I've wanted a hitch on my Acty ever since I bought it but could not find anybody selling them. Being a unibody design, the Acty is not the easiest vehicle to mount a hitch on. I decided to build one myself and I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. I made it mostly from metal that I had kicking around in a corner of my shop, so it didn't cost me much other than the time. I made it in such a way that it sort of molds around all the inner contours of the rear bumper to provide maximum support and also strengthens the center section of the bumper. The main upper plate bolts up to the floor of the box. I also added a strap on the front of the hitch which links it up to the the chassis. I had to weld a tab onto the chassis for this to bolt up to. I also had to do some modifications to the exhaust heat shield that sits above the muffler as it would not fit into place once the hitch was installed. A little bit of cutting and welding took care of that. I am not sure if this design would work with the factory muffler, but since I had to replace my muffler anyways, I made sure I made up my new muffler to provide plenty of clearance for the hitch. I think it likely would work with the stock exhaust, but it would probably be kind of a tight fit. This thing is super strong...... perhaps I went a little overboard with the amount and thickness of metal I used, but I wanted it to be tough. I forgot to weigh the hitch before I mounted it, however I'd guess it to be 16-18 pounds or so. I also had to relocate the licence plate and make up a new bracket for it. I still need to rig up a trailer wiring harness, but will get to that when I find some more spare time. Here are a few pics of the hitch I came up with.
Very nice!!! That should easily outlast the truck. I have one unrelated question. In the last picture, why is there a loop on the right side, and just a rod sticking down on the left side in the original bumper? Mine is the same, and I can't figure that part out.
I believe the rod sticking down from the LH side is merely an attachment point for tie downs. I guess the loop on the RH side is there as a hook up point in case you need to tow it out of a stuck situation. I've used that loop plenty for towing junk around my yard on a chain, but it's not a very heavy duty set up and the loop is kinda on the small side so it's a bit of a problem when you only have a larger chain on hand. I think I sort of did a bit of an overkill job with my beefy trailer safety chain hook up points.
Hey guys, thanks for all the kind words. I finally had a chance to hook onto a small trailer with it and it works like a charm. I just have to build a drop down ball mount yet because it's a little high the way it is.
I have not done a whole lot of towing with my Acty since I installed this hitch, but I thought I'd mention that from my limited experience with towing, the Acty is not very well suited to towing any heavy loads. I used the truck at my farm this fall during harvest and pulled a couple grain augers from one parcel of land to another. It handled the 6" x 36' auger fairly well, but when I hooked onto the 8" x 41' auger, the truck was a real handful to keep between the ditches. But I've really made use of the hitch while cutting trails this fall. Oftentimes when cutting trees down, I end up with a hanger tree leaning against another one after I've cut through it, which can be a little risky to contend with. Now I just wrap a chain around the bottom of the tree and hook it up to the Acty and pull it down to the ground where it's safer to buck it up. Funny thing happened the other day. I had cut a fairly good sized poplar down that ended up leaning against three other large trees on the opposite side of the trail. I didn't initially notice that one of the trees it was leaning on was very old and rotten. I hooked up the chain to the leaner and gave it a real good tug with the Honda. I'd pulled it about 30 feet or so when the rotten tree it was leaning against decided to fall the opposite way. This immediately caused me to do a faceplant into the windshield while the falling tree yanked my Honda rearward further than it was when I started....and somehow in the process, the tree managed to pick the back end of my truck about 5 feet off the ground while I was being pulled rearward. I ended up with my truck sitting on top of the trunk of the tree I had originally hooked onto. But, I was still alive and the tree was now on the ground. A bit of chainsaw work and some jacking had my Acty back on terra firma. I don't see any damage to the truck or my homebuilt hitch. Maybe I should measure the wheelbase to see if it's any longer than it used to be. Anybody wanna come cut trails with me? I guarantee you'll have loads of fun!
The "joys" of old Photobucket pictures that get deleted. It appears as though someone during my Acty's first 26 years decided to weld what I can only assume to be a hitch mount under the rear bumper area. But, at some other unknown point in time, the mount looks to have been ground off. I only got suspicious and started looking around when the two vertical cuts in the bumper didn't make sense.
It's too bad when bumper gets hacked as there are other ways to do it. Here pics of mine, fabricated by previous owner with massive hole in bumper. I sketched what it looks like for another owner
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