Mk4 Jetta wagon 2" hitch receiver

[romad]

Are you sure that isn't in U.K. pounds? The U.K. is not part of the Euro Zone. I just went and priced a Bosal and the quote was £174.28 + £99 shipping to California for a total of £273.28. At today's exchange rate, $1.51 = £1.00, that is $412.65 Now the price says it includes V.A.T. (currently 20%) so since the item is being shipped out of the U.K., they may drop it. If so then it could be £145.23 + £99 = £244.23 or $368.79.

Though you may have to pay customs on the purchase if it exceeds the daily personal exemption.

 

[LMJ]

You are correct. It's in pounds, not euros. Don't they call them quid as well.

 

[Lightflyer1]

http://www.idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=550


Sure wish whoever is blowing the margins out with their pics would fix them so I can stop scrolling back and forth to read.

 

[romad]

http://www.idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=550


Sure wish whoever is blowing the margins out with their pics would fix them so I can stop scrolling back and forth to read.

Yep, that is where I bought mine though it looks like direct from the U.K. now has an edge; probably due to the recent drop in the exchange rate.

What size monitor do you have? I have a 21.5" iMac and I don't have to scroll back & forth.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Low resolution monitor I guess. Laptop 1366 x 768

 

[trailhead]

My hitch got its first test. I loaded up a couple bikes and made the 200km trip to the cottage. It all went off without a hitch

 

[Specialized]

Those look like expensive bikes to take a chance with.

 

[trailhead]

They are expensive bikes but, I don't see any real risk.
I built it to carry weight and it does!

 

[79TA7.6]

It could be the angle of the picture, but it looks like the hitch/bike rack are angled down a little.

 

[trailhead]

It is angled down slightly. The receiver is level but, the bike rack has less then 90% at the first bend.

 

[romad]

Is it the light or do I see a dent just in front of the taillight assembly?

 

[trailhead]

You do see a dent. It was there when I bought it. I'm doing all the mechanical repairs and mods before I deal with the body work.

 

[vandermic07]

When i made the hitch for my golf, i thought about using the bumper but it seamed too weak to me. I made mine with 1/4" thick arms and 2X2X.25 tubing welded to it and used the 4 holes in the frame rails. the nice thing about the golf is the license plate location. my hitch is hidden right behind it and the plate flips up. I tow a 4 wheeler around with no problems.
I would be careful with that thing when towing a trailer. Not saying it wont work but my bumper didnt feel worthy of taking a 10mph crash let alone towing a trailer. it looks like it will work great for bikes though.
I hope it works.

 

[loco_unoTDI]

I did this to my wagon. Solid as a rock! I also have the bars going into the frame rail like the Bosal but have them attached via 3 factory holes in each side by Grade 10.5 bolts. Not going anywhere.

Link to my writeup on here.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=378751

 

[trailhead]

Hey loco,

I checked out your hitch when planning mine. Yours looks very strong, overkill really but, Is there such a thing as too strong? Answer; nope.

Did you use the 4-8mm bumper bolts on yours? You may be aware already; They're way stronger then the first pair of holes going into the frame rails.

Cheers,
TC

 

[coalminer16]

Either way thank you romad and trailhead. Remember that anyone following this that you basically build at your own risk even if you are a mechanical engineer (I am) because if you get in an accident you likely don't have the insurance to cover your butt so you are kind of on your own. That said between my mechanical engineering degree and my brothers two year welding degree (most are one year) we build one for my 04 golf, his 05 Jetta wagon and my fathers 09 sportwagon all with 2 inch recievers all we feel easily could lift the whole car with. We didn't use the OEM bumper as the whole hitch for my Golf was fairly cheap on ebay for the reciever and a couple pieces of angle iron and bolts/nuts for the parts going into the car. Brother used similar for the wagons.

A few things to remember though is that the bumper is meant for impact, not tension/shear forces. We did use the OEM bolts for the bumper and plates but they do very little from what we could tell other then to help hold the bumper parts on the car. The plates help spread the load on impact but the fine thread bolts don't have much tension strength.

 

[trailhead]

Thanks for chiming in Coalminer, It has certainly been interesting for me reading peoples reactions to my design. Concern has been voiced about this hitch being weak compared to the euro style, I understand that. What I find most interesting is that no one has brought up the design of the cars frame rails from the back of the wheel wells and rearward. There are 5 points of attachment on each side, all on a vertical plane. Of the 5 only 3 are suitable for a hitch based on the cars chassis design. At these 3 points the body is 3 layers thick. At the other 2 points you are bolted up to a single layer of car. Imho, this is what makes my hitch actually stronger then any other. With that said, There is still a weak link in my hitch; The bumper. That will be the next part of this thread

 

[79TA7.6]

A few things to remember though is that the bumper is meant for impact, not tension/shear forces.

Nor is it designed for twisting, which is my main concern. I too am an ME and the twist, even if it is very little, could be what will fail on this design. Especially at the points that were cut out. At these points it will allow the bumper to "tear" apart.

This hitch may never fail, I just do not feel comfortable with the design is all.

 

[romad]

That is why I went with the Bosal - it is basically an OEM approved item unlike the Curt/Hidden Hitch designs. If I lived closer to Coalminer (or he to me) I would have paid to have him design a custom job.

