I'm in for either buying 2 on ebay and we split the ship/broker charge or order up a fab some where...

How much weight do you plan to pull? I towed a 21 foot travel trailer (about 4200lbs.) with my 95 SR, see picture. I now tow a 31 foot, 10,000lb 5th wheel with an F250 and have been towing for 3 years. I am very active on the RVnet forums and have read most of what there is to know about towing and hitches. (I give this info not to brag, but to present my credentials)

I can tell you that the hitch pictured above is not a good choice to tow much weight, maybe class II, which is 3500 lbs max, but even that is pushing it. I probably wouldn't trust only 4 bolts to anything over 2,000 lbs.

The receiver I have on my Montero is bolted on with 8 bolts. 4 go into the frame underneath the truck and 4 go under the tow ring on the back.

The second picture shows my receiver close up, you can see how it bolts to the frame and under the ring. It is the factory made hitch purchased from the dealer for $165 about 4 years ago.

Well I have a 12' 98 Rockwood pop up which has a toung weight around 500-700lbs (depending how we pack it) and a total weight of 2000lbs so I would not be hauling anything in the class III range.. (2500 is the cut off between classII and class III right?)

Duh.. Forget my class II and Class III note.. You said so right in your post..

That is a very heavy tongue! The Class V receiver on my F250 has a max dead weight tongue of 600lbs, and can go up to 1200 lbs with a weight distributing hitch. (Class I is up to 2,000lbs, Class III, 3,500, Class IV, 5,000 and so on)

Not trying to flame you, just want to make sure you have your info right and you are safe going down the road.

Are you sure yours is that heavy? For good balance, a trailer's tongue should be 10-15% of total trailer weight. So that is 200-300 lbs. for your trailer.

I just looked at some Rockwood PU's on the Forest River site and they all have much lighter tongue weights than you are quoting for yours. Here's a random floor plan and specs:
Rockwood Floorplan Here's the page with all current Popups and their weights

If you have weighed your tongue and it is indeed 700lbs, then that little 4 bolt hitch is totally inadequate. But it is unlikely that it does weigh that much.

Here's a link to the RVnet popup forums, you can learn a heck of a lot about towing from these guys, most of them are pretty nice.

something else to think about... the metric bolts that mount it up. i work with metal all day every day, and have alot of vendors at my disposal... that being said im having a hard time finding the size of metric bolts i need, with a sheering strenght that is acceptable. thinking about boaring out the holes and going with a much easier to find, and not to mention much stronger standard bolt.

Don't remember what it cost. Included hardware shown whis is obviously not galvanized or stainless steel but it is stronger than grade 8 but IIRC it was mentioned that you don't want to use grade 8 in this application but I don't recall exactly. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Here's a couple of pics of it.



Here's wiring harness which is wired to a set of connectors that I put in line with the OE connectors under the rear seat. You can cut the connectors out along with 1' of wire on each end from a salvage yard rig. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

You know what .. your right... I do not know what I am talking about..

I'm a sparkie (Electronic) by trade so I get things "Mechnl "screwed up at times..

The thought occured to me that I would never be able to lift it from the ground (which I can) if it was that heavy..

So back to my original question, could the class III (on frame) hitch shown in the flier I put a link to (Page 1 of the PDF) Fit on my Gen 1 monty chassis??

Depends on the dimensions. You'll have to measure it for yourself. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Well they do have a no questions asked return policy.. I guess I will go snap it up..

In retrospect, I would not want to put a fabricated hitch (for the trailer) just for the slim possibility of Liability for towing a trailer.. If the damn thing let go and caused some god awfull accident I would be in some pretty deep Ka Ka... Only need to think "Insurancy Company" and "Lawyers" to make that dream come true...

I'll pick this one up and see if I can get the trailer house to install it ..


As for attack angle loss with an undercarrage hitch brought up in a previous post.. I don't know.. Have yet to find a "gaggle" of muddy trucks in a Tim Hortons lot to strike up a conversation on how to get started on getting things muddied up and find out how far it can point up whilst hanging sideways ... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Funny thing on that.. A co-worker made up a post-it note saying "Oh S&%T" and stuck it right above the 40 on the Inclimeter..

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />