Howdy Everyone!

My hitch receiver is looking pretty sorry lately and I want to take it down, grind it and repaint it. While crawling underneath the truck today, I noticed that it appears the bolts holding the hitch are kind of covered by the Tank Skid Plate.

I did some searching, and from what I've gathered, it appears that To drop the skid plate means to also drop the tank as they are one unit.

Is this true? Is there any way for me to get the hitch receiver out without messing around with the gas tank?

Any help would be appreciated

Thank you!

 

Short answer NO, It needs to be lowered or removed. You will all so have to Drill/Grind a sheer bolt off on each side . IF I were going to that much effort I'd replace the hitch with a Curt 12000# unit. Some take the opportunity to R&R the fuel pump while the tank is down as well

 

Well butter my *** and call me a biscuit......


Well then that is definitely more work than I want to do just for that.

Plan B:

Since 99% of the rust that is concerning me is on the bottom of the hitch, im going to just grind it in place as best as possible and repaint it. That Is better than nothing I suppose.

Thanks guys!

 

Okay...

 

If you are concerned about the hitch, I would assume that you tow with your EX. If you tow with it then in my opinion it's well worth the effort to drop the tank and hitch to give it a good thorough going over and repaint.
Yes, the tank and skid plate are a single unit, 4 easy to access bolts hold it in place, with 3 small screws at the fuel filler neck that also need to be removed. With the tank run to near empty dropping it is a pretty simple job with a floor jack and a helper. The filler neck can be fished out between the body floor and top of the frame, so it does not need to be disconnected from the tank at all. The wiring and hoses to the top of the tank have enough extra length to lower the tank all the way down to disconnect them. (one electrical plug and two quick release hoses using the cheap removal tool). With the tank out of the way (and the skid plate getting it's paint refreshed ) unbolting the hitch is an easy job too, each side has one round headed bolt (due to the feds requiring the rear hitch as it's a station wagon with higher ride height) that is easy to remove with a pipe wrench. All of the hitch bolts have blue thread locker factory installed so a little heat from the torch will make removal much easier. Once out you can either replace the round head bolts with regular Grade 8 hardware or weld a nut to the round head like I did. I'm not sure what year they upgraded the hitch's weight rating, but if yours says 10k then upgrade to the bigger bolts now for the higher later model rating. (the bolt size is the only difference between the two ratings).
Once you have all of the needed tools on hand you should have the hitch on the ground in under an hour, well worth the effort for a good inspection and refresh of the hitch. And a good time to inspect and address any hidden rust above the tank!

My now easy to remove round headed bolts, with nuts welded to them.

 

UHHHHHH Again, the SHORT Answer is NO

 

Tom- I believe the weight rating's were changed in late 01-02. My 99 Super Duty has the 10k/5k hitch.

 

Thanks for the reply! Believe it or not, I don't tow. I was doing this just because of the appearance of it. I know that may seem shallow lol, but just the rear of this thing looks horrible!

 

Folks we have a poser among us!



All joking aside, I have had 2 hitches replaced in the last year due to 2 accidents. Here is what I have found/learned!

1) when dropping the tank disconnect the filler neck from the tank! I fought with my insurance company to replace my tank since THEIR place hung the tank while replacing the hitch. Resulting in a busted nipple which leaked when filling it up. Their place told me not to fill it up all the way!

2) you can buy a new factory replacement for a little bit more then an aftermarket one. Spend the $ and you will be better off.

3) you can replace it yourself. Penetrating oil and a turbo torch will get you a long way.

4) a factory hitch will give you a little bit more $ on the resale.

 

Oh it's true it's true!! My hitch is for show :: Hides Face in shame ::

Is it so wrong I use my X for hauling butts and not boats?!!? Is it so wrong I use it to roll big and bad ?!?!?

Today I'm going to give the grinding in place the 'ol college try.

Thanks for all the tips guys!

 

Why would you want an aftermarket hitch with less capacity than a factory one?

 

My X's are 2000s :: 5000/500# straight pull (W/O WDH) The Curt is 12000/1200# straight pull... I'm no mathematician but I think that's more better

 

Great info here thanks for the post.

 

Just reporting back. So I decided to leave it on the truck and I grinded that bad boy down. Holy rust bat man!!

I got it down to bear metal in some parts pretty nicely. Once I had the hitch all smooth all over (as much as I could get without taking it down) I used undercoating to spray it down. I'm giving it two coats and then painting it black on top.

99% of the rust on the hitch was on the bottom and sides. Top not so much. While I was down there I decided to start my other project of cleaning the under side of the X and spraying undercoating on her. What a fun project that was.

Gotta say so far the Hitch looks SOOO much better!

 

So i'm getting ready to put on a new CURT 12,000 lb hitch on my EX. I haven't seen anybody online mentioning the 'fishwire' that is used to install the new hitch. I got the hitch from etrailer btw.

Is the fishwire technique only needed to use with the supplied hardware that came with the CURT 14011 hitch?

That seems like a major PITA to me.