High clearance hitch on stock bumper

[DaMonkey]

The hitch on my truck sucked. It was a class II hitch and hung down soo far. :doh: I wanted high clearance class III and thought it would be slick to hide the beef.

Started with eimkeith's gas tank bracket. I'll use it for a second tank rather than relocate.

Pic borrowed from [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION] and linked to his website. He did a great job with these.

Put a .188 wall 2.5" square tube on the back. Weighs less than the contraption I pulled off and it's stronger. Cleared holes underneath for the tank bracket bolts. I'll run support plates up the frame rails a ways. Frame is paper thin .120, it needs all it can get.

Cut in for 2" receiver hitch. Standoffs for stock bumper mounting. Prepped for full weld.

The butthole

Sleeper hitch. Pin has open access just behind the bumper. I'll fill in the ugly seam on the skirt of hitch and paint black. Going to french in some threaded rod ends on the outside chrome uprights of the stock bumper for heimed tire swing out. Prob something simple and stout. Not sure yet on how i'll do the latch without screaming for too much attention. The black trim piece for the step on top of bumper cleaned up nice with a heat gun (not in pic - I'll follow up).

 

[JZiggy]

That’s a great idea and a clean design. Thanks for sharing. If I had the fab skills I’d want to do this.

 

[TonyB66]

Like the creativity and admire the execution!

 

[Wedgy]

Very clean, and strong too !

 

[RomanSchnobrich]

That is so rad! Such a great idea and far cleaner than the hitch flip folks like to do. Well done.

 

[samsquantch]

Really nice! Can you make another that bolts right up?

 

[3bears]

that's really nice and clean , nice job

 

[DaMonkey]

Really nice! Can you make another that bolts right up?

Thanks. You can see from first pic at start of post that the eimkeith bracket for tank is designed to be welded in, but I tacked in some backing nuts for 5/8" bolts at end of frame. The frame sleeves will also bolt into stock hitch mount location, and another bolt on side. It will be removable.

I think a kit like this would be pretty basic. I wish there was one I could have bought. It would have made my life easier. This hitch is actually much simpler than the off-shelf options that hang down. Less material (especially without the extended width tube I used for swing out support). A kit could made to bolt on, but the bumper still needs surgery. That wasn't hard with a template, drill and cutoff wheel - I was real surprised how nicely the chrome cut.

But the hard part for a kit would the spare tire. The eimkeith aux fuel tank bracket goes a couple inches into the frame where the spare tire is. But hitch only would not need the tank bracket. Without the tank bracket, maybe could shift back and work around a spare tire, but might have trouble keeping the flush mount hitch and still have room for hidden pin behind bumper. Not sure. I think it would be a cool kit, but I'm not the guy to make them - I'm already playing hooky. I'd be real happy to see someone offer it up.

Can sort of see the spare tire issue in below linked picture from post by [MENTION=44220]BigFishAllDay[/MENTION] :