OK – At long last (for me, that is!!) here are the pictures and descriptions of the custom-made Class II hitch for my 98 Jetta.
It took me 5 hitch shops to find 2 who said they could do it.
But one was not real flexible to making exactly what I wanted, he just seemed to have the attitude “I’m the one who knows what I’m doing, and this is what I can do. You just have to accept what I can give you.” He was also the pricier of the two, but not by much I think he quoted me something like $385 for the cost of the hitch (fabrication) and the labor to install it.
The other was much more open to letting me say exactly what I wanted, where I wanted everything – and what I DIDN’T want – and then trying to make it exactly like I wanted, or as close to that as could be done. She quoted me between $300 and $400 when she looked at the car, and then when the job was done, the bill was $314. Cost of the hitch (fabrication) and the labor to install it.
The day she looked at it was at the end of the day, and I came back the next day to have it done. But my Frybrid WVO fuel tank lines were going into the trunk right about where she needed to put the brace on the passenger side!
So we had to remove the HIH lines from the tank, pull them out of the hole, cut a new hole farther forward and run the HIH lines in there. Then I brought it back another day, and they did it all in one day.
For those following the link to the discussion of the WVO fuel system, we used plastic ferrules in the compression fittings when we installed the tank, because I wanted it to be removable. I knew that I would eventually want to take out this tank and put in another one under the car (in the space that is framed by the hitch) and didn’t want the HIH assembly to be “permanent”.
If you use brass ferrules in a compression fitting, they will crimp the aluminum line, and necessitate cutting it off to remove the HIH, and then you have to shorten the HIH to get back on good line. But with plastic ferrules, you can dis-assemble the HIH and remove it; then when re-assembling it, just replace the 89 cent plastic ferrules. As I said, I had already known I would need to dis-assemble it – just didn’t know I would need to that soon!
I would have liked for the receiver to be totally hidden or removable. But I needed it to be full Class II strength, and I also wanted to be able to use “standard” hitches and accessories (like a cargo shelf) in the receiver. And the only ones I’ve seen that are fully under the bumper cover can only take a custom hitch and are only Class I. So small and unobtrusive was the best I could get for the functionality I wanted.
Most of the hitches I saw for Jetta had a support bar that went up and attached right in the middle of the trunk floor. While this would certainly add support, and I needed all I could get, I also needed that space to remain open for a custom WVO fuel tank to go there. So they had to frame it around the open space.
It is also given additional support by attaching to the bumper:
CONTINUES IN THE NEXT POST . . . .
