Bumper-mounted trailer hitch bracket for Jeep Wrangler TJ

Richard J Kinch proclaimed:

Rebunked. And even more happy instance, you can have your heinie sued off even if you weren't cited for excessive carelessness and wanton stupidity.

Still bunk.

Simply driving, nothing is going to "happen" with this hitch. In a collision, the violation and/or liability is with the driver at fault for the collision. Not with the hitch or its owner.

"Home made" has *nothing* to do with it.

Read the law. I cited it earlier. Florida makes absolutely no specific technical requirements for hitches, only that you have "sufficient strength to pull all weight towed" and that you have safety chains or other 49 CFR devices. You can tow with overcooked spaghetti if it has "sufficient strength".

People tow cars with rope and granny knots every day. Nothing illegal about it.

Mike Romain is from Canada... It's quite possible that the leftist government up there has different rules than we have down here... Personally, I would go with a stronger solution, but that's just my standards of engineering...

Thank God I live in Georgia, and it is illegal to tow with " ropes an granny knots ". Up here you get ticketed for not have a proper hitch. Just goes to show you that the Transplanted Yankees in Florida have had there brains fried too long out in all that sun!!!!

Richard being as how you have a Ph.D. I am going to assume you know the difference between ignorant and stupid. Well you can't say that you are ignorant, as too many people in here have tried to educate you on this matter, so what choice does that leave us with to describe you?

Tom

Rebunked agreed - There's nothing wrong with the design of the hitch plate you made itself, it looks plenty strong for the intended purpose, but the structural integrity of the bumper you /attached it to/ is a complete unknown.

Since the Feds stopped requiring bumpers to survive 2-1/2 and 5 MPH crash tests car and light truck bumpers are pretty much beauty items only, and some (especially the ones not designed as a trailer hitch) are virtually stamped from tissue paper and then chromed. You admitted it yourself that they're made to crumple - and you can't count on strength in towing from a known weak structure.

I would strongly suggest you go get a proper receiver hitch made that is tucked under the car, and remove the drawbar whenever you aren't using it - and if you do get hit in the rear, that tissue paper bumper will be the item hanging out there to get hit and try to absorb the forces. (Not.) But hey, it's your liability, not mine.

Nothing will likely happen to you legally now, the cops don't go around inspecting people's trailer hitches on a whim - until the hitch fails.

If and when it fails while on a public street or highway, and the trailer wanders off and kills someone or does some serious property damage, they are going to send out an officer (local or state, depending) to investigate and write the reports. And if the LEO sees a mangled mess on the back of the car that let go, they'll probably (as the old saw goes) "throw the book at you".

The Officers can easily reconstruct the accident scene - there are trained Major Accident Investigation Teams that do nothing but this, every day. They figure how fast everyone was going, do the math on the forces involved on the bumper in the accident, and prove that the weak link was the hitch that let go. They can prove that a properly designed hitch would have held under 2X to 4X (or more) of the forces involved in that incident - so whoever made that hitch is at fault.

In California, this would be one of the brickbats in said book:

Yes, you are in Florida - but most vehicle codes are similar.

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They have educated me as to their casual opinions in conflict with concrete experience. Normal Usenet flux.

I'd be surprised if as you assert Georgia doesn't allow towing with rope. But I couldn't find the relevant statute, maybe you can:

The link below is to a page in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation website. I will assume, with the known limitations therein, that it may be taken as an 'official" publication

Please see paragraphs 4 & 5 in section 1 Please see paragraph 5 in section 2 Please see illustration 2

However the factory manual shows the only approved (by DC) methods of attaching a towbar. In my XJ manual it is section 13 pages 7 & 8.

Does someone have a Wrangler manual that can check and post the appropriate pages in the Frames & Bumpers section?

I agree fully with Bruce. The 3/8" x 4" angle is plenty sturdy enough. That is not what everyone is complaining about. It is the 3/32" sheet you have attached it too that is not strong enough for a load.....Remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and the weakest link hear is the 3/32" stock bumper!

But hey that is okay..... I just hope you sleep well after that bumper rips through and your trailer and angle hitch go veering off and hurt someone......

Get over yourself and stop being such a cheapskate! You seem to take pride in your cheapness and stupidity.......

Tom

Richard,

I will respect that you have made all the proper calculations on your boat and trailer weights and have for your education know the strength parameters and limitations of the Jeep Wrangler bumper attachment system.

