Caddy trailer hitch

[77hearsedriver]

I was wondering if anyone ever but a hitch on their hearse. I am wanting to put one on my hearse. Its a 77 Caddy. Does it take the same hitch as a regular 1977 Caddy? Please help me out!!! Thanks

[kaptinkaos]

Mine hitch is an E250/350 hitch that I cut & extended, then bolted it to the frame by drilling holes in the frame to match the hitch.
Mine is a 75, but the 75 Caddy hitch was to expensive & wasn't guaranteed to fit a commercial chassis.

[mdeanr]

i agree with kaptinkaos...........i had to have a hitch cut and welded to match my frame. mine is a 1973 caddy superior. i have a class 3 hitch.

[Morella]

You could go to U-Haul and get an estimate, but you really have to double-check their work; for instance, I take out the cheap junk that they might use for hardware and replace it with Grade 8 or AN. A good look at how they run the wiring helps too, especially the ground. They once wedged mine between the muffler and heat shield to clamp it, which lasted an amazing three or four months before the turn signals went nuts.

If their estimate is too high, Wal-mart has a decent Class III pickup truck hitch for $99, and a talented welder could probably make it fit. If you're a lousy welder like me, whose idea of a good weld is one that still has metal left after the slag is knocked off, using both bolts and welds is a good idea. You should also have dual chains, bolted to the frame, not the hitch. Leave yourself room to turn, but cross them so that the trailer tongue will fall into the basket that your chains make and not go anywhere if the ball pops off. Your hitch should take 150% of your trailer weight, and 15% of it, with 10% tongue weight, downward. Level it with your dropdown (or riser, depending on which way you put the ball on) so that you don't have to go nuts with the air shocks. It is more important that the trailer be level than the tow vehicle.

I have a 10,000# frame hitch on my Chrysler that looks like it would fit just about any car, but it was probably expensive. I've been putting my chains around the frame bars, which is probably OK on a 4000# boat. I also have hydraulic brakes that are applied by the ball, which beat the hell out of having to wire electric brakes, except that you can't brake just the trailer, and a breakaway wire works like a parking brake, with a cable.

Chains and breakaway brakes can be a lifesaver, and some states require them. I once saw an econobox smashed into a bridge, and a few seconds later, it hit me (no pun intended)...an RV was pulling a tiny car, the hitch came loose, and it kept going right into the bridge. I wondered how many hundreds of miles they went before they realized that their Honda was gone.

There I go babbling on again.

-dee

[jlprigmore]

JCWhitney carries adjustable hitches that extend to fit different width frame rails if you don't have access to a good welder.

[Riff Raff]

Just so you know, Comm. chassis car frames are wider then stock. That is why the rear bumpers are streached and expensive.

[mdeanr]

that's why i had to have my hitch cut and welded.

[kaptinkaos]

I got my Ford hitch from graig's list for $50 & had it stretched, sanded & painted for $10 more.

[Morella]

If you can pick up an adjustable H-frame hitch, it should be as wide as any vehicle frame. Mine attaches ear-to-ear on the Chrysler, which is sort of a semi-unibody design, where even the seats are structural, and the rear subframe looks as wide or wider than any truck I've seen.

Still, a truck hitch might work if you weld an H-frame out of heavy angle iron, and maybe even give you some frame support. Funny story (funny how I always have one), I put a Wal-mart hitch on our truck to lower the ball so that it would be safe to towbar my hearse. I had to remove the ball from the safety bumper to make clearance for the hitch underneath it, and when I did, I noticed that the max load on the safety bumper was 7000#. A drop-down adapter from the safety bumper would actually have been safer, and less trouble to install.

-denise

[chestypuller]

motorhome hitches are wide, check into them.