Car hiitches easy to install!!! except

[micky]

I was amazed to learn this week that a lot of passenger cars not only have the holes drilled in the frame to attach a hitch, but they even have nuts welded on the top of the holes so that one can just bolt the hitch on.**

However the nut threads are often clogged with dirt and rust.

Rather than hunt for thread chaser for this particular metric size, and rather than buying a whole set of metric taps, I thought I could make my own thread chaser by buying a bolt the right size and grinding a couple grooves up from the end of the bolt maybe 3/4" long.

Do you think this will work? It sounds quicker and easier than shopping for something I will use for only 4 or 6 holes total.

The car is 11 years old and was in Florida or South Carolina almost all its life. Probably not as rusty as some cars.

**I think that's amazing. This accounts for why they keep saying the hitch can be attached in 30 minutes, more or less, and why those making comments said they were able to do it in 30 minutes. .

I also think it's amazing that they go to so much trouble for something most people never use, and don't even know about. For example, I've read the owner's manual for the 2000 Solara convertible I just bought and it discusses towning, but afaict says nothing about mounting the hitch or how easy it will be. (It actually discourages towing.)

Are they being paid by the hitch companies to drill these holes and weld these nuts? After all, I think less than 5 percent of passenger cars will ever have a hitch attached, expecially if you don't count SUV's. And in some cases, he nuts are welded into a square tube. Even if a robot does the welding, it must take a few minutes to weld on both the side near the end of the tube and the other side too. Or do they just weld the left and right sides?

[dpb]

On 8/20/2011 11:33 AM, micky wrote: ...

...

Can't imagine how going to the closest auto parts or hardware and buying a tap could be classified as "hard", but...

Sure the proposal will work; a stud will work w/o the modifications, too.

If there is mud, etc., in the location just start w/ the pressure nozzle on a garden hose and anything suitable to poke the bulk of the dirt out. A small diameter brush can then take most of the rest of the actual bulk material out and then a shot of lubricant and away ya' goes...

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[CraigT]

Your average tap has a hardness of about 62 Rockwell, that bolt is probably in the mid 20s, the frame probably right around 20. I think you'll see significant deformation of the threads on the bolt if you try to use it as a tap. Think about what a bolt looks like when it gets cross-threaded. It doesn't do too good of a job of cutting when that happens either.

You can buy taps one at a time. They're usually less than $5 for the sizes you're looking at. Use with oil or tap magic.

[Jim Elbrecht]

Yep BTDT with my Impala 5-6 years ago. I was surprised, too-- and luckily everything was still workable even after 5 years of NY winters.

Sounds harder- and may not be as fast as using the right tool. but it will be cheaper & it *might* work.

-snip-

I wouldn't get too carried away with what you're towing with it then. My Impala is only rated for 1000 pounds total. [maybe 100 pounds tongue weight?]

At about 1200 pounds the car gets a little sloppy and I wouldn't want to do an interstate with it. [My math was off one day & put 4000 pounds of blocks in the trailer. I knew it was overloaded as soon as I started, but after seeing that the transmission and brakes were up to the job, I decided to go for the 10 miles home. It was a slow trip that reminded me of riding in a boat.]

Jim

[Jon Danniken]

What this guy said. Pressure blast the nuts, flood them with a water displacement compound, then use the appropriate chaser to clean them out if you need to.

When you attach the hitch, use loctite on the threads, and torque the fasteners to the proper torque, taking into consideration the reducing factor when using a thread compound.

Remember, this is a hitch, and if something comes loose at highway speeds it won't be pretty.

Jon

[Jim Elbrecht]

Here's one-

If his are where mine were, they are on the top [hidden] end of a frame member. Might be an access plug in the trunk.

Jim

[Ed Pawlowski]

"micky" wrote

No. Grinding the thread will probably mess them up on the edges and you risk damaging the nuts. You can readily buy individual taps and do it right. In the time it takes you to grind the grooved, re-align the threads and test it on a nut, you can be back from the auto store or supply house.

[aemeijers]

I think they consider it cheap insurance against the hack job welded-on hitch installs that used to be common, where some idiot got their tow vehicle upside down and killed themselves, and the widow and her lawyer went after the deep pockets. A couple threaded hardpoints on every frame costs next to nothing to add during the manufacturing process- no different than all the other premade holes for brackets to attach to. Especially true with unit-body cars- a shade-tree hitch install on those can put bolt holes in places where it could cause real problems.

[dpb]

Nonsense--the threads are already tapped, all he'll be doing is cleaning out a little (probably very little) dirt...

It would be at least a Grade 5 recommended bolt; it'll be plenty hard enough to not deform enough't you'd measure it...

A tap would be fine, sure, but for the purpose there's nothing really to be gained much; other than he'll have to go get the bolts anyway so may'st as well while there...

But, there's surely nothing bad to happen to simply clean out a set of threads w/ the fastener unless they're so badly corroded as to be to the point one wouldn't want to use the resulting set of threads for anything important any way, tap or no tap.

--

[micky]

You might be right. By coincidence, I stopped at a yard sale today and it was the first one I've ever been to that had a trailer hitch for sale. Was meant for a truch, however. The guy there said it was to make it easier for dealers to install hitches.

Maybe so.

I think a lot more people would buy hitches, maybe 6% instead of 3% if they knew how easy they are to install. (of course some require drilling, or moving the muffler back and forth a little. And mine requires a little of this, but it will still be a lot easier than I expected.

