I spent half the day building a Reese style hitch and receiver for my 56 Olds to pull my 61 Shasta R.I. and then threw it in the scrap pile. It just didn't look right. Any ideas? Pics would be great.
start with something like this, and make it ten times as strong as you think it needs to be. http://www.ebay.com/itm/161792605219
I made something with parts similiar to this But used some smaller rectangle tubing under the car 1 1/2 and made a longer receiver out past the bumper on my 39 Ford. Hardly noticed it when the receiver was removed. The rear of the hitch was attached to the frame rails. HRP
The cross member behind the bumper didn't seem all that strong but running 1/4" wall 2" tubing all the way across weighed a ton.
in the old days, they'd run a piece of heavy angle across the back of the car from one frame rail to the other, and maybe a couple more smaller angles diagonally to the hitch bar. The ball would mount on a bar sticking out, usually something like 3/4 thick by 3" wide, maybe a bit smaller. They weren't shy about welding this stuff right to the bumper, too. I've had a few on some old vehicles.
So how much are you towing ? Do you really need a class 3 hitch ? Are you towing 8,000 lbs? How about a class 1 hitch style hitch ? Weighs 40 lbs. tows 2000 lbs with 200 lb touge weight. 1-1/4" receiver Maybe a class 2 Weighs 45 lbs tows 3500 lbs , 350 lb touge weight 1-1/4" receiver
Every hitch I've seen on actual cars that have been sitting rotting since they were parked in the 50s or 60s had a ball bolted to the bumper on some kind of small bracket. That's it.
I've seen some with a curved V strap bolted over the bumper with a slot for the ball...anyone got a pic of this?...that would probably look pretty cool chromed...
My dad used this style hitch (although his was homemade), on his 49 Kaiser, 53 Dodge Coronet, 57 Chevy, 58 Chevy, until he bought a 63 Impala. That's when I put a better (in my mind) style on. You can't get more traditional than these:
heh....I'm trying to get him to combine a little safety, with the tradition. I know it's not traditional.
Most of the old hitches I've removed from cars I hauled in,,, were scary to say the least. Might not look old, but I'd go for safe
I agree here. Most of what I used to see when I was a kid was a "bumper" hitch and they were just that they clamped to the bumper. I am putting a receiver hitch on my A bone if it gets a hitch at all it will be nearly invisible most of the time but be ready if I need it.
I like the look of that clamp-on Stu D Baker posted. That would look cool chrome, but I would never trust it to tow. I used a clamp-on to flat tow a 56 F100 PU on a tow bar home once. It was clamped to a 64 Ford wagon. It was a rental that clamped a Reese style bar across the back bumper and clamped in two places. The bumper didn't look bad but was crumbling as I drove. I'd stop every few miles to tighten it and crush some more. There wasn't much bumper left by the time I got it home.
I worked at a gas station as a teenager, and we used to rent U-Haul trucks and accessories. Those clamp-on bumper hitches were a bear to install! Fortunately, we didn't rent too many of those. My Dad used have a '67 Pontiac Catalina, and he had a hitch installed on the car when it was new. I don't know the brand, but it was a really heavy-duty setup, mostly made of 1/2 bar stock. I do recall that the rear license plate got banged up after awhile, since the hitch ball was right behind it, and sometimes he overshot the mark a bit when backing up to the camper...
I have what I believe to be a factory hitch on my 57 Country sedan. Its massive. The reason I think its factory is the trailer brake control that really looks Ford. The folks I bought it from ordered it to tow their boat and camper.
