The factory receiver hitch hangs down very low and dramatically reduces the rear departure angle. It scrapes all the time and tends to hang up on rocks, even with a 3" lift. I do a lot of towing and the hitch does do a nice job protecting the spare tire so removing it completely was not an option. Hidden Hitch and other after-market receivers do not hang quite as low, but I did not want to spend the money unless I needed to. The idea of flipping the receiver has been floating around in my head for a while, but it was Protech03 on 4x4Wire and Yotatech who did it first and inspired me to finally get it done on my rig.
The process took a total of 45 minutes and the benfits are obvious. To start out I coated the bolts with PB Blaster a week or so before starting the mod. Here's the process:
The factory receiver hitch before the mod. There are six bolts that hold the
receiver hitch cross-member to the frame-mounting brackets.
Departure angle before the flip is 21.5 degrees (with 3" lift and 32"
tires). That's a low hanging rear end.
Traced area that will be cut out for the flip. It needs to be a bit wider
than the trailer chain loops and around 3.5" tall.
The main tool for cutting the notch out of the bumper is a sawzall. I also
used an angle grinder to round out the corners. Make sure you drop the
spare before starting the cut.
Here's the cut before I smoothed out the corners. Cutting goes very
quickly with a good sawzall blade.
This is where I found my lab hiding. He does not like the noise of the
grinding and cutting.
Edges smoothed and corner prepped.
Paint the edges to minimize rust and use automotive trim to make it look
professional.
Remount the receiver hitch cross-member and that's it.
Departure angle after the flip is 27.3 degrees. Over 5 degrees better than
OEM. Still a pretty low hanging rear end, but much better than before and
now it'll slide over rocks much easier.
Before and after comparison of departure angles.
Ready for action!
I use a receiver with a major drop so trailers are at a better angle for towing. It's a bit harder to hook up trailer chains and sometimes have to use a couple chain extensions that I keep on hand. The step bumper is still plenty strong enough to support my 215# because the mounting brackets are on either side of the notch.