That being said many of the people replying to you have years or decades of practical experience and many, myself included, have seen vehicles with their rear bumpers twisted or pulled off by what they were towing.

Imagine, if you will, a scene we all hope will never happen where you are in a courtroom with your spreadsheet defending your calculations and workmanship. The county prosecutor then calls a representative from Reese, Hidden Hitch, Valley, etc and asks them to display all the hitches they manufacture that fit the Wrangler.

The will come in on carts, of course, as they weigh in at 20+ pounds. The drawbars themselves are 3/4 inch steel the crossbars 1.25 or 2 inch steel pipe or tube, and the attachment plates while only 1/4 inch thick are 4-6 inches wide and attached by 1/2 inch grade 5 or 8 bolts. He will then pick up what is left of your bumper and twist it in his bare hands.

Are you wrong in an engineering point of view? No, but the jury is going to send you to prison anyway because they won't understand why the industry standard is 10x and yours wasn't.

Then you get to go home and explain, again, to your bride why her youngest child died. All the spreadsheets in the world won't convince her it was unforeseeable and unpreventable..

Please do not let your professi>

Jeep Wrangler Owners Manual.

I have one and it states:

"Trailer Towing Requirements: Class I Hitch (Light Duty) for towing trailers with a Gross Trailer Weight of up to and not exceeding 2,000 lbs. (907kg).

Nuff said!

Tom

appropriate

Nobody will claim you need 1/2" steel for your hitch. However, engineering is usually about designing in safety margins to ensure people don't get hurt. Your tyres are engineered to take a much greater load than is applied by your Jeep, for example.

So the rest is philosophy ; given it won't fall off in an ideal situation - how much of a safety margin are you prepared to begrudgingly spend your cents on ? I guess the answer is "less than anyone else".

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

Nonsense. FS 316.530 is a "noncriminal traffic infraction."

Yeah, horrible accidents happen. The weak-hitch-equals-death analysis makes a pleasant fictional scene, but unconvincing as to reality.

Baloney.

The (Florida) law requires a hitch to be of "sufficient strength to pull all weight towed thereby". There is no "proper design" beyond that. The performance in a *collision* is of no legal significance. The liability is strictly with the at-fault driver(s).

By your "proper design" theory, you could be sued for driving a Hyundai instead of a Humvee. It's your fault you got hurt riding in a tinfoil car, not that somebody rear-ended you.

You can beef up your vehicle to take a meteorite hit, but it will be no more or less liability in a collision.

Richard, I also note upon looking at the setup again, that the safety chains would attach to the same piece of metal that the hitch resides upon. If the weak link here is the strength of the bumper material, having the chains attached to the frame will help.

A while back in the thread, Mike painted a scenario where you might be rear-ended and the trailer tongue shoots through the Jeep's tub. I have actually had this happen to me. I have a pop-up camper towed by a Sienna. While waiting to make a left turn, a van hit the back of the trailer hard. Both the other van and the trailer were totaled. The tongue was indeed pushed into the back of the Sienna and the force vector was straight in line with the car's direction and also upward a bit. The upward tilt of the hitch ball surprised me a bit, but there it was. I had to unbolt the whole hitch and drop it to disconnect the trailer from the ball, as it was buried up in the upper bumper. The combination of the Class 2 hitch and then the frame of the Sienna absorbed it all, about $2500 worth of fixed damage to the Sienna. I speculate that if I had an equivalent of this hitch design, it would be likely that the trailer tongue would, in its upward vector, pierce the rear of the tub and head for people in the seats.

At least safety chains attached to the frame instead of the part that is (connected to at least) part of the failure might mitigate this. The chains need to be of plenty of girth as well.

In other words, if the bumper is the weak point, and the chains are attached to the metal attached to the bumper, the chains provide zero additional help. They would only help if the trailer jumps off of the ball. I advocate attaching them to the frame. Tomes

You aren't likely to convince him. He 'thinks' he is edUcated so he knows better.

I had some short blond in a large pickup ram into my utility trailer 3 times at a red light before I got out to see what the hell she was doing. She was so short, she couldn't see the trailer and just couldn't understand why she couldn't get closer to me.

That one wrecked a 'legal' trailer hitch and the tongue spear also wanted to come up over the bumper. My bumper was a 'real' one so the tongue didn't punch through it.

Mike