 

[loco_unoTDI]

I could not view the pictures of your hitch yesterday as work had them blocked. Upon viewing this morning I am with everyone else and I would be concerned with twist and fatigue cracking over time. That piece is meant for impact and bending/crumpling to disperse rear end collisions. I would never use it to make a hitch out of, not when you can easy make one out of box steal.

And further, with the bolts. I used zero of the 4 8mm bumper support attachment bolts. Only because my car was rear ended before I got it and the whole rear fascia where the bolts attached was distorted. The sheet metal is very thin and I could easy bend the bottom by hand. Definitely not meant for towing attachment points (why the Bosal doesn't use them).

I used the two (each side) factory frame rail hitch bolt holes with the extra pad welded on to attache my hitch. It was designed from VW for that after all. And I used a third hole (each side) that was behind the rear tire plastic fender skirting. So 3 grade 10.9 bolts through the frame rail at even spacing on each arm into the frame for my hitch. That is sheer strength with no twist.

If I was you. I would re-fabricate your hitch if you are to tow anything of substance. Better, faster, stronger...we have the technology. Just my $0.02

 

[coalminer16]

A simple test you can do for twisting is stand on the ball mount and do some bouncing to see if things are twisting. My curt hitch before building my own would move a fair amount. The right side was only connected with two bolts and the left with 3 bolts all in the spare tire well. It made me nervous enough to finally convince my brother to weld these up. My fathers was even worse for the hitch VW installed on the 09 sportwagon. To pull an Aluma trailer (you can't adjust tongue height) my brother had to build a ball mount to level the trailer. The hitch was always scrapping on the ground and the amount of rise on the ball mount you could see the twice just towing in the yard stopping/going.

Now you can stand on any of our ball mounts and the only thing moving is the shocks of the car. Nothing else moves. We have ball mounts that lock into the reciever to prevent rattle and the hitches on the trailers are set tight enough to where they barely go over the ball. There is zero rattle from a full or empty trailer this way. I have found you realize an out of balance trailer wheel pretty quick that way too since you feel your trailer more.

So if you bounce on your ball mount and it doesn't move (and you weigh around 200 lbs-roughly the rated tongue weight of other hitches) I think you are safe. If it moves a lot-you need to consider building up the bumper or putting in tubing in place of it.

Too bad the 2013 Passat has the exhaust treatment bottle in the way to look at for right now. After warranty it might get a real hitch as the hitch VW installed has the same issues as the 09 sportwagon had. For now the sportwagon will be the towing vehicle though. It has done good so far with 171K miles on an auto tranny.

 

[trailhead]

Because some of you felt my hitch wasn't strong enough and even though my first version had 0mm deflection with my 170lbs standing on it.
I added two more bolts (total now 8) and two peices of 3/8"x2-1/2" flat stock to reinforce things a bit.

Thanks much to all who helped me through this project

The final version;

 

[coalminer16]

Looks good to me. If there wasn't any deflection bouncing on it then you were good before I would think but know you KNOW you are good to go. Always better to over build then under or boarder line. Without expensive engineering computer programs to test this or do an actual destructive test I think you are goo.

 

[mittzlepick]

do any of you guys have dimensions on the shock tube hole? depth and width

 

[trailhead]

Both sides are different. You would be able to use 1-1/2 angle iron for sure. Anything bigger or square would not fit the right side.

Edit; if you look at pictures of the euro hitches they all seem to be (about) 1/2" x 1 1/2 flat stock that goes into the car.

 

[LMJ]

1.

3. If you're concerned about a fixed ball mount then get this:
http://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Accessories/Bosal/BSL043964.html

Update: I bought the bosal receiver adapter from e-trailer. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the euro hitch for vw MK4s. The triangular knobs on either side of the hitch prevent it from being inserted into the hitch. I spoke to Bosal of North America and they informed me that the 2"x2" receiver adapter is made for hitches that they produce for trucks and SUVs. They don't have anything for an MK4 hitch.

 

[dremd]

Update: I bought the bosal receiver adapter from e-trailer. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the euro hitch for vw MK4s. The triangular knobs on either side of the hitch prevent it from being inserted into the hitch. I spoke to Bosal of North America and they informed me that the 2"x2" receiver adapter is made for hitches that they produce for trucks and SUVs. They don't have anything for an MK4 hitch.

Well, that sucks.
Would it work if extended? Could you get one of the cheaper swan neck balls, and cut / weld to build something similar that works?

 

[Ian F]

Ca ca... I was wondering about that. The connection doesn't look anything like the one on the idparts website.

 

[romad]

The connection looks like the one on the Bosal hitch I got from IDParts. A comparision:

I think the picture upon their website is of the old style as it doesn't match the above.

 

[romad]

Update: I bought the bosal receiver adapter from e-trailer. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with the euro hitch for vw MK4s. The triangular knobs on either side of the hitch prevent it from being inserted into the hitch. I spoke to Bosal of North America and they informed me that the 2"x2" receiver adapter is made for hitches that they produce for trucks and SUVs. They don't have anything for an MK4 hitch.

If you were closer, we could see if it fit mine.