[ging]

There was a trailer hitch for a GT (supposedly came off a '73) on ebay a while back. Got a pic in my member album but will also try to put it here. The question is can anyone give a guess/answer on where the third attachment point is? That is the one that would bolt on past the resonator as opposed to the two side arms. Can't possibly afford one if they all go for the price this one did - $411- so we're going to manufacture our own. Already got the trailer. Brother-in-law was kind enough to give us the motorcycle trailer he hasn't used except once in '88 I think to bring it up from Florida. Much fun here revamping, reworking, and refiberglassing plus picking lights etc.
Thanks much for any thoughts.

 

[baz]

if you are getting 1 made i would take the 3rd mount to the cross bar that the shocks mount on its by far the strongest point forward of the bumper mounts

 

[Killer Texas GT]

IF U can wait

I know an ol' boy that has one on his GT that is goint to take it off, I will see him this weekend and can get what pics I can off it for you.
rk

 

[hrcollinsjr]

Here is a picture of the one that I have if I did this correctly.

Harold

 

[Matt M240Z]

yea, we took one just like that off of my opel a while back. Also, has anyone seen a stock chrome brush guard that bolts to the two front mini bumpers? (pulled that off too)

 

[ging]

Hey RK sent you an email (PM wouldn't go thru) and would appreciate the pics. Thanks for the offer.
Hrcollinsjr, is the long bar attached to the hitch an accessory to actually use as the mounting point while the bar is bolted to the car? Can't quite tell if the hitch you have is exactly the same as the one I have a picture of - almost looks a little different. I'm betting that the bar was left on the vehicle that these people got their hitch off.
Matt you had one too? Are there are more of these out there than I'm aware of? Are they all going to be that expensive? Lord, I hope not.

 

[GTJIM (R.I.P.)]

Trailer Hitch

Here is the page from the 1971 OPEL Accessories section of the Salesman's Book. Note that the tow bars are "similar American made" so were locally produced over there - not imported! This means if you make a copy it will also be "American Made" - just like an original.

 

[rangerrick]

I've got one also, still on the car!

double posted due to computer glitch!

 

[rangerrick]

I've got one also, still on the car!

Hey RK sent you an email (PM wouldn't go thru) and would appreciate the pics. Thanks for the offer.
Hrcollinsjr, is the long bar attached to the hitch an accessory to actually use as the mounting point while the bar is bolted to the car? Can't quite tell if the hitch you have is exactly the same as the one I have a picture of - almost looks a little different. I'm betting that the bar was left on the vehicle that these people got their hitch off.
Matt you had one too? Are there are more of these out there than I'm aware of? Are they all going to be that expensive? Lord, I hope not.

If you go to the Opels Unreachable site and look up items they are looking to buy, you will find that Todd pays up to $250 for a GT hitch!!! What's that tell ya? Bet he'll sell ya one for about $450 Kinda like everything else for the GT spendy LIL toys. Besides you've got a fortune already in your ride from what I've read and seen on this site, why get cheap now???

 

[MrGing]

who has removed a hitch

OK everybody,

Who out there has removed a hitch from a GT? I crawled under mine (her's actually) in an attempt to find mounting points and this is what I came up with. Somebody tell me if I'm correct. I'm fab'ing this hitch myself without drawings or plans. It looks like there should be 2 horizontal bars attached to the underside of the car. The forward one attatching at the front end of the rear,lower control arms. The other looks like it should attach onto 2 forward pointing tabs attached to the rear axle. The third part running along the long axis of the car, attaching to the 2 horizontal pieces in the center and continuing out the rear of the car. I'm assuming all pieces of the hitch would normally mount below the torque tube, differential, and resonator but as close to them as possible.
I'm going to attempt to attach a drawing too. Last time I had trouble, probably my fault somehow. Let me know what you think and/or send me some measurements.
I hope my description and illustration are clear enough.
Thanks
Dan

 

[Gary]

Dan - Not a good idea to attach the hitch to the axle. The ball would move with every bump and turn and probably take out the lower part of the rear panel.

 

[oldopelguy]

nope

You most definately do not want any part of the hitch mounted to the axle, you want the whole thing mounted to the body only. If the noise didn't drive you nuts the vibration on the hitch would certainly shake it and it's fasteners all apart.

The rear of the GT just isn't meant to handle much of a trailer. At most you're going to be looking at sub-1000# trailers, which only require a small class 1 hitch. A 1000# trailer, balanced to handle well, will put between 100 and 150# of tongue weight on the back of the car. That means the hitch has to be basicly strong enough to support you standing on it on the back of the car. That's really not all that major an undertaking.

