Bumper-mounted trailer hitch bracket for Jeep Wrangler TJ

Here is my design for a bumper-mounted Jeep Wrangler TJ trailer hitch:

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Reply to
Richard J Kinch
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I would think that welding a 2" receiver hitch receptacle to the bottom of the angle bracket would give you more flexibility... It would lower the trailer tongue enough that you probably wouldn't have to worry about your door hitting it... If your vehicle is lifted, you could use a 2" receiver with a drop so that the trailer could be towed in a more level attitude... You would also have the option to use the 2" receiver for a bike rack or cargo carrier...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Agreed. I may modify it later like you say, but for now I just wanted the minimum cost and effort to tow a small boat, improvising a step bumper like on a pickup truck.

Bumper-mounting a 2-inch receiver strikes me as an awkward combination, like hanging an oxen yoke on a pony.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Which group are you posting from so I can drop the crossposting to the other... I'm in r.a.m.j+w...

The thing is, it gives you a lot more flexibility for other attachments that you don't have with smaller receivers or just a bumper hitch... It also gives you the option for a receiver mounted winch that you could move from the front to the rear (assume that you also did the same thing on the front bumper)... I've been considering mounting 2 extra 2" receivers on my rear bumper and making a custom cargo carrier such that it would have three 2" supports that would slide into the three receivers... That would make for a 'ell of a sturdy cargo carrier...

The bumper mounted 2" receivers that I've seen previously also have a 45" piece of plate steel welded on both sides of the 2" receiver to the mounting plate so that it will provide more resistance to twisting... Probably more of an issue with a cargo carrier than a trailer...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Nice and simple. The thing I am worried about is the strength of the connection between the bumper and the Jeep itself. Tomes

Reply to
Tomes

The bumper on the Wrangler is not not strong enougth for trailer loading to the 2000 pound towing capacity of the Jeep (assuming you have the

6cyl and 2000 pound rated capacity)

I'm fairly certa> Here is my design for a bumper-mounted Jeep Wrangler TJ trailer hitch: >

Reply to
RoyJ

I guess you didn't actually read the page, where I say as much.

The point is to get *some* capacity without spending $150 for a real frame hitch and drawbar.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

I don't think I would trust the stock bumper on a TJ to pull anything. When I ordered my 2000 TJ with towing package it had a separate tube and receiver mounted off of the frame rails and not to the bumper itself as they told me it would not hold up to towing....... it is very thin channel that is mounted to the cross member mainly and not the frame. I would be very leery about doing this. Nice design though...

Tom

Reply to
cantrelm

I have the mopar towbar - it attaches to the frame at 6 points using 1/4" plate. Pretty substantial.

Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

Reply to
Dave Milne

If you get pulled over by the highway patrol, you will/should get busted for something as dumb as that. Not meaning to be a jerk or anything but Wow...

The bumper isn't rated for towing or even jacking up under so technically that is an illegal hitch, let alone an unsafe one.

The TJ bumper isn't even strong enough to tow a TJ out of a snowbank without bending or tearing off, let alone pulling almost the 'legal' limit that the TJ can handle which is 2000 lb. Your 1000 lb boat, plus trailer, plus gear inside is easily the limit.

Sorry man, it just isn't a good idea.

Just FYI, even the expensive 2" receiver bumpers with the 2" hitch built in have a warning on them that says they are 'not' legal for towing, only legal for putting a bike rack or some other type of rack into.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: N>
Reply to
Mike Romain

Yeah, it does seem a bit flimsy, like the original bumpers on my XJ... Perhaps his next project should be to design a real bumper for his TJ that utilizes the original bumper's mounting points in addition to the mounting points for the factory receiver hitch... Make the entire bumper out of 1/4" steel so that you can jack the car up with it... Might as well consider closing off parts of it for an emergency air tank also...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Mike, you're in Canada. I once passed an accident scene, where failure to use safety chains, led to a boat trailer coming loose from the tow vehicle, jumping through an oncoming vehicle's windshield and killing the driver. The driver of the tow vehicle got a faulty equipment citation, but was allowed to hook up again and drive home! On the way back from wherever I had been going, I saw him hooking up the trailer, with help from the state patrol. Now the law in Colorado says, that safety chains are required, and legally a manslaughter prosecution would not have been out of line here. It didn't happen. Maybe the guy paid a fine, but I doubt it.

That is one of the things, that helped me decide to move to western Colorado. The law is the same there, but the number density of jerks like that is less, and you have more chances to avoid them.

I have one of those bumpers you are talking about. I use it for a bike rack.

