Trailer Hitch?

OK. Would love to hear everybodys thoughts on trailer hitches. Need to put on on the 66 if I'm going to tow my bassboat to the lake and maybe home to Michigan.

Donivan, would love you input on this one. And maybe some of those awsome pic's you always have. Don, that's as close to begging as I get... This ones very important to me.

Any help or advise would be great.
Thanks,

WOW, Now that's a serious hitch. And exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately I don’t have a metal and welding shop here at the house but you nailed it. And the pic's as always are perfect, thank you. I does give me some idea's on how to proceed. My concern is towing a 19' bass boat from Atlanta, Ga. back home to Marquette, Mi. (Upper Peninsula). It's a 1200mi. trip and want to make sure I have a hitch that will hold. I was hoping there was something I could buy off the shelf that would fit and work well with minimal modification.

This gives me a good starting point. I guess I will start playing with after the New Year when I have more time. Something I seem to be short of these days. Thanks again Don. I do appreciate all the info.

As usual...Great work Don!!
B.W.

donivan65 wrote: I remove the bumper brackets and slide some 2" square tubing into the frame ,,,,

Do the Chevys have a sub-frame back there you can do that with? The Dodges have a sheet metal rail that would have to be heavily reinforced.

FYI to anyone considering using an early as at tow vehicle - remember these are very short wheelbase (small footprint) unibody vehicles with none of the features such as antilock brakes that modern trucks have. IMO - 19' Bass boat should be ok though.

Do the Chevys or Fords have any kind of info reguarding towing capacities?

itruns,
I don't think anything regarding towing capacities was ever in print. I've gone through the Owner's, Maintenance and Shop Manuals and found nothing other than brief instructions on towing "Your" vehicle, not "With".

I've been towing the boat with the 1984 CJ-7 for some time now and it does get "Squirrelly" over 45mph. Of course the boat and trailer are 2 ft wider and almost 10 ft longer than the jeep doesn't help. Had a friend in Colorado that towed my boat once with his 68 G10 and it was nice and far more stable than the jeep.

Don,
Thanks for the info and pic's. They just came off the printer and going into the 3-ring binder for reference.

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Hmmm... Don? Got a question. What is the inside Dia. of the frame and how far can you slide a piece of square stock into it from the rear of the van?

And for "Crazy". I've been towing the G10 around with the "Jeep CJ7".... Very Scary!!! And I always seem to start accelerating when I get nervous....

Alrighty then... That's a lot of 2" tube. Gives my an idea. Thank you. Time to find some 2" square tube....

I guess I'm the crazy one in Kentucky. But I rhode my motorcycle to California istead of hauling it on the back of a motorhome. Dan I looked at the hitch on my 67-90" today and it appears that the hitch is bolted all the way through the fram and floor in the rear. I couldn't get to the floor to make sure because of the plywood subfloor and the carpet but it has 3 half inch bolts that bolt he hitch to the frame on each side. I just hauled my 66 home on my tandom axle trailer with it (170 miles). It was all the L6 and powerglide wanted but made it just fine. I've got a set of leveling bars, from one of my old campers, fixed to work on my utility trailer. That keeps all the weight off of the rear of the van. The big drawback is stoping, you just have to use a little sence and slow down when doing something like that. It took me three hours to run down empty but a little over 4 hours comming back loaded. Never ran over 50mph when loaded and really took it easy when approaching signal lights.

wideload

Sounds good, thank you. Both of you...
Mike,
I agree it is always better to go slow and safe than fast and stupid...... Hmm,... might have to change my ways...... Thanks for checking it out for me. I did learn the slowing waaay in advanced from towing the 23ft boat and trailer with my 14ft Jeep.... Yeah. "You learn real fast!!"

Don,
I did take a peek under it to see where the filler hose goes through and the mounting brackets after looking at your pic's. Was the tube you used 2" square? Maybe I pull the bumber this weekend and take a look. Weather permitting of course. Been in the 40's and raining all week.

Mike:

The "leveling bars", I take it that's a weight distribution set-up? Did they interfere with the surge brakes on the trailer or were they electric brakes?

Hey Don,

Slightly chilled. Thanks for askin'.

Saw 4 cars that had run off the road on the way in yesterday, including one Wrangler that took a left turn a little too fast (LMAO). Another car had rear ended a school bus. The school bus won big time.

Don the hitch on the bike is all hidden. It's frame mounted and runs up behing the saddlebags. It's a receiver type and goes through the back fender. When the hitch isn't in there's a reflector that snaps in place to cover the hole. My homemade trailer is a standard 1 7/8" ball type hookup(the busch can that's in my gallery). My factory trailer is a Bushtec. it uses a helm joint setup. Instead of a ball there's a vertical pin that the joint on the tounge of the trailer sits down on. The lock that hold the trailer on the pin is the type that has small steel balls that are pushed into a grove around the top of the pin when the key is turned. The Bushtec trailers are built in Jacksboro Tenn. just north of Knoxville. Their the only ones that use that type of setup that I know off. I'll have to take some pic's tomorrow.
As far as the 120 mph I haven't been there yet on this bike. It might not run that fast. The goldwings have a rev-limiter on them to prevent bending the valves should you accidently over rev. Without the trailer I've been about 110 mph on it but when I'm pulling the trailer the wife is usually with me and we're nearly always fully loaded. Normal towing you don't even know the trailer is there. Anything over 100 mph and you can feel the front end getting lite because of the air pressure on the faring.

wideload

Larry the leveling bar do distribute the weight. If you put enough pressure on them(their made of real heavy spring steel,about 3/4" square) they will raise the back of the truck enough that it sits normal even with a load like another van on the trailer. The trailer doesn't have any brakes but if it did the bars would'nt interfer with them. You adjust the pressure on the bars by the length of the chains that hook the bars to the tounge of the trailer.

wideload

MIke,
You got any pic's? This leveling bar thing is starting to interest me... The boat trailer has brakes but I really like the sounds of it.

Dan I'll take some pic's this weekend. I've got to go to St.Louis to pick up the parts I bought from Pat (on VCVC). I'll be using the trailer again then. How much tounge weight have you got on the boat trailer? A 19' boat shouldn't need the bars.

wideload

wideload wrote:Dan I'll take some pic's this weekend. I've got to go to St.Louis to pick up the parts I bought from Pat (on VCVC). I'll be using the trailer again then. How much tounge weight have you got on the boat trailer? A 19' boat shouldn't need the bars.

wideload

Mike,
The tounge weight is about 240-250 loaded with an empty tank. With the tank full it's 210 ish....

That should be about right. If you don't have enough tounge weight that's when the trailer will start wiggling from side to side. Your van should handle that alright.

OK, Thanks. want it for fishing, not "Fish-Tailing".....

Calling it a night... Talk to ya Later.