Trailer hitch needed

Hi folks, I need your help,

as some of you have seen in my introduction post to this forum, I have a caravan to go to american car meetings here in Germany.

Unfortunately my Caprice don't have a trailer hitch. I am looking for one nearly for one year, but nothing suitable was found. The only one I found is at Rockauto.com, but this only has a capacity of 3500 lbs, what is why to less to pull my caravan. I need at least 4500 or better higher! Is threr anything you can revcomend available in the US!!?

I am looking to hear.

Gasoline Greetings

Mike

Mike, even here in the US we can't get those class II/III hitches new. You can get the little ones new all night long however. My step-dad needed the big one, and he must have called two dozen places nationwide, all turned up nothing. Everyone had just been having them drop shipped from the manufacturer, and the last manufacturer stopped making them late last summer. Every place he called said "Oh, yeah, we can get them" and then when my step asked if they could get back to him and verify that, the answer was always "no". He even called U-Haul's "Hitch Central" out in Arizona, and they said "no problem, I'm sure there's one in stock someplace" two weeks later they got back to him and said no luck and that all they could do for him was make a hitch, but only if he could get the car to Arizona. I ended up finding him a used one off one of the forums. He did look into one other option that you may want to investigate; He went to a local truck center and asked them about making a hitch. They seemed reluctant to do it at first, but said it would cost $500 and would be welded in place. Good luck, Mike.

Hi Lynol,

thats not what I hoped tp hear! Anyway thanks for your help. I found some US pages like reese which offers class III / IV (Part # Part Number:75146 and 33007) hitches for the Caprice. Am I right that I need these to tow my caravan? What is your opinion would also a hitch from an 88 Caprice fit?

I am going nuts! Would have never imagined that it is so difficult......

The sedan hitches are narrower than the wagon hitches. I hope you have a freight forwarder lined up, because it will cost you an arm and a leg to ship one to Europe otherwise.

AND.......
Towing that amount of weight, you had better use a load equalizer hitch set-up, and a
brake controller, unless your trailer has surge brakes!

I haven't seen one to judge, but can the sedan hitch be shimmed (or whatever) to fit?

The hitch goes around the outside of the frame. Therefore there is no way to shim the sedan hinge to fit the wagon. You might be able to shim the wagon hitch to fit a sedan.

Then, box-iron of an inside or outside slip fit could be used after sawing the hitch box-iron on either side of the center. It's do-able... if you want a hitch.

I bought a sedan hitch and my buddy added some steel and welded it right onto my wagon. Its cheap and rock solid.

Check Ebay, they pop up there now and then,

Oh and also go look for an Airstream trailer forum. These wagons are popular with Airstream owners, and I bet someone on one of those forums might have a used hitch or could tell you where to locate one.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f463/towing-with-a-1996-roadmaster-wagon-75080.html

Good luck and hope that helps!

-Mike

Deadmanonduty wrote:

I bought a sedan hitch and my buddy added some steel and welded it right onto my wagon. Its cheap and rock solid.

Preach it! It is doable.

A member of other board sold me sedan hitch that he swore was for a wagon and when I got it, I just said "its going on"!

We bolted one side on and welded one side on. Its off center like an inch, but I don't care.

If you scroll down about 1/2 way on the first page of this topic:

https://gmlongroof.4umer.com/t6313-class-3-hitches-do-they-really-not-exist

you will find my solution to the problem, along with a dimensioned drawing.

BTW: in some jurisdictions welding the hitch to the vehicle is not permitted. I've heard of people being refused entry at the US/Canadian border because of it. It makes little sense to me, since every trailer hitch I've ever seen has a weld somewhere, but maybe the safety gurus are happier with factory welds on new metal than overhead welds on mystery metal.

I have no idea what German law is on the subject!

Factories have the threat of lawsuits to keep their welds sturdy. The car owner most often doesn't have the ability or knowledge to make a trustworthy weld.