Earle

Reply to
Earle Horton

That is what I am doing. Making my own swing arm bumper, with a 2" hitch receiver in the middle of the bumper tube..... These pictures don't have the hitch cut and welded in yet, but it will be dead center of the main bumper. The whole thing will bolt to the frame rails where my current hitch bolts now and also use the crossmember mounts that the standard bumper has.

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am putting a hi-lift jack mount on there also.

Tom

Reply to
cantrelm

Jerk or not, your legal opinion is baloney.

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Show me where hitch ratings have any legal significance in traffic laws.

The stock bumper is essentially a 3 x 4.5 inch 3.5-sided 13 gage steel box beam 50 inches long. Maybe someone can calculate the strength of this member.

We're talking about towing a small rig under 1000 lbs, not dragging the universe behind.

My mechanical intuition is that it is plenty strong when properly fitted. It doesn't visibly flex when I jump on the step.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Bad idea. Bumpers are weaker than the frame so they absorb impact energy instead of bending the frame. You put a heavy bumper (or a frame hitch for that matter) on the back of your car, and many collisions are going to result in frame damage that would have just been a simple bolt-on swap of a new bumper.

On a previous rear-ended TJ I was able to replace a crunched back bumper with a $25 OEM item from eBay (surplus to somebody's aftermarket upgrade) with hand tools. The other guy had $1000s in damage.

I wonder if people buying all those macho aftermarket bumpers understand that they've *given up* a lot of their crash protection?

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Depends upon the severity of the wreck... My experience has been that it caused thousands of dollars of damage to the other vehicle and just knocked some dirt off my bumper... Turns out that *his* vehicle was acting as the crumple zone for *my* vehicle...

Reply to
Grumman-581

Good lord, how much do you weigh if you think 'you' can test the strength of a bumper by jumping on it?

You 'are' talking towing something the legal limit for the vehicle, on your website, 'not' a trailer and load under 1000 lb at all, but a 1000 lb boat 'plus' a trailer and most folks put gear in the boat.....

I got pulled over in Canada using a real DOT 'certified' trailer hitch that wasn't rated heavy enough for the trailer I was pulling and I was forced to drop the trailer on the road and wait for a tow truck at 3:00 AM. The cop luckily knew my passenger so didn't write me up the $1000.00 in tickets he itemized for me....

You are talking about an unrated homemade hitch on a bumper that is not tow rated at all. Phone your local DOT or highway patrol and ask about that...

I don't really care, but a little shot of safety reality has to be mentioned before too many people go out and copy your bad idea. This is a world wide web after all.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: N>
Reply to
Mike Romain

My 1995 K1500 has a brushguard/grilleguard mounted on the front. Bought the truck used & outfitted this way. Last year a silly juvenile female pulled out in front of me from a side street - her fault & she got ticketed. Totaled her Neon. I drove away with no radiator damage or drivability problems because that brushguard crushed sideways. Saved me big bucks & aggravation until I got it fixed.

Reply to
Stephen Young

Richard,

I think the reason for all the messages of concern you are receiving is that most of us have seen far too many bumpers seemingly hanging on by the strength of prayers and rust.

Bumper hitches were popular... decades ago when vehicles had substantial bumpers.

The auto industry then went through a period where "bumpers" were little more than chrome decoration bolted ONLY to sheet metal or fiberglass and years where they were constructed of metal so thin that they could be twisted by bare hands. I personally witnessed a bus driver twist, with his bare hands, a AMC Gremlin bumper straight after a minor collision.

I don't know what the bumper attachments for your Jeep are but I know what they look like in XJs and WJs and would personally feel uncomfortable hauling a trailer bolted solely to the bumper.

My first concern was your use of four 3/8 inch bolts to hold the angle iron to the bumper. When I installed a frame hitch on my XJ I used eight 1/2 inch stainless steel grade 5 bolts. I fully understand this was overkill but I received additional reassurance by the expenditure of an additional $2.40

As an engineer you were certainly trained to design a product for it intended use and then imagine what a complete moron might try to do with it and calculate a sufficient safety factor.

You intent is to never tow anything more than your 1000 pound inflatable boat/trailer. I will accept based on your education that it is properly designed for that load. What about when your kids use it to pull the homecoming parade float or your neighbor uses it to pull a trailer full of gravel?

Reply to
billy ray

Most of the ones distributed by the big names (Warn, ARB, etc) are designed to work with newer vehicle crash equipment and airbags.... at least that is what they claim..

Reply to
billy ray

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