The trailer hitch for my '84 Lebaron I used on my 88 and 95 also, and it used U-bolts to clam to the "struts" that held the rear bumper, and two holes had to be drilled in the metal part of the bumper, and the plastic trimmed away a little in the middle, but those cars had less of a frame. And the hitch was class I.

This one will be class II.

[clare]

GENERALLY the hitch companies use the bolt holes the mfg has already installed - not the other way around. In many cases the bolt holes are there for transportation tie-down hooks etc.

[clare]

On my PT cruiser, and on may Toyotas, the bolts are originally used to fasten the "tow hooks" to the frame. They are not REALLY tow hooks - they are transport tie-downs, and according to the PDI instructions they are to be REMOVED before delivery to the customer in most cases - leaving the threaded holes available for the hitch manufacturer to make use of.

[micky]

I went to JCWhitney and they sold Curt and Hidden Hitch, and in the reviews people kept talking about installing the hitch in 30 minutes, and about not having to drill and cleaning out the threads, and gradually I figured it out. I went to a couple hitch sites and one had an FAQ that referred to weldnuts and two had downloadable installation instructions that were explicit. Although in my case, I'm supposed to drill two more holes and snake a square U-bolt into them, in addition to the other two bolts on that side.)

Good idea. I don't think this will be such a problem in this case, but I liked the idea of making my own thread chaser.

In this Toyotal Solara, they're visible from underneath. I didnt' realize how close to the bumper they would be. There is a bigger hole in between the two holes with nuts, and on the right side, in addition to the two threaded holes, I'm supposed to take out one bolt that hold the muffler heat shield, and slide the hitch bracket under the shield. Might have to remove the muffler hanger to do all this. But doesn't look hard.

[micky]

I was thinking that if the bolt is 20 as you say, and I'm sure you're right, it might be harder than the rust and dirt. I don't want to rethread the frame itself, just clean out the rust and dirt.

That's pretty cheap, I'll admit.

I have a tendency to think everything I've never bought before is very expensive. When I first bought some lucite, I was amazed that the piece I wanted was only a dollar!

Also a good idea. Maybe I panicked because of one guy who complained there was no tap included with the hitch. .

[micky]

The manual is schizophrenic.

"Your vehicle is disgined primarily as a pasenger carrying vehicle Towing a trailer will have an adverse effect on handling, performance, baraking, durability and driving economy. Your safety and satisfaction depend on the proper use of correct equipment with cautious driving habits. For our safety and and the safety of others you must not overload your hehicle or trailer. Toyota warrantees do not applay to damage for malfuncition caused by towing a trailer for commercial purposes. Ask your local toyoata dealer for further details efore towing. " Then it has 4 more pages on how to tow, including

1.,5 pages of warnings (the whole manaul is full of warnings. If I were 16 y.o. I'd be scared to drive it.) . They say it can tle 2000 pounds, which is likely more than I can load on t he trailer.

"Never tap into your vehicles brake hydraulic system... " Who's going to do that!!!

LOL. I was t told that one never needed math after he got out of school So I wouldn't begin to get it right.

LOL. A lot can be accomplished by driving slow.

When I had a full size convertible, on two occasions,I bought and delivered a spinet piano. Put a double bed mattress on top of the folded to and the trunk lid, and the piano on top of that. Drove 10 mph, 20 maybe if the street ahead looked very smooth, 5 mph if it looked rought. You're not supposed to move an upright piano on its back (or a grand piano except on its side) to avoid breaking the sound board, but when the bumps can barely be recognized even by me, there's not much risk.

[clare]

Used to be the only way to get trailer brakes. All the brake controllers were hydraulic over electric.

[micky]

Wow. I guess that fully explains their warning, but it sounds awfully hard to do, both at the car end and the trailer end.

[micky]

Whitney's pages hitches are pretty good, but a reseller is not usually going to have all the special info that the manufacturer has

I have a few pdf files but I'm having a hard time figuring out where they came from. Despite what I said a couple lines up, it might be a reseller, but one that deals in hitches, etc.

I have 100 or more tabs open in 7 Firefox windows and FF keeps crashing. When I get it under control, I can see where I got these directions, and I'll post it here.

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[Tony Hwang]

Huh? When I was pulling 7000 lbs fiver with 3/4 ton Ford F-250HD Towing special, trailer brake was tied into truck brake hydraulic line. After making proper adjustment it worked without any problem. Also I could override controller manually. Maybe it has something to do ABS brakes. As long as you know what you are doing. All passenger cars are uni-body structure and you can't haul anything real heavy. Unless it's equipped with heavier suspension, cooling, etc. On some cars you can have tow package option. My Acura MDX is rated for 3500 lbs with proper equipment but I wouldn't dare to pull full load for long haul.

[micky]

There is also curtmfg.com

and ...

This is the url of one et of instructions, drawings really, but I don't know how to get from this to another car:

I think the CM stands for Curt Manufacturing, which is the tab to the left. Though 2 of my pdf file names started with N, not CM.

Here's a page at hidden hitch which offers instructions. I'm afraid to open any tab I don't need, for fear I'll crash FF again:

This one comes from a site I think I got several drawings from: these are the ones that start with N. First I found the hitch, and then I clicked on Instructions or Installation, etc.

Whitney's pages hitches are pretty good, but a reseller is not usually going to have all the special info that the manufacturer has

I have a few pdf files but I'm having a hard time figuring out where they came from. Despite what I said a couple lines up, it might be a reseller, but one that deals in hitches, etc.

I have 100 or more tabs open in 7 Firefox windows and FF keeps crashing. When I get it under control, I can see where I got these directions, and I'll post it here.

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