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Remove Hitch from ’96 XL
Hi,
My receiver is unable to be removed so I need to remove my Hitch and before I get started wanted to see others have done it and have advice for me. I can’t find any parts diagrams to verify the bolt locations but my quick look I saw several that seem like what I need to remove.
If someone has removed a Hitch on an XL with a Series 60 and could share experiences (pictures even better :-)) I would appreciate it.
Thanks!
Mike Harper
2004 Marathon XLII -
14 Replies
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I’ve done it but it was long ago and I don’t have photos. I assume you have the basic 10,000# hitch and it’s pretty straightforward. I think I removed the bumper but not sure.
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I removed the hitch from my 98 XLV many years ago. I took the bumper off first.
It was easy to get the hitch off after removing the bumper.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
Mike: You can’t get the draw bar out if the receiver? Rusted/corroded in?
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Yes, This was an old entertainer with the 20,000 pound hitch and I am sure a lot of time on it so now it doesn’t budge. I am spending the week once again soaking in penetrating oil and banging away at it but no movement so far. Someone recommended putting a good jack under it to lift it as it has a small gap along the top just to see if we can get it moving at all, so I will try that next week.
Otherwise, it might require a welder to remove it and add another unit as with the 20,000 pound version it seems it is pretty integrated into the engine mount.
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Heat from a torch works good on rust too
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A friend who works on really old cars swears by PB Blaster.
As another contributor pointed out, heat can also be your friend. The key with heat is to only heat the tube so it expands before the draw bar and breaks the rust.
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You have a brass ring and a brass sphere . The sphere is slightly larger than the inside diameter of the ring. The sphere will go through the ring only to the center but will not pass through. You have a torch. To attempt to make the sphere pass through do you heat the ring or the sphere?
Mike Harper
2004 Marathon XLII -
A rosebud torch would be best . Heat all four sides cherry red and immediately hit with a sledge.
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You will never get it cherry red. Drop the tow bar on the hitch. Make certain the tow bar is absolutely level. Put the toad in drive and let it bang forward a little. Put it in reverse and let it bang backwards a little. Repeat.
Don’t abuse the coach, the toad, the tow bar or the receiver by trying to slam bang everything. Just be a little patient and take some time.
If you are in a real hurry get 20 feet of chain, connect it at one end to the bus hitch ball, and at the other end to a pintle hitch on a 10 wheel dump truck. Put the truck is gear and drive it forward as fast as it will go. Then call a wrecker to pick the engine of the bus off the ground.
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bad advice
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Is the draw bar solid? or hollow?
If hollow, once you get the receiver cherry red and are banging it with a sledge hammer, and you have tension on the draw bar … quickly run some water though the hollow draw bar. The idea is to expand the receiver with the heat and then shrink the draw bar with the water. That should help snap the corrosion.
This thread should be a message to EVERYONE on he Forum. If you have a draw bar in any receiver on a trailer hitch, at least annually remove the draw bar from the receiver. Coat the four sides with oil or some kind of anti-corrosion stuff and put it back in.
Another idea is to remove the draw bar from the receiver when you’re not pulling a trailer or the toad.
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Years ago i took a tractor to a local farm equipment repair shop to have a stuck manifold bolt removed. After watching the old man heat the bolt and surrounding manifold and remove the bolt i asked him ” why wouldnt you heat just the surrounding metal so it expands and not the the bolt”?. He took me over to a table where he had a brass ring brazed to another chunk of metal like a little basket ball hoop. He grabbed a brass ball and showed me that the brass ball went through the hoop. He asked me if he heated the hoop would it get larger or smaller. I said larger. He heated the hoop and set the ball on top. To my utter amazement the hoop got smaller. He explained to me that metel when heated expands in all directions. The hoop in fact got larger on the outside but also smaller on the inside. He told me that the heat actually only softens the corrosion and then pulverizes it when the metal expands thus breaking the bond. He then explained that if the hoop were much thinner and larger around the inside would in fact get larger. I forget why now but i never have forgotten that lesson with the hoop. As i was leaving the shop the ring had cooled and the ball dropped to the table. The old man smiled and winked at me.
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Many of us learn something new every day on the PC Forum!
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
I am also one of the many Dick. Love this place!
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