What I have seen in the past is a pair of 1.5x1.5x3/16 angle steel braces cut and drilled to slip in behind the vertical parts of the rear bumpers using both origional mounting holes on each side and hanging down to just below the edge of the rear apron. To these a suitable cross piece is mounted, a 1.5x3/16 square steel tubing piece should be fine. The bottom edge of this piece should be 1/4" or so below the edge of the rear apron. In the center of this piece, orientated front-to-rear, should be either a 1/2x2" flat tongue or a 1.25" receiver tube from a hitch shop or place like Northern. This will have the end of the tube even with the bottom edge of the license plate or the flat tongue sticking out 2-3" past it. The forward end of the tongue piece will go up past the rear apron and to something solid in the floor under the tank, on the Kadetts there is a set of 3 holes already drilled you can use with the tongue welded to a piece of flat stock on the bottom and a matching piece on the top sandwiching the body in between. The GT ones I've seen usually just attached to the same tabs underneath that the muffler hangs from. After all, the weight of the trailer will be pushing up on them after all.

If this doesn't sound like a lot, it's because it isn't. It doesn't need to be to haul what you can haul safely with your car.

That said, if I were building you a hitch I would do it a bit differently, more like a modern car one. First off, I would get a 1.25" receiver tube pre-made from a hitch shop. Usually they're right at $12. After that I would get a piece of square tubing 1.5" by 3/16" or 1/4" thick long enough to go from side to side underneath the rear to what you would call the "frame" rails on each side. Next would be 2 pieces of 2"x3" angle steel at least 8" long, with 2 holes drilled 1" from each end on the 2" side and a matching piece of 2"x1/4" plate with the same holes in it. I'd use grade 8 3/8" bolts myself, but 5/16 would probably be OK too. These pieces of angle will be situated on the rails under the back or the car, outboard of the muffler and hidden up behind the rear apron. Two holes will be drilled on each side in the car, on up through the rails, and the rails would be sandwiched between the plates on top and angles on the bottom. Once the exact distance between the vertical parts of the angles can be measured, the square tubing would be cut to length and welded in between the angles, up behind the apron and above the exhaust tips, in the space behind the muffler. The receiver would be attached to the cross tube, possibly with some spacers of some sorts if needed, so it is all you see from the back, tucking in there between the exhaust tips. Add the appropriate draw bar you can pick up anywhere, and call it good.

You will also need to wire the car for trailer lights, and either use a custom wired trailer or get the appropriate adapter to convert the seperate brake and turn bulbs on the GT to the common bulb system used on trailers. Either way is about the same difficulty.

If I had a GT here, I'd be willing to fabricate some "full-scale Opel GT hitch models" you could use to get someone else to make you a hitch or use as is with the understanding that I wouldn't be responsible for any issues you would have. Too many people do dumb things with trailer hitches for me to assume that liability. Too bad I don't have a GT.....

 

[MrGing]

All my ideas are based on the pictures I've seen of other mounts that were apparently pulled off GT's. The 4 attachment points I was looking at are the only 4 points I can find that have are identical points on both sides. If these things were produced somewhere by somebody and were originally available from a dealer... then they have got to attach to a stock point. I'm only pulling a motorcycle trailer (that's a trailer to pull behind a motorcycle, not a trailer to haul a motorcycle)(100# empty at the most).
Gary,I chose the axle points because they have large bushings that look like they would receive bolts like the ones in the pictures. Anybody know what those bracket thingys on the axle are for anyway? I too thought about the bouncing of the car affecting the level of the trailer. My idea was that if the hitch protruded far enough behind the rear panel I shouldn't have a problem. I understand that if I mount to the control arm than the axle become a fulcrum point and causes the hitch ball to rise every time the body comes down. I was thinking that with enough extention and curve I could avoid contacting the body.
Oldopelguy, I understand the saftey issues and that is what I'm working on. I certainly don't want to have this thing passing me on the interstate or yanking the backend out of the car (it's got enough 'ventilation' as it is). If I can't make it safe, I won't. I'm just trying to reproduce what someone else has already designed. I simply cannot find any other "stock type" mounting points.
Based on the pictures in earlier replies, if the ball is about 2", that would make the rear cross piece scaled out to about 24", same distance between the axle bracket thingys. Made sense to me 2 days ago.
P.S. Looking at the 2nd picture again... the tabs on the forward crossbar are turned 90 degrees relative to the bolts in the control arm. My drawing assumes perpendicular. OOPS, gotta figure that one out too.
BTW, What did you think of my drawing? Free hand... with a pen

 

[hrcollinsjr]

How about I try to measure mine in the next day or two and send you the measurements?

Harold

 

[GTJIM (R.I.P.)]

No Way - Jose'

Anybody know what those bracket thingys on the axle are for anyway?

P.S. Looking at the 2nd picture again... the tabs on the forward crossbar are turned 90 degrees relative to the bolts in the control arm. My drawing assumes perpendicular. OOPS, gotta figure that one out too.


BTW, What did you think of my drawing? Free hand... with a pen

1) Those bracket thingys on the diff are for mounting the rear sway bar - lucky you having them on your diff!

2) Without a doubt the trailer hitch bolts tothe chasis/body of the car above the diff - and NOT to the diff itself. The ball would go up and down like a Yo-Yo if you bolted it up as you drew it. Probably they drilled some holes in appropriate places on the chasis rails to fit the original ones if there is nothing that lines up.

