W126 Trailer hitch - Page 2

tyl604 · #16 11-15-2010, 09:29 PM

Yes, that makes good sense.

t walgamuth · #17 11-15-2010, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregMN

Trailer hitch for a W126. I had it custom made at a local shop to my drawing. It was 25 minutes from the photo of it freshly painted to the photo of it installed. So the install was less then 20 minutes.

That looks pretty good!

sba121400 · #18 04-11-2011, 12:19 PM

I love this, i have that curt trailer hitch on my SD, I'm not to confident with it. Do you have measurements of this hitch I would love to put something like this on my car.

-Sba121400

kerry · #19 04-11-2011, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyl604

I am a little surprised that you would tow something with your 126. My 1981 300SD does not seem to have enough power (at least from a standstill) to tow much; I think it would be very slow getting to speed. Thinking about 96 hp? Maybe yours has more hp?

Something's wrong. You can tow pretty decent loads with a 617 turbo. I believe with brakes MB rates these vehicles to tow 2500lbs or more.

kerry · #20 04-11-2011, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregMN

Trailer hitch for a W126. I had it custom made at a local shop to my drawing. It was 25 minutes from the photo of it freshly painted to the photo of it installed. So the install was less then 20 minutes.

That is a nice design. Do you know how close the dimensions are to the hitch for the 123 wagon? I'm wondering if it might be easy to modify a wagon hitch to work on a 126 rather than fabricating from scratch?

GregMN · #21 04-11-2011, 01:00 PM

Look at post #13 on page one of this tread. Send an e-mail to me when you have downloaded the "freeware" program and I will e-mail the file to you.

brakeengr · #22 04-11-2011, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregMN

The CAD freeware can be downloaded here: http://www.cadstd.com/

Once you have that program I can e-mail the file to you. Or, if you have a different program that will open a *.cad file, then you are all set.

One of the limitations of the "free" program is that you cannot save the drawings in a different format, like a PDF that anyone can open and view.

To make a pdf, you can download a free pdf writer like "cutepdf"- here's the link http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp
Install it and use it as a printer. From any program, do a 'print' and print it the pdf- and you've got a pdf.

GregMN · #23 04-11-2011, 06:52 PM

You can probably build from the description below:

Refer to the photos in the first post to help make the description make sense. Make one pad out of cardboard to confirm the fit on your car. While you are doing that confirm the distance between the inner mounting bolts is 36 1/2" on your car.

The pads are 9" x 9" x 1/4".
The notch for the bumper shock is 2" wide. The center of the 2" hole is 5 1/2" from the bottom center of the pad.
The single 1/2" hole on the inside of the pad is centered 5 3/4" up and 2 1/2" in from the bottom center of the pad.
The bottom 1/2" hole on the outside of the pad is centered 4 1/4" up and 2 1/4" out from the bottom center of the pad.
The top 1/2" hole on the outside of the pad is centered 2 3/4" up from the bottom hole.

The center of the 1/2" holes on the inside of the pads are 36 1/2" apart. If that dimension is correct, all the other holes will line up.
The drivers side pad is notched out for the exhaust tip. (When they cut mine, then notched both so they only had to make one set of instructions for the cutter.)

The pads were made from 1/4" stock. The same was used for the upper and lower brace for the receiver tube. I think that 3/16" was used for the strap that goes back under the spare tire well. I don't know if that strap is really necessary. The square tube is 2 1/2" OD, 2 1/4" ID. On the end of the receiver tube they put a short piece of 2 1/2" ID as reinforcement. The whole thing is pretty heavy duty.

To install it I removed the nuts from the bumper brackets inside the trunk. I pulled the bumper out enough to clear the bolts but not all the way off. So the slider fittings on either side of the car did not come all the way off. I used a jack to support the bumper while I put the hitch in place. I did it alone. An extra hand or 2 would be helpful. The bolts were long enough to still have the nuts threaded on completely with the hitch in place. With the spare tire removed (duh), I drilled holes up through the holes in the strap and bolted it in place.