Can this be repaired?
my hitch ordeal
Moderator: mikenmel08
my hitch ordeal
Way back in August I ordered a hitch for the Baja off eBay. When the hitch finally arrived a month later (backordered?) it was missing parts and damaged. I had paid with paypal so I was able to initiate a claim which caused the seller to send me another hitch (this time with all the parts). So now I have two hitches. One good one that I can install and one bad one that looks like this
Can this be repaired?
Can this be repaired?
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Flowmastered87GL
- Scoobytruck Master
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 12:53 am
- Location: Portland, OR
That seems strange... Do they have a guy with a sledgehammer nail all the hitches in roughly the same spot?canuck37 wrote:The dent is for the exhaust pipe to pass through - I put mine on and that's its purpose!jaxed wrote:That's a dent.Flowmastered87GL wrote:Whats damaged??? the dent on the right?? Or is that a relief for the tow hook?
I figure the hitch may not be safe to use with it? But I have no clue.
The hitch I was sent as a replacement has no dent.
Whenever I get around to installing it, I'll find out for sure.
Well, I don't know what to tell you, except that I just looked at mine again to refresh my memory and yes, it is exactly aligned with the exhaust pipe - just below it actually when the hitch is installed. And that made me recall the installation was a bear for one person to balance everything and bolt this heavy brut up all by myself, BUT the "dent" makes it easier to get the whole deal up where it needs to go past the exhaust. Without it, you might have to loosen the tailpipe. Perhaps different years of Baja's had different exhaust setups and this might explain your getting one without - maybe for a different year. Mine was an 03. Regardless, it is obviously impressed as part of the manufacturing process and I can't imagine it being an issue, it is out of sight anyway and should not be a safety concern. Just my $0.02 worth....jaxed wrote:That seems strange... Do they have a guy with a sledgehammer nail all the hitches in roughly the same spot?canuck37 wrote:The dent is for the exhaust pipe to pass through - I put mine on and that's its purpose!jaxed wrote: That's a dent.
I figure the hitch may not be safe to use with it? But I have no clue.
The hitch I was sent as a replacement has no dent.
Whenever I get around to installing it, I'll find out for sure.
jaxed wrote:Well, turns out I'm an idiot and that the new hitch I received does indeed have an indentation in the same spot. canuck37 is right. So I guess I demanded a new hitch for no reason! Though the original shipment was missing parts...
Anyway, some day I will actually get to install the thing.
No worries, man. I had the same initial impression when I saw mine, then put 2 + 2 together and figured it out. Only took mine out of the box the day I installed it, so didn't have much time ot overanalyze the situation.
I never got around to doing the trailer wiring yet. Does anyone know where the best place is to buy the OE wiring harness that plugs in to the pre-installed socket in the RH wheel well? I don't want to take a chance on having someone else do a WalMart harness job, given the whole issue of the switched ground issue we have on our Bajas, etc.. Headache to deal with......
I have the same hitch, and it works fine. Easy to install, did it myself at work, of course I had the use of my hoist to make it easier. As for the wiring, I went with a Hidden Hitch splitter box. It was a pain to wire as I had to run a power wire all the way to the battery, right through the inside and out the firewall. But once it was in, no problems at all. I had to pull the right side bedliner material loose to tap into the tail and turn wiring. But it is all soldered and taped up nice, and should never be a problem. And since the box for the lights feeds off of the battery, should never have an issue with overloading the factory wiring circuits. They use really small gauge wires. Another thing, with the wiring up in the box, keeps it out of the weather and the salt. Mike
Even though I work on Dodges, I don't own one.
mbaksic wrote:I have the same hitch, and it works fine. Easy to install, did it myself at work, of course I had the use of my hoist to make it easier. As for the wiring, I went with a Hidden Hitch splitter box. It was a pain to wire as I had to run a power wire all the way to the battery, right through the inside and out the firewall. But once it was in, no problems at all. I had to pull the right side bedliner material loose to tap into the tail and turn wiring. But it is all soldered and taped up nice, and should never be a problem. And since the box for the lights feeds off of the battery, should never have an issue with overloading the factory wiring circuits. They use really small gauge wires. Another thing, with the wiring up in the box, keeps it out of the weather and the salt. Mike
I went with the factory harness.
You RARELY go wrong with factory.
But I've seen dozens of other wiring jobs go bad on trailers.
Bad grounds, bad connections etc.