3) Neat drawing but No Way Jose'

HTH

 

[rangerrick]

OK Mr. Ging, going to make me work eh?

Ging

I can go out when the weathers fine (raining off & on now & cold) jack up my parts car with the hitch and remove a wheel assembly and take pics for you and some measurements whilst under there! I looks to me like you drill your own holes two in the body under the gas tank area lip and one each in the down vertical rear bumpers, a picture will be worth 1000 words! You'll have too attach these via through the tail lamp holes, or pull your rear spare tie deck! Mine looks to be the stock install 1000# rated stamped in the tounge bar 1 7/8 ball-2" max. Are you welding this up yourself, or having a welder fabricate it for you? I guess I better give you thinkness of the steal bar if self done, then you better buy some temper hardened material.

Get back to you!

 

[rangerrick]

Here's the pics of an Original!

Ok Ging

I took pictures and rough measurements I hope I can describe without making a blue print. The pictures show a lot of the complex bend to clear the tail pipes out the back, something to consider unless your a blacksmith as well as welder! Anyway the fwd peice accross is 43" (not counting material taken up in the bends) it has two 1 1/2" wide x 3" tall tabs welded at the ends with bolt holes to attach to the unibody. The bar that mounts between and to each Vertical bumbers is 22 1/2" bent 2" tangs at the ends with bolt holes for mount. It pretty much follows the body contour, with these pics and the measurements an experianced welder/fabricator should be able to do it. Of course it would be even easier if you had one in hand to duplicate exactly!!! Let me know if you need a drawing, or if this is enough to get out to yours with a tape and figure it out from there!

 

[MrGing]

this is a great start

great, This is a fantastic starting point. It was hard to tell the scale on the other pictures due to the foreshortening. It looked like it went a lot farther under the body. Ging is not real keen on poking holes in the bumperettes but we could alway get another set, one for 'trailer ON' and one for 'trailer OFF".
Based on the the other pictures, it looks like that spacer thing on the bolts on the bumperette mount is to install inside the bumperette to keep it from collapsing when the bolt is tightened.
It took a while to figure out the geography of your 1st two pictures, especially without the exhaust. I'll have to crawl under the beast again and look around for mounting points for the forward crossbar.
I'm planning on fabing this out of some aluminum bar stock first as a prototype just to get my angles and curves correct.
The GT was totally rewired several years ago so I hoping that access to the light harness won't be too difficult. I'm hoping to bring the wires out through the grommet for the licence plate light on the driver's side bumper. That way I can just tuck the plug inside the bumperette when it's not in use

Thanks everyone for your help so far.
I'll attach another 'updated' drawing too let you folks see if I'm getting this right. No, it's not to scale and I had to use a pencil this time.
Thanks again
Dan and Ging

 

[bear]

Dan and Ging, while reading your posts on the trailer hitch, I thought about a couple of hard points I saw on my GT, with rubber plugs in them. I figured they may be the attach points for the rear sway bar to the body. Anyway from your latest drawing it appears you're going to go under the rear axle, if so, i would advise against that. The housing could extend down and impact the hitch. Any way if you want I can take a pic of the hard points on my 72, because if you're gonna do the fab of this and, like me not to wild about punching holes in the body randomly, I'll post them tomorrow to take into consideration.

 

[rangerrick]

Almost exact! Except!!!

great, This is a fantastic starting point. It was hard to tell the scale on the other pictures due to the foreshortening. It looked like it went a lot farther under the body. Ging is not real keen on poking holes in the bumperettes but we could alway get another set, one for 'trailer ON' and one for 'trailer OFF".
Based on the the other pictures, it looks like that spacer thing on the bolts on the bumperette mount is to install inside the bumperette to keep it from collapsing when the bolt is tightened.
It took a while to figure out the geography of your 1st two pictures, especially without the exhaust. I'll have to crawl under the beast again and look around for mounting points for the forward crossbar.
I'm planning on fabing this out of some aluminum bar stock first as a prototype just to get my angles and curves correct.
The GT was totally rewired several years ago so I hoping that access to the light harness won't be too difficult. I'm hoping to bring the wires out through the grommet for the licence plate light on the driver's side bumper. That way I can just tuck the plug inside the bumperette when it's not in use

Thanks everyone for your help so far.
I'll attach another 'updated' drawing too let you folks see if I'm getting this right. No, it's not to scale and I had to use a pencil this time.
Thanks again
Dan and Ging

Mr. Ging

Almost excact except on the vertical bumperettes it's only drilled and attached to the inside wall, not all the way through both sides(looks better)! This has 1000 lb gross weight 100lbs tongue weight stamped on the tonuge, it's not home made and looks to be original equipment! For what it's worth!!!Oh there are thick spacer type washers at each bolt mount behind the nut attached! I'd part with my hitch, however there may be a V6 GT project in my future and if so I want to use this hitch myself for a small teardrop trailer!