Date:         Wed, 29 Aug 2001 23:28:06 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Trailer Hitch Picture
In-Reply-To:  <E0B8B4B6B943D411B91A0050DA0A31876C0C17@EXCHANGEPWM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> FYI That SA trailer hitch has worked very well for me. BUT...
>
> 1) Very tough to install - I had to make many modifications to the
> steel plates in order to get the bumper to end up in the right place
> on my '90 syncro. Also had to relocate the bumper mounting holes
> and modify the metal band under the rubber bump strip.

I put the same hitch on my own '89 (same bumpers) and everything lined up
perfectly without any modifications. Took me a good 45 minutes of eyeing it
up and trying various combinations of parts, though, as two sets of bumper
brackets are included (one for metal bumpers, one for plastic), and no
instructions (since the hitch was intended to be dealer-installed).  But
once I figured it out, it fit just fine.  I have had several people tell me
the hitch just went right on, and a couple who said it was a challenge. One
possibility is poor QC on VW's part (i.e. holes drilled off-center), but I
think it's far more likely that the real culprit was lack of instructions
(so people used the wrong brackets or put them on upside down, etc.).  If I
had to do it over again I'd have taken notes when I put mine on.   It took
me a little bit of eyeing up to figure out the correct procedure, but once I
did it went together pretty easily...


> Also, the captive nuts are nearly impossible to line up with all of the 6
> existing holes in the frame rail. t.

...except for that.  Yes, the nuts are a real pain in the neck to line up;
took me about 40 minutes to do this, definately the hardest part of the job
(not that it was really that hard but it was frustrating).


>The whole thing took me nearly two days believe it or not. Once I was done,
though, it looked great.

I had the whole hitch assembled in about 2 hours from start to finish.  But
like I said I've had varying reports on ease of installation. Most people
seemed to have done it in 2-3 hours, but one other person reported it taking
about twice that long.


> 2) You are limited to a 2" hitch ball only. Or at least I am - I tried
> unsuccessfully to find a 1 7/8" ball to fit and eventually changed the
> tongue on my trailer to 2".

This is true. The way the ball mounts to the hitch is common in Europe but
not here. You are unlikely to find a 1-7/8" ball domestically that will fit
it.  Several listmembers have had a receiver custom-welded onto it, at a
typical cost of about $75, which would be my recommended solution (and what
I plan to eventually do myself) if the 2" size is not sufficient for you.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  (215) 234-VWVW
  www.busdepot.com

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