[Vwdiesel] hitch saga

[pmdolan at sasktel.net]

Travis:  that is by far the nicest drawbar I have ever seen. 

HOWEVER: the idea of using Class III stuff on the back of a MkIV car is 
ludicrous.  On top of that, using raised or dropped mounts COULD be 
inviting disaster. 

What you really want is a setup that puts the longitudinal loads at 
exactly the same height as the mounting points of the hitch - to 
minimize torsional loading at the mounting point from braking loads 
(acceleration loads - particularly with a 90HP car pulling a couple of 
tonnes load) are pretty much irrelevant).  that means center of ball 
at some height as bolts that attach hitch assembly to car (bumper 
attach points, or whatever). 

I usually build my trailers with adjustable tongue height exactly for 
the reason of avoiding drop hitches (not always possible - e.g. when 
towing low cars with high trucks). 

On Tue, 22 May 2012 14:06:44 +0000, Travis Gottschalk 
<tgott at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Dave, were you able to get a flip plate on at all? If flipping up 
> ising a hitch like this 
> http://www.etrailer.com/Ball-Mounts/Softride/SR26039.html wouldn't 
> have the ridge on it and it would allow the plate to drop down some 
> while the ball mount is on. With a trailer it isn't as big of a deal 
> having the plate visable but do you want to have to remove the ball 
> mount right after the trailer is off each time is my thoughts. Since 
> the hitch is much higher then the Class 1 was you may need more drop. 
> Mine is a 6 inch drop but I have some lift added to the golf The 
> jettas I think are 3 inch drop vs the 10 or so raise the Sportwagon 
> had and the 3 or 4 the 05 wagon had. How are you running the wiring? 
> Do you have a powered convertor (6 wires into 4 instead of 5 into 4). 
> I had the 5 into 4 but you blow your fuse one time and you will hate 
> yourself for it. The car has the little fuses and the blinker one 
> isn't very common even at a truck stop or parts stores. The have 
> higher rated ones
>   but if you blew the small one that doesn't help you out. Just some 
> other thoughts. Here is the converter I run. I have it powered from 
> the battery but most do it from the in truck cig lighter plug-in and 
> then I ran another extension into the hole going into the bumper for 
> the license plates.  Your hitch does look clean (not hacked up to fit 
> on the angle like mine). You will like it and you won't have any 
> movement on the hitch when you bounce on it now. I feel you could 
> hang the car from it.  Travis           
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