Dear Vana-nuts,

I received the trailer hitch from the Bus Depot yesterday and here are my
observations:

At 11:21 AM 5/14/99 -0400, The Bus Depot wrote:

>Installing the main unit itself is obvious; you just remove the bumper

>brackets and slide it into the holes the brackets slid into, then put

>the screws back in.

Not quite true! NO "square" receiving nuts are provided. Consequently,
there is nothing to bolt into. I will have to track down such nuts
somewhere first before I attempt to install this beast.

>What's less obvious is the way the mounts for your bumper attach to
the

>hitch. There are two pairs of mounts included; one set is L-shaped and
one

>is more oddly shaped.

Neither work for me as shipped. I will have to take the brackets to a
welding shop to:

A.) cut the "odd-shaped" ones to fit as they are too long

B.) reweld the poorly aligned "tongue" on one of the "odd-shaped"
brackets

    (<underline>looks like the welder had a bit too much to drink the
night before</underline>)

Other things to consider:

1.) The unit *is* well-made and quite "beefy" (other than the poorly
welded

    bracket I received as mentioned above)

2.) The "arms" that slip into the chassis frame are much longer than
stock and

    use THREE bolts each to mount instead of the stock two. If you look
inside

    your wheelwell you will see the two original bolts that hold the
existing

    arms. Then, notice about 12" toward the front of the vehicle another

    "empty" hole in the chassis frame for the third bolt. This is good.

3.) The unit is shipped without packaging -- therefore it arrived
totally

    scratched up (i.e. gouged down to bare metal) via UPS. I will need to
paint

    it thoroughly before installing it.

4.) This is NOT anything like a normal 2" hitch (just in case you were
hoping

    it was)

5.) No receiving nuts are supplied for the inserts -- you will need to
track

    down six of these just to complete the installation as mentioned
above

6.) The hitch mounting plate is shaped like a baseball "base plate" with
the

    "point" facing down. It sticks down quite a bit. The upshot of this
is

    it will affect your rear "approach angle" if you do any off-roading

7.) The mounting brackets are less substantial than stock and are mounted

    using a SINGLE bolt! This means to me that the bumper is even less

    securely mounted than the stock setup

In spite of the above, I will most likely keep this unit.

However, I will send it out to be modified as described below:

1.) add tow hooks

2.) convert it to a standard 2" receiver

3.) shorten its height so as not to affect the "approach angle"

4.) modify the mounting plates and have them welded to the unit instead
of bolted

Needless to say, this will cost quite a bit of time and money! Perhaps it
would be cheaper just to modify my existing brackets? Not sure. I've got
some thinking to do.

Summary of my thoughts:

While this trailer hitch is a truly unique "find", I'm afraid the hitch
gets a "A" for effort, but no cigar in my book. What is actually wrong
here is that it is made for another market (i.e. South Africa/Europe) and
the North American market has different requirements/expectations.

However, for some people, this will be a great find and they should feel
quite happy with it. Just be sure to pester Ron about supplying the
square receiving nuts in the future! (and hope you don't get any
"drunken" welds!)

Cheers,

<bold>Michael J. Sullivan

</bold>Marshfield, MA

Tierra del Fuego 2000 or bust!

'87 VW Vanagon GL Syncro Westfalia "Sunny" (soon to be TDi-powered)

'89 Audi 200 Turbo Quattro Wagon "Wizard" (soon to be for sale)

'96 VW Passat TDi "Teddi" (46mpg)

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work:       http://www.openmarket.com

my vanagon: http://www.hsdesign.com/vanagon

scan tips:  http://www.hsdesign.com/scanning

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