Xavier
03-13-2007, 11:14 AM
When I first saw the GCSRT8, I knew I had to have it. My only reservation was that it didn’t come with a hitch. I knew I would be able to remedy the situation so I went ahead and purchased it.
I tow a 2800 lbs ski boat so the class 1 hitch would not be able to handle the load. This left several alternatives: (1) buy a hitch from Mopar and bolt it on or (2) hire someone to custom fabricate a hitch.
Option 1 would be considerably cheaper and would hold up just as good compared to a fabricated hitch. The big draw back to me was how it looked. It would require a notch out the bottom of the bumper and would cheapen the look of the rear fascia. All of us spent a great deal of money on a hot looking jeep and it would be ashamed to diminish the aesthetics with a cheap looking hitch.
The only draw back to option 2 was the price. However, an unusual set of circumstances lead me to this option. First and foremost, after only having the truck for 2 weeks, my wife was at a stoplight when a 16 year old kid in a CRV plowed into her going about 30 mph. The speed was an estimate from the insurance company. Luckily everyone was ok and my wife avoided plowing into the car in front of her due to the massive brembo breaks and the inertia of 5000lbs. Needless to say, I was pissed that my new car had been cherried. To give an idea of how strong our jeeps are: our damage was limited to the left side of the bumper and one bent tailpipe, the CRV was totaled and had to be towed away. Jeep 1, Honda 0.
After taking into two an auto body shop near by and them f**king up the work several times including smoking in the car while they worked on it, I made the insurance company pay for the work to get redone at an auto body shop in Charleston WV where my wife is from (never go to Jeff’s Auto Body Shop in MD). Because they had to repaint the bumper, much of the cost of installing a hitch was defrayed to the insurance company, which lowered my cost considerably. Greg’s Auto body shop does top notch work and I would recommend anyone wanting a hitch to go there. He fabricated the hitch himself and repainted the entire bumper. He is also doing a complete restoration on a matching numbers ’70 hemi cuda. Needless to say, he is a perfectionist.
Provided are some pictures of the completed work. As you can see, he also custom fabricated a hitch plug so that everything looks like it came out of the factory. I found it interesting that Jeep already put a 4-point electrical outlet right next to where the hitch is.
If anyone is interested, I can give the number to Greg’s Auto body Shop in Charleston WV. Unfortunately, the price that I paid will be different from the next because the insurance company picked up a significant portion.
I will tow my boat from Charleston WV to Annapolis MD in two weeks and will write back about how the Jeep performs. For those of you that don’t know, the trek is through a significance mountain range with plenty of steep grades. I don’t imagine I should have any problems but it will be interesting nonetheless.
I tow a 2800 lbs ski boat so the class 1 hitch would not be able to handle the load. This left several alternatives: (1) buy a hitch from Mopar and bolt it on or (2) hire someone to custom fabricate a hitch.
Option 1 would be considerably cheaper and would hold up just as good compared to a fabricated hitch. The big draw back to me was how it looked. It would require a notch out the bottom of the bumper and would cheapen the look of the rear fascia. All of us spent a great deal of money on a hot looking jeep and it would be ashamed to diminish the aesthetics with a cheap looking hitch.
The only draw back to option 2 was the price. However, an unusual set of circumstances lead me to this option. First and foremost, after only having the truck for 2 weeks, my wife was at a stoplight when a 16 year old kid in a CRV plowed into her going about 30 mph. The speed was an estimate from the insurance company. Luckily everyone was ok and my wife avoided plowing into the car in front of her due to the massive brembo breaks and the inertia of 5000lbs. Needless to say, I was pissed that my new car had been cherried. To give an idea of how strong our jeeps are: our damage was limited to the left side of the bumper and one bent tailpipe, the CRV was totaled and had to be towed away. Jeep 1, Honda 0.
After taking into two an auto body shop near by and them f**king up the work several times including smoking in the car while they worked on it, I made the insurance company pay for the work to get redone at an auto body shop in Charleston WV where my wife is from (never go to Jeff’s Auto Body Shop in MD). Because they had to repaint the bumper, much of the cost of installing a hitch was defrayed to the insurance company, which lowered my cost considerably. Greg’s Auto body shop does top notch work and I would recommend anyone wanting a hitch to go there. He fabricated the hitch himself and repainted the entire bumper. He is also doing a complete restoration on a matching numbers ’70 hemi cuda. Needless to say, he is a perfectionist.
Provided are some pictures of the completed work. As you can see, he also custom fabricated a hitch plug so that everything looks like it came out of the factory. I found it interesting that Jeep already put a 4-point electrical outlet right next to where the hitch is.
If anyone is interested, I can give the number to Greg’s Auto body Shop in Charleston WV. Unfortunately, the price that I paid will be different from the next because the insurance company picked up a significant portion.
I will tow my boat from Charleston WV to Annapolis MD in two weeks and will write back about how the Jeep performs. For those of you that don’t know, the trek is through a significance mountain range with plenty of steep grades. I don’t imagine I should have any problems but it will be interesting nonetheless.