Trailer Hitch??

[JIMCAT]

I use one of my 86 SR5 Wagons as a ranch truck. I am thinking of installing a trailer hitch on it so I can pull a very light 2-wheel trailer around the place. Anyone ever done this? Should not be difficult to fabricate a bracket and bolt it to the two hooking loops under the rear bumper. Any ideas? Thanks

[Mac]

in the owners manual it says you can have a 100lb tounge load and a (i beleive) 500lb towing load. I know Reese makes a towing adapter for the Tercel, otherwise i would suggest making something that ties into the rear tow hooks.

[keith]

You should be able to tow up to 1000 lbs, but buy a commercial trailer hitch, like a Reese. They are under $100, sometimes even including installation. Some welding may be required.

[JIMCAT]

Thanks for the info! Will bolt to the rear towing loops.

[Typrus]

Anyone know of any pics of the Reese hitch installed? I want to see how they attach it underneath... There is a project I'm thinking of doing that would require a method of attaching something right where the gas tank is. Need to see how they got around it.

You won't get anywhere quick. Too little grunt. Might toss a 4AC and Weber in there to bring it up some.

I'd try and keep the tongue load as little as you can without making the trailer ride out of control. I think the tongue is typically about 1/10 of the total load though, so with 1000lbs you should be around 100lbs tongue. Which shouldn't be too bad.

Might also look at coaxing some Jeep springs to fit, as they have about 80% higher spring rate (referencing Grand Cherokee 95) and some people have already made it work.

Have to wonder how towing will chew up your suspension, brakes, steering, tranny, and maybe body though... Just my thought. Not like anything will spontaneously combust, but I believe in keeping it all well balanced.
I'd suggest trying to find a small trailer with electronic or surge brakes if you can. Will help the Terc's system out. Might also look into converting to a Paseo or later Tercel's discs and calipers to gain venting. Always can do an AE86 axle assembly in the back to get discs as well. Has to be an SR5 >.< Just make sure your diff is the same ratio. Might even be able to find an LSD!

Can you? Sure! Would I? Likely no.
It is a manual, right?

[Lollypop]

Draw-Tite has one for our cars with no welding and it only cost about $60 installed. Personally Im a Drawtite man. Good quality sttuff

Hers a few to choose from ...Im partial to the third one cuz Ive cracked my shin on hitches one too many times...(used to install Draw tite for a living worked at a truck accessor. place) anyhow see what ya like.

====Justin=====

[Iain]

i have a draw-tite on my car, it is rated @ 1000lbs. trailer weight and 500 lbs tongue weight. is it attached only to the bumper re-bar.

I wish i could find the one that downey off road made. (not to mention the rest of their product line) It not only attached to the unibody at the tie down locations, but a bar extended along under the gas tank acting like a skid plate and raising the trailer weight capacity to 1500lbs.

Behold! All Warship The Original Downey Off Road Tercel Flyer:

[Typrus]

Yup.
I had a 2 hour conversation with one of Downey's big wigs about all of this. He said he doesn't think they have any blueprints left or anything. Spoke at length about the Terc. Spoke about the day they test-drove that rig (he was there apparently) and how they took it off some crazy jump and got over 4 feet of air, several times with nothing to show for it damage-wise.
They crushed the car in that picture unfortunately.

[Mac]

any idea of how much Downey stuff is floating around out there?

[JIMCAT]

Great info. Thanks to all of you. I just want to pull a small trailer around the ranch to haul 3 or 4 bales of hay and such. When I get a "round tuit" and actually do it, I will post a pic or two of the hitch. Thanks again.

[xirdneh]

I use one of my 86 SR5 Wagons as a ranch truck. I am thinking of installing a trailer hitch on it so I can pull a very light 2-wheel trailer around the place. Anyone ever done this? Should not be difficult to fabricate a bracket and bolt it to the two hooking loops under the rear bumper. Any ideas? Thanks

i have installed two hitches that were both pretty simple designs and easy to install.
i removed the bumper. there are rubber plugs on both sides (inside of car under carpet) to remove for access to the four bolts that hold the bumper on.
the hitches were "L" shaped (about ten inches long on ball side and about six inches tall on bumper side) the bumper side has a plate about 9 x 5 x 1/4 thick with holes in it for bolts . just drill though back of bumper and attach bolts. one unit had "U" bolts.
then re-attach bumper.
this type of hitch is only as strong as the bumper. the bumper is made up of stamped steel parts covered with rubber.
not sure how much weight they can handle
i have towed 600-800 lbs with no problems.
just a bit hard to stop the car sometimes
the brakes on these tercels are light duty.

[Gasoline Fumes]

More hitch info here:
viewtopic.php?p=5697

[tercel4wdrules]

any idea of how much Downey stuff is floating around out there?

I also had a brief conversation with Jim from Downey Off-Road Manufacturing. He told me he sold very little of those accesories from the brochure. I think he said that what he sold most were the springs, so there's little hope any of those accessories are still out there on a Tercel 4WD.

[Typrus]

Yeah.
If you look up under your car, look in the front of the rear bumper. Mine has 2 significant threaded holes just offset left and right of center. Another one only as strong as the bumper. No worse off than the tow-hook approach though I suppose.
I think the best approach would be a tie-in to the bumper, then a wrap-around to the attachment point for the gas-tank hold-down straps. Both bolts are about 2-2.5 inches long, so there is bolt enough for a bracket. The metal seems quite beefy at this point in the unibody faux frame. This would give you the added benefit if being able to bolt some thick-ish plate steel across the bracket-arms going to either strap mount to give yourself a cheap skid-plate.

If you did it right, you wouldn't even have to pull the gas tank fully. Detach the strap attachment bolts with the tank supported up, pivot the straps and plastic guard down to place bracket (or just place over straps at point of attachment?) then replace. Tank doesn't have to move. The less gas in the tank though, the easier to support it will be.

The advantage to a forward tie-in point? Far less chance of the load making the bumper pivot, weakening the attachment. Keeps the hitch assembly straighter in terms of alignment to the body and trailer.

[Typrus]

Found the capacity. 7700lbs, give or take.



... LOL. I actually did pull our 7700lb SUV out of a culvert. It was quite stuck. Once I got it enough forward to get its own bite, it took care of itself. No way there's enough traction or torque for that full load. Wouldn't have gotten out without it though.

Looped a tow-chain between the 2 tow-hooks, then attached a heavy-duty tie-down chain that we use for towing to the middle of that. Did fine. No apparent deformation either.
BTW, thats the 2nd time I've tried doing that in this snow. 1st time I just spun tires as he got sucked further into the snow. This time... Success! Heh.

Now to work on traction and torque... lol