Ok , got all the stuff prepped to put the hitch on , had to modify my crossmember a little as I used 2" instead of making it go down 3".No big deal , I made it work.Played around with bumper brackets a little more trying to figure out wxactly what I want to do.I also sprayed the bottom of the frame , so its all done now too.

Now , I hit my first problem.I was gonna start putting a few of the crossmembers on while its upside down still.The first one I pulled out was the tranny/transfer case crossmember.I knew the crossmembers were a little different between the 2.6 and the 2.8 , but I thought the brackets that they bolted to were all the same.Nope , not even close.I have a couple pics of the difference between the crossmembers , and one kind of shows the mounting bracket on the frame.

Now , I was wondering if I can use the one from the 2.6 , and just put new holes where everything goes to make it line up.It would be a lot easier , and save me a lot of time instead of having to wait untill I strip the other frame down , get everything off it so I can flip it over and cut off the brackets that are on it , then weld them to the frame I am using.This could be a couple of weeks delay <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

I would rather just modify this crossmember to work , even if I have to weld a little and do lots of drilling.I don't want to waste a lot more time when I can be starting to put everything back together now.Anyway , here are the new pics.



This one you can see where I modified the crossmember by adding a couple pieces of metal to it , and welded in some nuts to bolt the hitch to it later.







These 2 are the crossmember from the 2.6 and you can see in the left and right pics how it sits on the frame.The next 2 pics are left and right pics of the crossmember from the 2.8 and you can see how the mount brackets aren't even close.Maybe I could even weld it in and still use it?Jerry , help me out on this one <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />






Any suggestions or comments as to what I should do would be greatly appreciated.Do I use the old one and modify it , use the 2.8 one and weld it on to the frame , or do I waste a lot of time and effort to get the brackets off the 2.8 frame ?I want the easiest and quickest way as I want to get this bad boy done soon so I can go out and play.