Anyone interested in a tire trailer?

cossie1600

A shop is about to build a custom trailer hitch for my car, I just want to see if anyone else is interested in it. The cost will be between $300-$450, just want to let him know if it is worth while to start putting a kit together. The hitch will most likely bolt onto the stock bumper with reinforcement plates on both sides, there will probably be changes to the nuts on the stock bumper in order to strength it. The exit of the hitch will be at the rear fog light.

Dustin@Z1

There is a guy here in the ATL area that had a custom hitch made for his 370Z for the EXACT same reason. Supposedly they modified a Curt 350Z Hitch and made it fit. It looked decent and integrated with the factory reverse fog light blank.

Here is a pic of his Z:

cossie1600

Yes, similar to that. I had actually bought one and tried to use it, but I didn't like how much work it went into it and how it mounted. We are going to take a different approach to it, hopefully it will be done next weekend.

takjak2

I want one and would jump on it for that price, but the nismo seems like a no-go.

Without going near the diffuser, is there structure behind the license plate?

__________________
Mods | Stuff | Things | Seat Time | Nismo
facebook.com/TeamSparrowSpeed

cossie1600

I went back to the creator. If you want to do this properly, there is no way you can do this easily. He is doing it with two plates sandwiching the aluminum bumper beam, he also replaced the nuts and bolts that mounts the bumper beam to the uni-body. Lastly, he is probably going to add additional braces from the mount to the body (optional). Hopefully he will have it done by tomorrow so I can use the car this weekend, else it is time for the Prius to come out of retirement.

bubbachong

Let me know what the result is. I need it for my bike (hitch) rack. If you can make it where the hitch can be covered up with the fog light that would be wonderful.

cossie1600

The hitch is done. We had to remove the bumper again as we forgot to wire the lights. Here are some key points we found in this whole process.

#1 Hitch is mounted to the rear bumper. We reinforced the bumper bolts to much stronger ones, we also added some stiffener inside the bumper to prevent the bolts from crushing it as we torque the living jesus out of it.
#2 The hitch will be completely hidden from view. The rear fog light will be converted into a hitch cover/brake light. We can make it a functional brake light by plugging it into the trailer wiring. The hitch pin will actually hold the rear fog light in place since you can no longer use the original housing behind the lens.
#3 The safety pins will go underneath the plastic bumper and onto a hook that is built onto the hitch.
#4 The hitch is mounted onto the aluminum bumper with 4 giant bolts. You need to remove the aluminum bumper to mount it.
#5 Weight is roughly 8lbs with the new bolts for the bumper brackets
#6 The wiring box will sit behind the rear bumper and not in the trunk area.
#7 No modifications to plastic bumper or exterior at all
#8 Install time should be around 3 hours to remove the rear bumper, install hitch, reinforce rear bumper, do the wiring and reinstall the bumper.

There is virtually no market for it as no one seems to need or want one, so I think this will be a one time DIY project like my oil cooler. There is no plan to remake and sell it. We might consider building more if we can secure about 5 orders and build them all at the same time since the only working template is on my car. We would also have to do a complete write-up, which would take about 4 hours. With five orders, this can be done for about $400 for the trailer set (with wiring adapter/chain holder) and around $350 for just the bicycle setup since it doesn't require the hook for the safety chains or trailer lights.

JB1

Sounds very interesting, do you have any pics of your install?

__________________
Black Fangs // Black rear Valance // Berk CBE // COBB post MAF tubes // K&N drop in filters // Setrab Oil Cooler // Stillen Sway bars // Z1 SS brake lines // Stillen brake cooling kit // Harness bar //

ChrisSlicks

My tire trailer is 24 feet long Oh and it holds my car too.

I think if you publicized it a bit you will easily find at least 5 people that would want it.

__________________
Hotchkis ARB | Stillen CAI | Art Pipes | Berk CBE | Stillen AP Racing Brakes | AE Performance Oil Cooler | BC Racing ER Coilovers | Doran Control Arms

trwe413

Has anyone seen a hitch solution for a NISMO Z? I would be very interested, both for use with a bike rack and for a small track trailer.

cossie1600

I will have everything up Sunday night. I didn't have a chance to bolt the rear bumper back on tonight, but the wiring works. I drove to work with no rear bumper today, not pretty.

bubbachong

I am in for one. No need for the lights.

But since its only $50 more for the light connection does it come with a modified rear fog light that plugs into the hitch?

cossie1600

The hitch and bumper are in. Here is a quick picture with my crappy camera.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

We are not done with the rear foglight setup, but the plan is to build a LED setup into the stock lens. It would then be mounted onto the car like a hitch where it is locked in by the pin. Obviously with this setup, we would need to have your rear foglight as a core.

bubbachong

Looks good. Send me a PM if you need a rear fog light. I will see if i can get mine removed.

bubbachong

Any updates?