Trailer hitch

alexthejew said:

I need a trailer hitch to tow some stuff to the track as well as a jetski occasionally...

unfortunately, i cant find one for my car

06 mustang GT... who makes one for us GT owners?

thanks

Click to expand...

I've got a Draw Tite Part#24747 I purchased from hitchesforless on my 2010 Mustang GT. I originally purchased it for a 2008 GT California Special and had it on a 2009 GT/CS as well. I tow a Kendon Motorcycle trailer and one or two motorcycles ( under 2,000 lbs ) no problem. Yes they do fit the Shelby GT's and GT/CS dispite what you have read, just pinches the rear bumper a little bit.

The instructions tell you to drop the mufflers but you don't have to, just take one of the short carriage bolts to your local hardware store and get four 5 inch ones of the same diameter then you can just run the bolt through the frame instead of having to muck around with dropping mufflers and fishing the bolts into the frame. With a jack to hold the frame in place it shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to install.

On my 08/09 GT/CS the standard 4 wire trailer light plug worked just fine, spliced right into the wires (read/white) in the trunk and ran the pig tail down out through the bottom left electrical rubber boot. On the 2010 Mustang GT (yellow/red wires ) I could not get the trailer lights to work with the sequential tail lights until I replaced the trailer's light bulbs with 1157 type LED bulbs.

-Chris

Trailer hitch for GT/CS

Chris Fierros said:

I've got a Draw Tite Part#24747 I purchased from hitchesforless on my 2010 Mustang GT. I originally purchased it for a 2008 GT California Special and had it on a 2009 GT/CS as well. I tow a Kendon Motorcycle trailer and one or two motorcycles ( under 2,000 lbs ) no problem. Yes they do fit the Shelby GT's and GT/CS dispite what you have read, just pinches the rear bumper a little bit.

The instructions tell you to drop the mufflers but you don't have to, just take one of the short carriage bolts to your local hardware store and get four 5 inch ones of the same diameter then you can just run the bolt through the frame instead of having to muck around with dropping mufflers and fishing the bolts into the frame. With a jack to hold the frame in place it shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to install.

On my 08/09 GT/CS the standard 4 wire trailer light plug worked just fine, spliced right into the wires (read/white) in the trunk and ran the pig tail down out through the bottom left electrical rubber boot. On the 2010 Mustang GT (yellow/red wires ) I could not get the trailer lights to work with the sequential tail lights until I replaced the trailer's light bulbs with 1157 type LED bulbs.

-Chris

Click to expand...

Based on Chris's comments I purchased the above draw tite hitch for my 2009 GT/CS convertible, followed his suggestion of the 5" bolts and it all worked fine. Except,......, it took more than 20 minutes (1.5 hrs, I'm a CPA not a mechanic) but still had to drop the passenger side muffler. It does a little more than pinch a little bit, but cosmetically acceptable (had to remove the center mount bracket too).

Old man Gene said:

Based on Chris's comments I purchased the above draw tite hitch for my 2009 GT/CS convertible, followed his suggestion of the 5" bolts and it all worked fine. Except,......, it took more than 20 minutes (1.5 hrs, I'm a CPA not a mechanic) but still had to drop the passenger side muffler. It does a little more than pinch a little bit, but cosmetically acceptable (had to remove the center mount bracket too).

Click to expand...

Old man Gene,

Even the Draw-Tite website say it should only take 45 minutes. That of course is a load of crap if you use the installation kit and have to drop the mufflers and fish the bolts up through the frame. Took me 3 hrs to put it on that way.

I'm not a mechanic either but I had previously installed the hitch on a 2007 GT and 2008 GT/CS the hard way before I figured out I could just get 4 longer (but same grade) bolts and run it through the frame. So that was my 3rd install on a 2009 and with tools in hand and car in place only took me 20 minutes to install as I timed it. I put the bolts in through the frame from the outside first and then I use a motorcycle jack to hoist the hitch up into place before running the bolts all the way through the frame. The jack helps if you don't have someone to hold it in place while you run the bolts through.

I did not drop any of the mufflers when using the longer bolts but I did have to remove the rear muffler hanger on the passenger muffler as it has to be removed as the bolts that hold it on go through the hitch. But the muffler stayed in place due to the front hanger.

But I did forget about the part where on the GT/CS you have to disconnect the two lower plastic clips tabs that hold the lower bumper skirt in place and fold that piece up out of the way. For some reason the bumper pinch on my 2008 GT/CS was more noticeable than on the my 2009 GT/CS, these pictures are from my 2009 GT/CS.

On the 2011 GT you have to remove both left and right hangers as Ford flipped the driver side hanger which used to hang out from the frame and now it hangs inward (like the passenger side). And on the 2011 GT/CS there are 4 clips instead of 2 so you can't just fold that part up but rather have to zip tie them back to the original mounting holes as they won't reach once the hitch is in place. Finally the rear bumber skirt completely covers the hitch, meaning you will need to cut a 1.25 inch square in the cover (a replacement skirt is only $139.95 from Ford) and plug it with a rubber hitch cover, or convert back to a standard GT skirt (try www dot newtakeoff dot com), or fabricate a custom hitch ball mount in the shape of a capital letter G. I may just cut out the whole in the skirt and put a rubber hitch cover in there for now and then R&R the skirt when my lease is up!

