*Reese Hitch Install*

By Jaden

05 June 2004

Tonight I installed a Reese Hitch on my BOV. It’s a multi fit hitch so that means it’s designed to fit on several types of vehicles. The box said "30-45 minute installation"…I should’ve known better.

Before

Opened up the big heavy box and looked at the instructions…they weren’t much. Opened up the box of bolts, washers & nuts…holy moly…a ton of ‘em. So I’m supposed to install this million piece puzzle w/ vague instructions….well here goes.

Hitch

After crawling under the truck and fitting pieces and trying to comprehend the instructions I figured out how it attached….I think.

I had to put the hitch bar together first. The destructions did show how to do that. First major problem right here. The engineer that designed this never put it together….aarrgghh. Had to get bolts & back plates inside the receiver. I got the right two in, but the left 2 gave me a hassle. The bolts adjust the overall width (to accommodate various vehicles).

They’re in the back too.

Staggered

The two bolts above are supposed to be in line, but I couldn’t get the left one through the hole with their cheap azzed fish wire. The bolt was a hair too long. So I put it in the hole next to it. Figured it’s better there than not at all. So…remember the installation time from above…well…that got me this far.

Now I started loosely bolting the plates to the truck.

I finally got the pieces loosely bolted in there and everything spaced right….I think.

Nerisa helped me hang the draw bar and get the bolts into these mounting plates. Wasn’t that a treat. The directions didn’t show what bolts held the drawbar to the plates so we had to figure that out ourselves.

So 3 hours later it was on and tight. The receiving tube is like ½" off center which I think is because of that stupid bolt problem in the beginning. That far off center won’t affect the towing/handing capabilities its just cosmetics. Way too much work to fix it.

My advice, if you buy a Reese get one that’s vehicle specific. I installed one on a Jeep Wrangler and it fit perfectly. When the directions make it look simple it’s near impossible.

Now I can haul my BOT and feel safe.