Re: [A/S] Better day today - was bad day

[Bob Basques <bob.basques@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Remember to take this advice with a grain of salt ( or a whole salt shaker.)

Well I have placed spacers between the hitch and the frame mount using longer 
bolts. But you have to make sure you use high grade bolts, I would imagine that 
you would lose about 25-50% of the load carrying capacity of the hitch doing 
that, as well as voiding any warranty on both the truck and the hitch. (that 
was my disclaimer) if there's one thing this list has taught me . . . .

You could use some thick walled pipe, say 1/2" as bushings but I wouldn't go 
any further than you could getting a square aspect (same height to width of 
the bushing) about 2-3".  To that it stayed flat on the frame, to tall would 
tend to leverage sideways and snap the bolts off.  What your trying to do is 
drop the hitch but still maintain a sheer plan rather than let things twist (to 
tall or thin walled of a bushing will twist/bend too easily).

A better solution, might not look to good, and it's heavy, would be to use a 
solid block of steel as a bushing and lower the hitch receiver that way,  this 
maintains almost all of the strength of the original design, EXCEPT the side to 
side motion, depending on how far down you mount the receiver.  To be on the 
safe side you would want to also put in a transverse stiffener (crossways, between 
the sides of the receiver bushings) this would take up any side to side loading of 
the receiver.

A shorter description would be, if in doubt, build it stout.

I'm not an engineer, just a backyard mechanic that has done this to clear a spare 
tire mounted under a truck. I also didn't even approach the load limit of the hitch 
I was using.

bobb