Date:         Tue, 12 Jul 94 23:21:46 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Bike Rack for a Bus

On Tue, 12 Jul 94 22:24:06 CDT Tim Smith said:
>I took a careful look at the VW installed hitch I have, Don Valley VW in
>Toronto. Could someone please look at their normal bumper mounts and see if
>a square cross tube (2" x 2") is used, from bracket to bracket, bridging the
>space between the towing eyes. If so then it appears my trailer hitch is
>simply a tongue with ball welded/bolted ? to this cross bar. I don't want to
>drop my bumper just to check this out. My towing eyes appear stock, maybe

okeeeee ... on the fiche picture, there are two bumpers for vanagons: the
1980-1987 bumper, chrome or black; and the 1988-1991 plastic bumper.
NEITHER have any cross tube between the brackets. in fact, the brackets are
very similar (but the plastic bumper brackets have extra stuff welded on in
order to support the plastic part).

the brackets slide into the frame and are held in place by big bolts going
in through the sides of the frame. in other words, the thing with the
tow-eye on it is a separate piece (that bolts to the frame, then the bumper
bolts to the bracket).

so, theoretically, you could remove the bumper and bolt on any old bumper
you chose to weld up. :)  or drill some holes in the brackets and bolt on
(weld on?) some sort of cross tube, to which you connect some sort of
trailer hitch.

i've seen pictures of both bread-loaf buses and brick-vanagons with a
platform rear bumper. one picture showed bikes on there, and one shows a
small (emphasis: small) motorbike on the platform.

joel