TC233

I have read through all the posts I can find on Mid Year hitches. Does anyone produce them? Anyone have plans for producing one without drilling the bumpers?

Sky65

I have a hitch I picked up from a fellow forum member. I don't believe you have to drill holes in the bumpers. I believe it bolts up at the existing bumper mounts. I haven't used it yet so I'm not positive.

Ron Miller

The best one produced was by Valley IMO. I have one on my '66, sold one recently to another forum member. I'd post on the Parts section as a "Wanted to Buy" item, you might run onto one.

The Valley pulls from the differential which is bolted to the frame, and the drawbar lowers from the support bracket (which bolts into place at two existing bumper bolt locations) by removing a pin, allowing full access to the spare tire tub & lid.

I think you could build one, but some other folks have built one on their own by using a simpler design. Someone will post, you might find a couple that forum guys have built by doing a search on the forum for trailer hitch.

Westlotorn

This was on mine when I bought the car. Does not attach to the frame only the bumper mounts so I suspect a max load of 2,000 pounds or less.

TC233

Just bought a Valley Corvette Hitch, like Ron Millers above

I bought this hitch on ebay for $44.00 it appears its all there except the plate that goes on the bottom of the spring/axle assembly.

There is a bend in the bar that holds the hitch, it looks too good to be a bend from anything but the manufacturer? But not sure....what do you think?
Its a Valley Corvette Hitch dated 363B
It has this written on the underside of the hitch

Valley
Corvette
LOD/CAB (not sure about this one its rusted)
363B

Bill Lacy

We had one for our C3 that I bought from a guy that had it on a C2 and you did NOT have to mess with the bumpers Might be hard to find but keep looking. You will find one.

vt65

there was a guy at Carlisle last year that made a nice hitch for his car, he was thinking of making some up for this year's show but that's in August and you will be long gone to Alta. by then Dennis, I'll try to find his card and will let you know.

wmf62

my 65 had the bumper style hitch and, maybe foolishly, i towed a superstock dodge with it for several years.



Bill

65air_coupe

I think you have mine and it's like Westlotorn's, requires holes in bumpers. Never used it myself so can't vouch for its capability but I'm impressed with the drag car being towed by it!

Westlotorn

I would never guess it could pull that load with no troubles. Did you tie into the Dodge brakes to help stop it? That must have been one of the Max Wedge cars, 426.
My buddy ran one with a 4 speed and held the class record B Stock 4 speed. I think it ran 11.29 at 130, this was about 10 years back.

wmf62

nope, no brakes but the corvette's.... and at legal highway speeds and above... interstates and cross country...

automatic factory 426 Stage III wedge back in the mid 60s

Bill

Ron Miller

You've got the correct hitch, although I'm not sure if yours is for a C2 or for a C3. The bend in the bar that holds the hitch is correct, put in at the factory. It's necessary because of the angle that the rear filler panel sits with respect to the ground requires the bend to put that part of the hitch flat with the ground.

You're missing the front two separate "pull" tabs that bolt to the rear spring bolts and allow the hitch pull bar to connect. They'll be simple and not expensive to manufacture should it become necessary.

The difference I see in your hitch (and the reason I suspect it could be for a C3) is that on my car where the "U" support bracket bolts to the bumper mounts, there is a separate tab that bolts in place and the "U" bracket bolts to that tab. You can see it a little better on the left side in my photo.

I'll check the numbers on my hitch and see what I find, and repost later.

Congrats!! You bought it at the right price for sure!!

Ron Miller

A little hard to see, but the numbers on the hitch for my '63-'67 hitch are 368B.



Here's also a couple of pictures showing how the "U" bracket bolts to the bumper mounting bolt. It uses as you can see a separate "tab" which the "U" bracket bolts into.





Finally, here's a photo showing the twist in the "U" bracket with the pull bracket in place. Makes it a little easier to see why the "U" bracket needs that twist to keep everything in alignment.



I'm not able to get photos at the present of the mounting tabs at the differential showing how they're made, but I can get them to you in 2-3 days along with dimensions should you find it necessary.

Hope this helps.

Ron

Sky65

Wrong member. I got mine from Bluestripe. It looks like Ron's and it is marked 368B.

TC233

Thats great Ron thanks. I think yours may be Rev 2 and mine Rev 1. It appears the upright arms that bolt to the bumper brackets are longer on mine. I do not have another set of bolts as you have to disconnect the crossmember. If you look at the uprights on mine, you will see the same flat plate you bolt to the bumpers welded to the end of my uprights. It appears thats the only thing I am missing is the axle plate. Mine reads 363B not sure it may be 368B? its pretty rusted. Where my numbers are , are on the underside of the Tongue, just as the flat part of the hitch that holds the ball, bends down.

Sure does, thanks very much! If you can get pics and dimensions I would really appreciate it. This will not be mounted for a year so no rush But if you get a chance I would appreciate it.

6T7L71CPE

These that came off my '67. My rear bumper has holes in it so it may have been a different brand than Valley. And, if I recall, one other post had pictures of some and the tabs were slightly forward or rearward.

Tevroc98

Dude , Thats like putting braces on Cindy Crawfords Smile! Just kidding good luck

TC233

True, but I am going to pull a small motorcycle trailer or Coca Cola Novelty trailer behind the car when I go to Car shows.

Ron Miller

I suspect you're right about the Rev 1 and Rev 2, I can see where having the bolted tab at the bumper location for the "U" bracket would allow a little more flexibility in mounting from the variations from car to car. Rev 2 would let the tab "seat" more properly as it needed to if there are any variations in angles and/or lengths back from the differential. If you're not going to mount it until later, and if you're going to have it chromed, I think I'd consider building a set of tabs similar to the ones in my pic. You'd need to cut a bit from the "U" bracket, but it might be worthwhile. Just a thought . . . . .



My hitch has two brackets similar to these two, but as I'm recalling I think they might have a little variation in where the drawbar tabs and hole for the drawbar bolt goes. I'll measure mine and get you the dimensions in a day or two (got a bit going on), but I think if I were you I'd wait to get the hitch mounted and bolted to the bumper mounting before drilling the hole for the hitch in the drawbar pull tabs. A little off one direction or the other would make the removable pin at the "U" bracket difficult to insert or remove, I'd think. Just another thought . . .

My $0.02 worth

TC233

Agree completely. I will be sending it off to have everything chromed as soon as I clean things up. I will bolt everything in place and then raise the bar up to see exactly where to place the connector. Rather then two halves I think I will have one plate, then once bolted in place, I will create the the small drop pin plate plate connect it to the draw bar, then raise it up and tack weld it to the plate on the differential. , that way I do not have to fool with alignments or moving holes or making mistakes. Then once welded I will send that plate off for chroming as well.


Red is the pin, Blue is the U plate that will be independant of the Black plate and is pinned to the draw bar. I raise the draw bar, place the blue on the black plate then tack weld it. That way I can align for true in 2 axis and the in holds it in the 3rd axis.

Top pic is side view, bottom looking down on the two plates.