Originally posted by Kohburn: jacking from the center of the hitch FAR exceeds its tongue weight - granted its in the opposite direction.. but it starts to flex severely before the tires even get close to coming off the ground.. maybe jacking on it just long enough to get another jack farther under the car to the frame.
Yes, especially with a SBC car! However, I have done it about 100 times. Mine is from fierostore and it defleflects maybe 1/8" when it is used for jacking purposes and has the wheels 6" off the ground. When I installed it, I welded the frame rail flange seam solid vs. just spot welds, added 1/4" plate inside the rails and used 3/4" bolts.
My rear cross member was raised 5" to allow a mullfer to lay flat, so aside from the rails on the side, there is no place to lift the rear except the hitch.
Yes, especially with a SBC car! However, I have done it about 100 times. Mine is from fierostore and it defleflects maybe 1/8" when it is used for jacking purposes and has the wheels 6" off the ground. When I installed it, I welded the frame rail flange seam solid vs. just spot welds, added 1/4" plate inside the rails and used 3/4" bolts.
My rear cross member was raised 5" to allow a mullfer to lay flat, so aside from the rails on the side, there is no place to lift the rear except the hitch.
when I had a fiero store hitch and tried that it had deflected about 1/4-1/2" before i let the jack down and never tried it again
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07:59 AM
squisher86SE Member
Posts: 1350 From: Franklin, IN, USA Registered: May 2005
I don't tow anything, but I installed one for a "Tire tail" so I could haul track tires and still have the trunk for lunch and some tools. Seems to work fairly well too, although I'm probably just inside of the recommended tongue weight, what with 4 GT-style wheels and 4 tires hanging off of it back there.
Oh well, not like I do it every day.
I did lift my notchie up by its hitch once. Didn't deflect very much that I could see, but I couldn't get the car high enough to do anything useful by it either.
I'm better off hitting that crossmember on the cradle and going from there.
I have a hitch for mine, not currently installed. It's one of those that GM marketed for the Fiero. I had it on an 86 SE V6, and it required a bunch of fascia cutting to get it to fit. I towed home a Geo Tracker with it, it was not a happy experience. Fiero really didn't have enough brakes and I thought the mounting points for the hitch were pretty iffy (into the frame tubes on either side of the lower portion of the trunk.)
For towing a small utility trailer, it was okay. I could tow almost anything on the little trailer at highway speeds and comfortably. The 86 bit the dust, and was parted out, and I haven't installed the hitch on any of my other fieros.
Problem is, I now tow a trailer with a Seadoo on it and launch and pull out of the trailer and boat are done on sandy shores (almost never a paved boat launch)--I need 4wd to get out without getting stuck. So the aforementioned Tracker is the logical tow vehicle.