In high school a guy brought his mom's wagon in to the Ag shop to have a U haul hitch installed that he had bought somewhere. It was a Reese bar style hitch and as stout as they come. The Ag teacher called his dad who said that he never ever wanted that hitch to come off so we clamped it on and welded the clamps in place. His mom hauled everything with that wagon, trailers full of calves, a bull one time, hay, feed the family camper. One hell for stout hitch. Ok back up and regroup it was this style hitch sorry:
What makes you think it's not dealer installed? Anyways, you should know you gotta put pictures up when you say stuff like that
I never saw a factory installed hitch until they started showing up on SUVs a few years ago. I installed a number of hitches on Pontiacs in a dealership in the seventies when people bought a new one and wanted a hitch but they were aftermarket hitches. All with grade 2 bolts in the box with them by the way. Personally this is where I would pass on "looking period correct" and install a hitch that was strong enough and safe enough that you wouldn't have to worry about it failing even if all you plan to tow is a small luggage trailer.
Back in '73, my dad towed my broke down,heavy 66 Mercury Monterey home with a rented, bolt on hitch on his 68 Catalina. Bad high speed traffic during rush hour for 35 miles. I watched out the back window the whole way, waiting for either his bumper or mine to come off. He didn't bat an eye. My dad was born in 1909, and he didn't scare as easily as his son. Come to think of it, by today's standards, he did a lot of scary shit.
Don't take chances when towing a trailer. Traffic is a lot heavier, and speeds a lot higher than in the fifties. If you don't believe me, watch "the long long trailer" and see Desi freak out when Lucy boots it up to 45 MPH. The same movie shows the installation of a hitch on a new 53 Mercury convertible complete with "Slimp" dolley. About the time your Olds was made, these were replaced by the Reese hitch with spring bars. You don't need spring bars for your light trailer. Make a good strong hitch with square tubing or angle iron in the shape of an H or K. Tuck the end under the bumper and use a long ball mount. Keep the ball mount as short as you can, the ball should be as close to the bumper as possible for safe towing. Don't take chances on your tow rig, hitch, trailer, tires or brakes. Bad things can happen. But they won't if you don't let them. DO NOT use one of those cheesy bumper mount balls. They are for towing a small load of trash to the dump in a box trailer made out of a Model A axle. They are not made for towing a trailer as big as yours. The clamp on ones will also bend your bumper and chew the chrome off if you don't pad them with rubber.
If you really wanted to go old school, in the fifties and sixties trailers like yours were towed on a hitch that bolted onto the rear axle and pivoted off the rear bumper. I still have one but they are NOT recommended. The permanent frame mount hitch is much better. What the hell, you can buy a Reese class 3 "universal" hitch brand new for $179. Why mess around. If a new hitch is too much do what I do. Measure the width of the frame and shop the junk yard for a hitch the same width. Or get one a little wider and cut down as necessary.
I don't know what you mean by didn't look right. You shouldn't see anything but the square end of the hitch receiver below the bumper when you are done.
This is one of those area were traditional appearance takes a back seat to safety and useability. Look at the hitch that was attached to the ass end of my '62 Merc when I dug it out of the tree row. Farmaggedon engineering at its best. Big chunk of channel iron welded to the bumper with a hole for the ball torched in it. No way on earth would I do something like that again. Put a proper 2 inch receiver hitch bolted properly to the frame and move on.
should have taken pictures of the hitch on the 50 pontiac I was getting parts off of , it was homemade from a 3" angle that was 1/2" thick that went from the bumper mounts on the sides which looked like it was reinforced with 1/2 plate also and hid behind the bumper itself and it also had a 1/2 x 4" steel strap under the tank from frame to frame rail about 18" back bolted with plates to the frame and the tongue was a 3" channel upside down and the end cut to swage the sides in under the ball it was all flame cut , all bolted together with 3/4 " gr5 bolts . was strong enough they lifted the car up by it off the ground 6'!when they crushed it .
What I built was a 2" X 1/4" thick box tube that was 51" long. I used 2" X 1/2" thick tabs that mounted to the six 9/16" bolts that also attach the bumper brackets. The 2" horizontal box tube sat just below the bumper. It didn't look bad, just looked to modern to me. It just looked like a standard Reese hitch/receiver but thicker and weighed a ton.
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