Bus Tow Hitch

Today, I covered the install of a tow hitch onto Hapy, (1972 VW Bus), highlighting some of the unique factors about a 1972 VW bus as well as what is special about Hapy that makes this install particular. I am still working on the injectors and getting Hapy running, so this install kept me busy or should I say distracted from that for the weekend.

Slow Go

test fit

Back when I first got Hapy, and for the handful of years I drove him with his original mystery engine, he could barely get much of anywhere if there was more than just me inside. If we added another adult, a couple of kids, gear, food, etc for a weekend of camping every incline presented a new opportunity for my knuckles to whiten, my back to tighten and passersby to wave with a single finger. At the time, I knew of other bus-drivers who had no such problems. In fact, there was a guy from Canada who built a trailer that looked like a small single-axle version of his bus that he towed behind him as he crisscrossed Canada and the US. He called his bus the Red Tomato; sadly, I cannot find a picture, but his set up was amazing. An engine swap, and some other upgrades later, I'm no longer slowing down traffic, and the idea of a small tow-behind or just maybe using one of those tow-hitch bike racks is appealing. Dare I say a ski/board rack?

One Year Only

Of course, 1972 is a transition year for the VW bus. 1971 was the last year of the old "type1" or upright engine, making 1972 the first year of the pancake engine (in the bus). The rear transom was changed so you could no longer remove the bottom section between the tail lights for engine removal, the tail light housings were made larger, etc. On the front, 1972 was the last year of the "low light" turn signals below the headlights. So, 1972 was already a kind of a frankenbus before I got my hands on it. Arguably, if I had left it (or returned it to) stock, it would be worth more.... to some folks. Bear in mind, Hapy did not have his original engine when I got him, so any return-to-stock would not have been to a numbers-matching bus. Besides, a camperbus should be camped in, not just garaged, trailered and car-showed.

dis-assembly

In 1973, the rear bumper was changed, changing the rear end again. This means that much of the design of the engine-to-frame mount, transom, the bumper mount, etc. was unique to 1972. So, getting a rear hitch to fit was not an off-the-shelf thing. Well, it wasn't until this cat in Virginia started making them as a side job a few years ago, and selling them on TheSamba. The reviews of Jeremy's work has been super-high, and his responsiveness to email has been great. It arrived quickly, wrapped with cardboard to protect it (but not boxed, probably for less expensive shipping) and looks exactly like the pictures. You can see what it looked like in the picture on the right, here. What I didn't realize when I ordered it, the tow hitch ships with 6 super-high-strength M10 x 1.5 bolts for mounting. 

These tow hitches include an integrated bumper support, which supplants the old one. So, one of the one-year-only parts is no longer needed. For those who have purchased a bus which had it's rear bumper removed and subsequently lost, with this hitch, you only need to source a bumper (based on my look-around, WestCoastMetric, JBugs, and BusDepot now offer the 1-year-only bumper). That's easier than finding a one-year-only bumper and pair of one-year-only brackets. And, you get a tow hitch. Win-win!

One Bus Only

As unique as the 1972 VW bus rear-end design is, Hapy is more so. Recall, all those years ago when Hal and I (more Hal than I) designed the engine mount for the TDI engine? Rather than leveraging the triangle of mount holes in the frame rail sides that held the original engine mount "moustache bar", we reused the twin holes further to the rear which hold the bumper brackets. This left the triangle mount holes vacant. The tow hitch also mounts to the bus frame through something other than the triangle of holes. Once the install has completed, the engine mount and the bumper mount will each be supported independently.

I will take this opportunity to underscore that our reuse of the bumper bracket holes has been completely without issue. On surface, one could become concerned with whether the holes were designed to support the weight of a TDI engine. Consider that the bellhousing mount to the frame probably holds most of the weight, and is absolutely capable of holding the engine by itself. I say that because I have removed the rear mount and accidentally removed the support (lowered the jack. Doh!) in the past, and the engine has not budged. Also, the bumper mount needs to be capable of holding not just the bumper off the ground, but occasional additional weight of someone stepping on it. Last, it needs some level of hardiness to absorb energy from a rear-end collision. Regardless, I have never felt this design has not been more than capable of supporting the rear-end of the engine. Again, thanks Hal :)

Install Hitch Hampering

bent ear

After some careful examination of the mount, and of the bus frame, I realized that the tow hitch does not reuse the triangle engine mount, it uses a set of otherwise unused holes in the rear of the frame. This means that for a standard 1972 bus, the install does not involve the engine mounting mechanism at all. Nice work, Jeremy! The holes he targeted sit directly above the holes used by the original bumper brackets.... that we are using for our TDI engine mount. In any other 1972 bus, you could just set to tapping those holes with a M10 x 1.5 tap for the supplied bolts. With Hapy, there is always an extra hitch (pardon the pun): the right-angle brackets that are part of the engine mount hung over the outer edge of the frame by about 1/4", and prevented the hitch from setting all the way. Through the use of a cut-off wheel on my angle-grinder, that extra overhang was trimmed off. When I do the install for realsies, I will hit the bracket with the grinder so the edge is smooth. And, of course, I'll shoot the exposed steel with some black paint.

