Put mine on today, the OP is right pulling the stock hitch mount off is a pain. Even with a plasma it took me a while sectioning it out piece by piece trying not to damage the cross member.

I'll feel better about pulling my 11k lb loaded trailer now though. Thanks again for the heads up.

 

Did you chop your factory hitch out entirely, or just chop off the receiver tube? I was looking at chopping out just the receiver tube like this:

http://1948model.blogspot.com/2008/01/putnam-hitch.html

It was 107 here today, I wasn't very motivated.

 

Just the receiver tube.



It wasn't 107, but still warm at 96. I didn't want to do it, but I'm on a schedule for a trip coming up so I had no choice.

 

Can someone who hasn't installed this hitch yet do me a favor? My hitch was sent without the 2 braces that extend from the hitch to the framerail.

Can someone trace these on a piece of paper and send them to me? I can fab the brackets if I just had a template to go by. The address is:

NTRC
Att: Eric Nafziger
2360 Cherahala Blvd
Knoxville, TN 37807

I'll be happy to PayPal some money to compensate for the time/shipping...

Thanks, Eric

 

Eric,

I haven't installed mine yet, I'll get the tracing in the mail today. No compensation please.

The hole spacing is probably the most critical part, the outer shape of the bracket is less significant. I'm surprised just how bad the holes are shaped. Looks like they were done with a plasma by hand.

Mitch

 

In case anyone is wondering I have 35x12.50" Toyo MTs with a full size spare that will fit with this hitch. It is VERY tight and the spare I have is one of my old 35" TOYO MTs from my first set. It has about 15% of the original tread on it and there is no room for any bigger tire, but it does fit.

 

Actually the angle that heads back up towards the frame is pretty critical as well, if you don't undersize it you'll hit something up there. I can't remember exactly what, I was getting a little delirious by that point in the afternoon.

As far as the holes they were just shot out at speed. Somebody didn't deem the time required to pierce the center of each hole and then move to the edge and make the circle worthwhile. It's really an easy process, especially if you use a sketch drawing program to modify your .dxf's for the CNC plas, it just requires you to cut material that isn't going to be on the finished product.

 

Thanks Mitch...much appreciated.

--Eric

 

I installed mine today. I upgraded all of the hardware to grade 8, I already had most of it on hand. I noticed that the hitch seemed just a bit narrow for the frame rails. I spaced each side with 2 9/16" washers on the 14mm bolts, only 1 1/2" washer on the 1/2" bolts. Looks like a very solid unit that should serve well for years. I also wired and mounted the 1/0 quick connect for my trailer winch. I mounted the connector to the top of the new hitch cross bar.

Eric,

I made another set of the templates, I'll try to get them out tomorrow.

Mitch

 

Installed mine today. It's an easy job if you have access to something like a plasma cutter to make the old tube go away. I'm not terribly impressed with the way the front bolt mounts to the frame on each side but it is what it is.

 

I have a 60 amp plasma in the garage that would've made short work of the old tube, but I ended up using a torch, grinder, and sawsall to get that f-ing thing off. I need to add that second 220V circuit in my garage so I can run both the compressor and the plasma at the same time.

I did not assemble the front plates to the main hitch until everything was in the truck. I was doing it solo and I think it made it easier.

I didn't see what was bad about the front support bolts through the frame. I did clean and paint the inserts before installing them. I didn't see any deflection in the frame after torquing the bolts to the 238 ft/lb. I think I am going to replace those factory 14mm bolts with 9/16" grade 8, their 54 ft/lb seems a bit low.

 

The thing I don't like about the front mounts is the insert runs through a large hole rather than inside the frame supporting a smaller hole. When you torque the front bolts up you are torquing them against the insert rather than the frame. If there was a smaller hole and you fished the insert inside the frame to support the frame, you would torque the hitch to the frame. I hope I am explaining this clear enough.

 

I can see your point. I think they did it that way to allow it to fit more trucks with less hassle.

There were 4 inserts in my hardware pack. 2 of them were for the 1500 install, and they were too long to fit in the front holes. The other 2 (that I used) fit just inside the frame hole, not protruding at all on either side. I think the inserts I used were narrow enough that the bolt is snug to the frame, not the insert. The inserts seemed to be at the bottom of the oval hole in my installation.

 

Yeah I almost screwed that up...I had the long inserts ready to go as I thought they were all the same length (who reads directions anyway), but I did take another look and got the shorter ones in for the install.