So was out for a gentle trail ride with my wife tonight, and while crossing a water bar had the crunchy noise of dragging the trailer hitch through the ground. Now I know that its no bad thing having a hitch back there, both from a recovery point of view, and also for keeping any body who might rear end me me at bay, but I can forsee the day when it gets hung up real good on a rock or some such obstacle.

My question is this, will there be any issues with removing this hitch. Does it serve as a cross member for the frame at all? (its the big class IV hitch mounted to the frame) I'll be adding some recovery points to the bumper, and my spare lives up high in the back.

Cheers.

 

No issues with removing it, the hitch has no structural purpose. I have one on mine and though it has scraped a few times I've never got it stuck on anythng. I think of it as a slider for the back bumper.

If you do take it off you can use the mounting bolts to add some tow hooks.

 

Take the ball part of it off. The rest of it is smooth steel, so it probably won't get stuck on anything. I like it on there because without it, my rear bumper would be pretty ugly.

 

Thats a good call, hadn't thought of that, it'll save me welding on shackle points.