BTW...How is your mpg while towing? I'm was getting about 18mpg at 5 mph over posted speeds on the interstate in my 2010 GT.

Cheers...

2006 Mustang w/ hitch

alexthejew said:

I need a trailer hitch to tow some stuff to the track as well as a jetski occasionally...

unfortunately, i cant find one for my car

06 mustang GT... who makes one for us GT owners?

thanks

Click to expand...

Draw-tite has a clean Class 1. Go to etrailer.com
I just bought one and have yet to install it.
See the pic.

Chris Fierros said:

I've got a Draw Tite Part#24747 I purchased from hitchesforless on my 2010 Mustang GT. I originally purchased it for a 2008 GT California Special and had it on a 2009 GT/CS as well. I tow a Kendon Motorcycle trailer and one or two motorcycles ( under 2,000 lbs ) no problem. Yes they do fit the Shelby GT's and GT/CS dispite what you have read, just pinches the rear bumper a little bit.

The instructions tell you to drop the mufflers but you don't have to, just take one of the short carriage bolts to your local hardware store and get four 5 inch ones of the same diameter then you can just run the bolt through the frame instead of having to muck around with dropping mufflers and fishing the bolts into the frame. With a jack to hold the frame in place it shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to install.

On my 08/09 GT/CS the standard 4 wire trailer light plug worked just fine, spliced right into the wires (read/white) in the trunk and ran the pig tail down out through the bottom left electrical rubber boot. On the 2010 Mustang GT (yellow/red wires ) I could not get the trailer lights to work with the sequential tail lights until I replaced the trailer's light bulbs with 1157 type LED bulbs.

-Chris

Click to expand...

I am in the process of installing this same hitch and though this was a great idea. I couldn't figure out why the manufacturer wouldn't design the kit this way. I purchased the 5 inch bolts and this method definitely makes the install quicker and easier. Until, that is, you attempt to tighten the bolts to the specified torque. At this point you will find that torquing the bolts to the specified 50 lb.-ft. will collapse the hollow unibody frame 'rails' before reaching that torque. The reason the manufacturer designed the kit with the fish lines is to ensure the bolts are attached to a solid piece of metal, not a hollow unibody box.

Thanks,
Joe

Joe Nardy said:

I am in the process of installing this same hitch and though this was a great idea. I couldn't figure out why the manufacturer wouldn't design the kit this way. I purchased the 5 inch bolts and this method definitely makes the install quicker and easier. Until, that is, you attempt to tighten the bolts to the specified torque. At this point you will find that torquing the bolts to the specified 50 lb.-ft. will collapse the hollow unibody frame 'rails' before reaching that torque. The reason the manufacturer designed the kit with the fish lines is to ensure the bolts are attached to a solid piece of metal, not a hollow unibody box.

Thanks,
Joe

Click to expand...

Well I have to say I installed the same hitch on several mustangs and never experienced that problem. But then again I don't ever recall using a torque wrench during the install process and only tighten the bolts enough so they don't come off, i don't know what torque that was but it wasn't much more than I could get on it with the socket wrench laying down underneath the car, and for sure nothing got crushed.

By my account using this method the NUT is NOT what is holding the hitch in place it's the BOLT, just tighten the NUT enough to keep the NUT from coming loose.

Well just my two cents and I never had any problem towing a couple of motorcycles several thousand miles (from South Florida to North Carolina and back) over several years. I don't think I would do it any different on a car I was going to keep for one year or several years.

Try lock tight next time, and better yet, check your nuts each time both before and after you use them. If you uncomfortable with that by all means follow the instruction in the manual.

you dont see many hitches on Mustangs. when we did Mustangs across america, a couple of blokes from Nova Scotia drove to California and back across the U.S.A. pulling a teardrop trailer. They slept in the teardrop every night. It was a 65 Mustang and they did the whole trip pulling the trailer. we covered about 400 miles every day and they didn't have to worry about hotel reservations. 3 weeks on the road saving $100 a night = $2100 savings. Thanks Chris Fierros. I have a 71 Shelby Europa and a 2010 GT. I will put a hitch on both to pull the teardrop.

71 Europas, 9 built and sold.....not 14. GT on tail of the dragon 318 curves in 11 miles. it took 30 min to drive it going as fast as i could.

Hey guys. New Mustang owner here. Just bought a 2017 gt pp with 6 speed manual last month. I've been doing HPDE track weekends with BMWs for the past several years. Now I'm working on preparing the mustang for the same type duty.

I'm posting here because I've been considering a trailer hitch. Not so much for towing, although a tire trailer could be in the future. I'm wondering if the hitch would be a safe place to attach a tow strap. (HPDEs I attend require a tow hook or strap and aftermarket tow hooks don't appeal to me for a variety of reasons.)

Has anyone used a hitch as a place to temporarily attach a tow strap? Any experience to say whether it's safe and effective (or not)?

Appreciate your thoughts.