So I tried using roof racks for my ambitions to haul my fishing kayaks on top of the van. Turned out its not feasible; getting the kayaks up there sitting together doesn't work well and the racks are over loaded. See the pic below to see what I'm talking about: So I decided to do a hitch instead. I went shopping and found this hitch on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CQOIR8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details Its a universal and way more payload capacity than the van will ever need but it looked like I could install it with a minimum of fabrication. Below are the blow by blow to how I did it but this is how it turned out (van still on stands for this pic):
I used wrenches, 1/2in titanium drill bit, drill, and a hydraulic jack. It wasn't easy but did take longer than 45 minutes, more like 2 1/2 days. This is the carton for the hitch as delivered:
First task was how to mount it up on the van frame while also clearing the rear axle and muffler. I would also have to trim the bumber in the end to make it all fit and mount the bumper on the stock mounts it used before. What I discovered was if I mounted the 2 side pieces down vertically things would clear. This is not a way Reese recommended but given the small load and size of the van I think its very safe to do it this way. I actually got this hint from someone mounting one of these on a minitruck. So this is how I would mount the side pieces:
Let me break down what you saw above. First the upper mounting plate for the side pieces had to be mounted to have the plate closes to the rear wheels to that it didn't interfere with the suspension in any way. Also the top bracket requires 2 holes to be drilled. One is using a hole in the bracket that lines up with an existing hole in the frame bottom. A hole would have to be drilled up through that existing hole so a bolt could be run down from inside the van through the holes and the bracket. I also had to add spacers (which came with the kit) to space it down about 1/2 in. The rear of the top bracket had to have a hole drilled up into the frame space. This hole termination can be accessed by pulling back the paper cover over the frame end that can be seen here below. Again a spacer was used here as well. The kit comes with various rectangular braces with square 1/2in holes for lag bolts to be secured in. I just had to drop the bolt with the spacer on it down thru the hole then bolt up the rear of that bracket.
There was a lot of mounting and unmounting to get the positions just right. On to the side brackets. To mount these down (basically 90% rotated from normal positioning) I would need to drill a new hole in the upper bracket for the top of the 2 bolts needed to hold it. I positioned the first bracket where it appeared that the cross member would clear the muffler and allow the bumper to be remounted at the stock points. This, again took a lot of trial and error. Once I had the position figured I unmounted the top plate (I told there was a lot of mounting and unmounting going on) and drilled a hole with a titanium bit using WD40 as a a lubricant while drilling. The bottom bolt I mounted a stud that I pressed in (part of the kit) in the upper bracket. I now remounted the upper bracket and checked to see how the side bracket was hanging. This pic is after I had both side brackets mounted loosely. I'm looking to make sure the main cross bar clears everything.
Note in the above pic that the side brackets have slots on top. Those normally are on the sides so you can fasten the cross member to the side brackets. More holes will need to be drilled. I drilled holes on the top and bottom that lined up with the slots in such a way that the brackets could be loosely slid into the cross member and bolted. This way when I mounted it up the brackets can slide out and over the one stud on each side top bracket to make mounting a bit easier. This pic is with the cross member mounted on the side brackets and the side brackets hanging from the top brackets. The clearance is good except for a slight contact to the muffler on the left side. I'll live with it for now but a smaller muffler would fix the issue. Also in this picture you can see the bolt heads in the van cargo are that go down through the frame and front of the top bracket. I had to source some longer 6in grade 8 bolts as the kit only had up to a 4.5 inch bolt in it.
Next I had to mount up the bumper. It has screws along the top at the bottom of the door, 2 on the sides by the rear wheels and 2 right next to each of the bolts for the cross member. I did some creative cutting with a coping saw to clear the cross member and some of the bottom bracket to make the bumper mount at the stock locations with not distortion. Heres a side view of the fit. Even though its one jack stands its only sitting about and inch higher than stock. The hitch is no lower than the engine so it should present too many issues with clearance on most approaches.