But then, we still were not quite ready. The tow hitch was tweaked partially during shipping. The 2 supports were slightly bent inwards by a 1/2" total so it would not fit around the rails. I pulled out the 3' sledgehammer and encouraged the hitch supports apart. Had the hitch not had a bent ear for the passenger-side bumper support, it could have taken me longer to realize that the shipper was a little rough with the hitch. I advise you to check the measurements and angles when you get yours. These are built on a jig, so it is not a manufacturing issue.

Preparing for the Tow Hitch

Finally, the fun part. With a floor jack, I put upward pressure on the engine support bar so I could remove the bolts on either side. Supporting the bumper with my toolbox, I dropped the last bolts and lowered the bumper. I slid it out of the way and returned the bolts back through the engine support bar. Once the engine mount was tightened back down, I removed the exhaust. I decided that it would be easier to install the hitch with it out of the way. It was at this point that I cut off the extra meat on the brackets and discovered the rough handling during shipping I mentioned above. I decided that the engine was crazy dirty, and I had gotten enough oily yuck in my fingers (I found and re-connected a breach in the compressed air / turbo pipes) that a degrease was overdue.

crazy cleaner

Product shoutout: Oil Eater. I cannot believe how effective this bio-degradeable, enviro-safe degreaser is. I have found this stuff at the dollar store and BiMart, and when I first bought it, I didn't think much about it as I'd never heard of it. Wow, this stuff cleans oily greasy messes fast. My TDI engine was a black-caked oily mess. I shot it with the OilEater, and hosed it off. To get all the little nooks I did this 3 times. No brushing, no scrubbing: just spray it on and hose it off. The engine is incredibly clean now. You can sort of see in the bottom picture. All that silver used to be black, and all that black used to be, well, black, but caked oily gross black.

At some point, the original bumper brackets, and splash pans need to be removed from your bumper. The picture at the top shows the yardsale that ensues when you do. The hitch has the corresponding holes for re-using your splash pans. I recognize that these pans help hold the front edges of the bumper to the side of the bus, but I am not sure that value offsets the cost of the junk that builds up in those pans. Leaves, pine needles, etc sit there and just encourage rust. Washing or cleaning those pans is not easy either. So, for now, I will be omitting my splash pans, and will eventually form a bracket to go from the side of the bus to the front of the bumper. As I worked the bumper, I noticed that the paint needs to be refreshed and the bolts were all rusty again. Fun in the rain-soaked Pacific NorthWest. Finding stainless steel fasteners to replace the zinc-coated or plain steel took some time, but I found them at BelMetric for about $15US delivered.

Installing The Tow Hitch

tapping last M10 hole

With the bumper and exhaust out of the way, and the engine bay clean, the install of the bumper is relatively straight forward. The 6 holes need to be tapped with a M10 x 1.5 tap. I didn't have any, nor had I ever done anything like that, but the tap and driver cost me about $18US at the corner Ace Hardware. The cutting of the threads was pretty easy too. I just took my time, making sure the tap was lined up well, and then slowly twist the tap in 1/4 turn at a time. I found that the first few threads are the most important and that it was easy to mess them up when I was removing the tap. So, my advice is to take extra care during the last few turns on the way out. It is easy to lose concentration, and then you have to do it again.

Jeremy's (the fabricator's) instructions for the install indicate that you must mount the bumper before installing the hitch. I, of course, did not do that, but it was so I could get a test fit. And, as I mentioned above, my bumper bolts have rust appearing on the bolt heads, so I'm going to replace them. The tow hitch is not balanced, wanting to tip down to the rear. I suspect that once the bumper is added, it will want to drop rearward all the more. Considering that at this point I do NOT have my exhaust installed, I expect the final install will end up another post.

note location relative
to engine mount triangle

I set the driver-side end of the bar under it's install location but on top of my toolbox. I went over to the passenger-side, lifted it into position and finger-threaded the upper rear bolt into the hole a few threads. Then, I switched to the driver-side, threading in both rear bolts, but again only a few threads. I continued to bounce back and forth wiggling the hitch and threading bolts until all of the bolts were threaded in. At this point, I pushed and pulled to get the tow hitch into it's rear-most location and then finger tightened the bolts. Last, I ratcheted them down snug (not torqued) with a 15mm socket.

Bumper On

To complete the test-fit, I set the bumper in-place and threaded the 2 outer, but rear-facing, rusty bolts through the hitch-resident bumper support and set the 13mm washers and nuts on. This gave me an approximate visual for how the finished product will look. Overall, I think it looks great. While I will miss the modesty skirt thing, and I have not yet confirmed that the exhaust will fit without modification, I will definitely appreciate having that hitch for a bike rack, or equipment shelf or for actually towing something small.

That's it for now. I will be cleaning up the bumper and exhaust, probably painting the bumper again and then repeating this install, plus re-installing the exhaust. I'm sure I'll post on it. Thanks, as always, for following along--