, then I've wasted my hitch.

You can see the two pads and bolts in my picture above. They are the two bolts sticking through, right in line with the top of the inside shackle on each side.

 

[Lifted95X]

I'll take a pic of mine when it's done...its a hidden hitch type(which is not very hidden), and it mounts with two holes on each side that mount to the frame with the same bolts as the bumper...and then one on each side that mounts to the bottom of the frame.

 

[taxx]

OK. I don't know if anyone has looked at this, but I got some new toys today (RS9000s) and I was flipping through the summit racing catalog and came accross frame mounted hitches for full size and mid size trucks. What makes these special is that they are designed as hidden hitches for lowriders with roll pans. So, the reciever is behind the license plate. I am going to measure my frame rails and call them to find out if one of them is the right length. But, it seems to me that that would mount perfect under my bumper! and I wouldn't have to weld anything. They run $119 and in some locations shipping from summit by ground is free!

What do you all think?

Oh yeah, the towing capacity is 5,000lbs or 3,500 depending on which one fits. But that should be plenty! for an X.

 

[Michigander]

I ended up having mine welded/bolted into the frame. I took a hitch (bought used for $25) to him and he did it for $50. I'll get pics this weekend for you all.

 

[taxx]

Yeah I was planning on ding that with my old one this weekend, but this one looks likeit may fit and look real nice!

 

[Robert]

taxxman2k - If you get the dimensions, be sure an post them. Looking at my picture above though and from what I remember, my shackles are in line with my frame. It looks like they would be in the way of the hitch in the picture. You can just see the bottom inch of my frame hanging down on each side of my bumper so if the hitch in the picture would work, it would probably hang down 1"-2" below my bumper which is still better than the gap my Hidden Hitch has.

 

[taxx]

Robert- With the 2" body lift, the bottom of the frame and bottom of my bumper are level, so it would fit pretty smug on mine. Although, I didn't think of the shackles. Those side supports go back a little don't they.

The more I think about it, I think it could work, but since I already have a hitch I might as well try to cut it and modify it first. I don't think mine will take much modifying so I will give it a shot saturday. Although I think i will have to ditch the spare, darn it fits so nice with the 33's!

 

[Lifted95X]

Well...I recut/redrilled/rewelded my hitch and it mounted back up pretty damn good. I will get around to taking a pic this weekend.

 

[Robert]

Taxxman2k - What size spare do you have under yours now? I am going out this weekend to get something taller than my doughnut that Ford provided. Right now my hitch is off, so I was going to try putting my 265 75R16 tire up there again. When I tried it with the hitch, the tire didn't come close to fitting and that was after letting out all but 10 PSI out of it. I am hoping that with the hitch removed I will have better luck. I was thinking buying a 31X9.5 tire and 15" rim if it will fit. At least then it would be within .7" of my current tires. For the rare occasions that I need to tow, I would remove the larger spare and put the hitch back on. I like the hitch on there though since it is still mounted to my frame and should act as a stronger bumper than my modified rear bumper would.