Trailer Hitch in Victoria

[coach]

Has anyone had a trailer hitch installed recently in Victoria? I was told by another Delica owner a while back that he had his done at Victoria Spring.....but, I called them today and they are not doing any more custom work.

No offense to those on the mainland, but I'd prefer to get it done here in Vic if I can.

If anyone has had a hitch done over here recently please let me know.

Thanks.

[Adam]

I'm in the same boat, so to speak. I need a hitch for my Delica. I've been trying to get Eric to build me one, but finding time when I'm over for the weekend visiting the family is always tough. His design needs to be modified a bit to account for my sway bars.

Dumb question I'm sure, but has anyone looked into the hitches at Princess Auto. Would one of these fit, perhaps with some minor modifications?

[EnviroImports.com]

I make them, but I have a wait list for them, we custom make hitches and several other Delica specific items.
we looked at some of the custom ones and some are great, some are crap. One I saw on a delica actually only had one section of flat bar on each side coming from beside the spare tire and came forward to the hitch, that was the only connection points, one on each side, I gave it a shove with my foot, the hitch actually moved side to side a bit until it touched the spare.as it had no Horisontal strength. I heard there is a group buy in the works for hitches, I cant remember who's putting that on, but that might be a quick fix for you.

[Adam]

I think this is the thread Noel is referring to, nice looking hitches, but I'm looking for a cheaper solution.

[TardisDeli]

Hi Adam,

We looked at the Princess Auto hitches (we did all our Christmas Shopping there this year -- so romantical). Jay the Spouse (who is a hitch expert as we have a few boats) figured they would not work as the attachment to the frame would need lots of grinding/cutting etc (we do not have anti-sway bars but do have spare tire underneath). I said hey let's buy it and beg EricN to help modify, Jay said way-y-y too much work, so we got the E&H hitch, very skookum, I pulled Jay's Huge chevy van with a boat up an icy hill last week (shhh, I guess the guy-code is never admit they needed help from the wifey vehicle).

Christine and Jay of the TardisDeli.

[Adam]

Darn, that's too bad you don't think the Class III hitch would work, it will be on sale Feb 19th for $88.88. Great deal.

[EricN]

SOme one bug me and when I get home this weekend I will post up the PDF drawing of my hitch brackets so you can just print them off your printer, trace them onto a piece of 1/4" plate and cut them out. If you are a skilled welder, you will have no problem making the hitch. I emailed them to someone from this board but cant remember who. If he reads this, feel free to post them here or on the WIKI. I am going to modify the drawings to accomodate sway bar equipped trucks as well, it is just the weather has been so miserable that I am not too interested in crawling under my truck and measuring.

[coach]

Thanks Eric,

Much appreciated if you could e-mail it.

I was just at Alpine's truck welding and fabrication shop and they were the first place in Victoria that were really helpful, in fact even seemed excited about doing a custom job. They had an idea for how they want to do it, but were also interested to see what has been tried and tested just to confirm....so I'd like to show them yours as it looks pretty similar to their idea for mounting.

Will get a price next week and I'll see if they would do it a bit cheaper if doing 2 at the same time, if you are interested Adam??

I'm also having a custom attachment made to mount my hitch mount bike rack to, that will allow the bike rack to swing out of the way of the rear door. Kind of like Doc's spare tire attachment, but not quite so complex. If anyone out there has a hitch mounted bike rack and wants to be able to swing the fully loaded rack and bikes out of the way so you can load more stuff in the back let me know and I'll see about getting a few more made at the same time.....these will work on any hitch mount, not just the Deli.

[Adam]

I'm in if we can get it done for a few hundred dollars. I like the idea of a bike hitch swing out. I'm also interested in getting a swing away spare tire carrier in the event I actually move my WVO tank to the spare tire spot.

[coach]

I'm thinking of going WVO in the future too, and was thinking that I could mount my spare onto the vertical arm of the bike rack, in between the rack and the back of the van. The bike rack is pretty much going to be on there all the time anyways since I've almost always got at least 1 bike with me.

I'll let you know as soon as I get a price quote.

[ghmorris]

I'm in if we can get it done for a few hundred dollars. I like the idea of a bike hitch swing out. I'm also interested in getting a swing away spare tire carrier in the event I actually move my WVO tank to the spare tire spot.

I'm interested too if we can keep it down to a few hundred dollars.

George

[rmic]

Hi Eric, it would be much appreaciated if you could post the pdf's of the brackets you designed. A hitch is going to be essential come spring.

[EricN]

http://wikrad.com/delica/index.cgi?trai ... o_sway_bar

[knukee]

I think VAncouver Island Custom Car Imports can install hitches. They are in Parksville. You may want to check with them.

[mararmeisto]

I'm in if we can get it done for a few hundred dollars. I like the idea of a bike hitch swing out. I'm also interested in getting a swing away spare tire carrier in the event I actually move my WVO tank to the spare tire spot.

I'm interested too if we can keep it down to a few hundred dollars.

George

You can get one from E&H Hitch in Burnaby on your way through back east. Total cost install on the Moon Machine was only 515$.