Check your hitch!

tbyrne · August 29, 2002

I had an enclosed car hauler hooked upto my Suburban yesterday and noticed that the hitch was on a strange angle. When I looked closely I found that one of the bolts that holds the hitch on was working it's way out. Not a good thing when your pulling 10,000lbs

Tom

Dihappy · August 30, 2002

Tom, 10000lbs, i think thats why it worked itself out

Jpshostr · August 30, 2002

Tom, 10000lbs, i think thats why it worked itself out

I don't think I'd say that. Never had any bolts going lose with our hitch, which tows heavy loads quite often, much higher than just five tons.

Kansas Kid · August 30, 2002

Definitely not a good thing, could of had a really bad outcome if you hadn't caught it. But with that said, the factory hitch as a whole is a worthless POS. If you ever take it off and compare it to an aftermarket class V hitch, you would see what I am talking about. The factory hitch is marginal at best for regularly towing 10,00lbs. Many people have had the hole for the hitch pin become elongated after just a few towing trips.

Replacing the factory hitch would probably be my second mod to a new pickup, after a gooseneck hitch. I wouldn't get one quite like Jp's, but it would be better then the factory hitch for sure.

CMNTMXR81 · August 30, 2002

Tom, 10000lbs, i think thats why it worked itself out

GM's Maximum recommended towing capacity with either the 8.1 (which Tom has) or the Duramax is at a conservative 12,000lbs.

Jpshostr · August 31, 2002

Yea remember when you bolt it back up to tack weld it .

A few months ago someone stole my whole #### reciever

OK, forgive me if I read this wrong, but this is the way I read it. You are telling us that one night (or day) some jerk crawled underneath your truck with a couple wrenches, took the huge amount of effort to take off all the mounting bolts (at least I hope it took some serious effort), and dragged the thing out of there, all for a relatively cheap hunk of metal? Sure doesn't make much sense to me.

If it was just the slip in reciever part, that is quite understandable, they have a way of disappearing. I only hope you don't have a bolt holding it in, it better be a hardened steel pin for an application such as that. As for welding this pin in, sounds pretty idiotic to me. How are you going to switch ball sizes? Put in a straight hitch? Put in a hook if so desired? There are locking pins made just for this purpose.

I see no reason at all to weld any bolts at all on a hitch, if it is mounted properly and the correct parts used there should be no place where this should be done. If you are thinking you need to weld the bolts to hold them in, maybe you just aren't cranking 'em down hard enough.

MountaineerTom · August 31, 2002

I took it as someone took his whole hitch, which would be pretty easy if someone wanted to do it. As a matter of fact, that happened to a friend of mine. Also, I'd say he's refering to tack welding the bolt head so no one can take the bolt out with out cutting off the weld.

BDBWTE · September 13, 2002

I'm at the University of Kentucky trying hard to get my Agricultural Economics Degree. And when I was parked in K lot, the lot by the UK stadium, some ass-hole stole my tailgate, gooseneck ball, two CB antennas, and my entire tool box. I have no doubt in my mind that there is some people out there that want you stuff worse than you do.

*WARNING WHAT YOUR ABOUT TO READ IS NOT BULLs*%t!*

Just to make this more interesting. when mounting my Weathergaurd I drilled 4, count them, 4 1/2" holes in the bed rails. Position my box, bolted it down, with again Four 1/2x2 Course Thread CAT bolts, and decided to not tack weld but plug weld the nut on the threads. I'm going to describe the bolt I used. The bolt I used were 8 case harden CAT bolts that we use on our CAT equipment. It's not done yet to further ensure the safety of the box I put two additional typical barn door looks on either side of the box. Between 8:00am-2:00pm on Friday August 30, 2002. So this ass hole stole all of my property in the middle of the day right under Campus Police watch eyes.

Whew!!

Now I don't dis-credit k1500chevy97 when he said that he got his whole hitch stolen.