Pics of my homemade hitch
As promised here are some pictures of the hitch I have installed on my 2005 Golf;
(click the pics for larger pics)

1) Here is the receiver sticking out under the lic plate. And yes, my solution for hooking up safety chains is ugly - I have been mulling over ideas to change it.

2) Here is a shot across the back of the car to show the receiver tucked in tight.

3) This picture shows the receiver sticking out under the 5mph bumper. Also hard to make out is the bottom of the tube going across behind the bumper.
NOTE: The bumper cover is removed for the rest of the pics!

4) Here is the shot showing the cross tubing that the receiver is attached to. And, no that's not an optical illusion, the tubing was bowed slightly to follow the contours of the body work of the car.

5) This picture shows my FUGLY welding.

I never was that great on a stick welder and this machine was junk. Back to the point, this shows how I mounted the hitch to the car. The stock bolts were replaced with longer grade 8s

confused

. As others have commented - the flex and tension vs shear mounting are issues I want to resolve.

6) A little hard to see, but this shot shows that there is a mounting bolt on the outboard side of the shock in addition to the two bolts on the inboard of the shock. Also more of my HIDEOUS

welding holding the cross tube to the mounting plate.

7) BONUS SHOT! Somehow during the original construction of my hitch, I had come to the conclusion that the 5mph bumper was directly behind the lic plate. This prevented having the receiver hidden behind the plate until needed. BUT, as this shot shows, there should be room to have the receiver behind the top 1/2 to 1/3 of the lic plate. Probably a tight fit for 2" but little problem for 1 1/4". The wire harness in the pic is going to the lic lights and those two screws are the holding the lic plate on.
I want to change my design some what. Thoughts I had;
- sandwich the hitch mount between the bumper shock and the body of the car. This would allow for a piece to reach into the frame opening to attach like the euro hitch does, without loosing or modifying the bumper shocks.
- move the receiver up behind the lic plate. My Scout (as well as Blazers and Broncos) had folding plate brackets. That or sliding catch (like a desk or toolbox drawer).
- add some way to stabilize a cargo carrier. I like
DieselProgrammer's idea. It is removable to the point where nothing is visible. Main complaint is the hitch is still close the ground when in use. Having grown up in a town with steep driveways, I try for as much clearance as possible.
Results: Hitch works as designed. I have towed >2800lbs more than 2500 miles without incident. It handles the current duty of a 40"x48" trailer fine. I just don't know if I trust it putting a cargo carrier back there.
Jason