Trailer hitch für 1949 Dodge Wayfarer

[Pearsebln]

I would like to tow a trailer with my 1949 Dodge Wayfarer.
But I don't have a trailer hitch.
Is there any chance of finding a trailer hitch for the Wayfarer?
Greetings Olaf 
 

[Plymouthy Adams]

slim to none, you will likely be well advised to adapt a receiver style towing hitch to modify for this application.  They are not hard to do and can be hidden pretty much from view.....while in the process of refinishing my 54 which in the rear is so much yet as the 49, this is what I built and installed.  You will be cutting and welding along with drilling some holes in the unit.

 

[Pearsebln]

Thank you very much for your answer.
That is an interesting solution.
Perhaps you have a few more detailed pictures.
Did you build the towbar yourself, or is it a ready-made part?

[DonaldSmith]

My vintage car insurance won't allow me to haul a trailer.  For the low cost of the insurance, I can live with the restriction. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

While this might not be an option for you but I can get these for scrap weight price at just a few dollars on the average at the local wrecking yard and you will buy them by width and strength of tube based on your towing needs and modify them from there.  While it is not much to mount these along the back frame cross metal, you should and I do recommend that you fabricate side braces that attach to the towbar and run forward along the frame rails and tie in via bolts in like manner the bumper mounts are bolted.

[Plymouthy Adams]

1 minute ago, DonaldSmith said:

My vintage car insurance won't allow me to haul a trailer.  For the low cost of the insurance, I can live with the restriction. 

most all of these companies say you cannot tow a trailer and in fact, if it is a vintage tin car period correct to the era, there are exceptions but they specifically state no personal items in the trailer, not for use to camp on site and no spares to be towed in the trailer.....you may still be restricted by some as a NO NO on all accounts, but I know for certain one company at the time I did this said it was allowed based on the above.  The company at the time I spoke to them was okay for static tow and show....well, they may nix that today.  

[andyd]

I agree with Plymouthy's suggestion.....assuming you can weld..........I built a tow bar for my 1940 Dodge years ago using 3" x 2" heavy wall rectangular tubing the width of the frame , then used 3/8" thick 2" wide strip welded at either end then drilled to use the bolt holes for the bumper bar irons and longer bolts...........I welded a piece of 1/2" thick 4" wide steel plate onto the rectangular tube equidistant between the frame rails , drilled & tapped holes to bolt the tow gooseneck onto this plate and brackets for a safety chain attachment point were also made..........I don't have any pics unfortunately but using Plymouthys suggestion of checking out whats available from a wrecking yard might also be useful................andyd 

[Eneto-55]

I realize that it isn't period correct, but I would tend to go with a Reese Hitch Receiver type of system, partly because of the versatility, and then also the ease with which the ball bar can be removed. (Saving shins, rusting hitch ball, and for looks sake.)  But I think a person could also design a removable hitch bar, using three connection points, one on either side farther under the frame, and one in the center, just ahead of the rear bumper.  In that way, when it was removed, a person would have to bend down and look under the vehicle to even know that it was there.  (It could also work to have just the hitch receiver tube made to be removable, if all of the main structure could be fit far enough up under the vehicle so that the receiver tube would be positioned below it. OR, just make a ball mount that takes the place of both the receiver tube and the Reese style ball mount.)

 

I didn't do the welding myself, but while I was working at the farm equipment manufacturing shop (where I spent most of the time in the powder-coating operation), I designed and did all of the cut out part for a hitch for the 93 Chrysler T&C we had at the time.  Then I had the other guys there make the bends, and weld it up.  To fasten it to the frame, I had flat steel pieces that I slid up into the frame rails, with flanged "welding nuts" welded on the top side.  (So that the bottom of the frame tube was sandwiched between the hitch brackets and that piece that fit inside the frame rails.  I punched out elongated mounting holes in the hitch to frame mounting positions of the hitch, to deal with any slight errors in my measurements.)

Edited May 17 by Eneto-55

[greg g]

Somewhere in my stash I have a U Haul clamp on bumper hitch.  It was on a 51 

Plymouth my cousin gave me.  I think it says it's rated foe 875 pounds.  I also had a more HD U Haul chain on half ton rated bar style hitch that I grabbed off my Uncles 48 Buick before he traded it in. Also have Western Auto clamp on that was on my dad's. 54 Dodge. He pulled an early pop up camper.  Was basically a tent in a tin box on wheels.  Couldn't have weighed 5oo pounds with out gear.  Most of the weight was canvas and poles.  My uncle pulled a home made draft beer tap with ice chest.  He hired out summers to company picnics, family reunions, softball tournaments, square dances, Graduations etc providing beer, soda pop, and watermelon.  The compartment over the model A front axle could accomodate 2 full barrels or 4 half barrels and enough ice to cover and get the pop cold.  He would pay my cousin and I a penny for every soda we opened proven by saving our caps in a small bucket.  If we worked Saturday  and Sunday. We could earn 2 bucks.  Big money for a 7 or 8 year old in 1955.  Plus we always ate good at the various parties.  Enough rambling about early trailering.

[Theturtle]

I have a 1950 Plymouth fastback project that has a trailer hitch.  The car's original owner was a NW Iowa farmer who was 60 years old when he bought it new.  He drove it daily until 1980 when they parked it in the barn.  One of his hobbies was restoring bicycles.  He used the Plymouth with a trailer to haul them around.

 

I had planned to do the hitch part of the project later in the summer.  This topic prompted me to drag the parts out of the corn crib and take a look now.  I'm thinking some would seeing one approach that was used "back in the day".  

 

ln the attached picture I put the parts in the general area where they might go.  I will have to mount the bumper and parts to the car to get it all correct.  I started this project back in 2015 and did no photos before disassembly.  I remember thinking at the time that it was a neat  installation for a light duty trailer.  It uses just two or three new holes in the rear crossmember as the main mounting points and two in the gravel shield for the u-bolt.  I'm looking forward to sandblasting and painting the parts and getting it back together on the car.  Those bumpers were really heavy and well built.  I can imagine a clamp-on hitch would work fine.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

to me, (opinion only here) this is a perfect example of HOW NOT TO DO THINGS

[DJ194950]

That location is where the gas tank sits in the 50 dr. I had was located.

 

Is it in your car also?

 

DJ

[Theturtle]

Plymouthy Adams, I get where you are coming from.  My first impression was that the hitch was a cobbled together mess.  And, DJ194950, my gas tank is right there as well.   I am looking forward to seeing how it comes together when I get it cleaned up and back on the car later this summer.    

 

I enjoy thinking about the car's life.  On one hand, I found brake linings that had non-matching holes which had been drilled and countersunk to fit the shoes on this car.  On the other, from the huge mounds of accumulated grease and mud around each suspension fitting, and the still tight front suspension, and the layers of seat covers, it seems to me that the car received its share of attention over those first thirty years.  From the amount of dirt that had accumulated under it and inside the frame members it is clear that it spent its life shuffling around on gravel roads.  I have done the body off the frame clean-up and engine overhaul, etc. and am putting it back together to look like what it is - an old farm car.

 

I agree that probably the best solution is to adapt one of the modern hitch set-ups to get the benefit of the receiver feature, etc.  I'm not recommending something like this.  Just thought it would be fun to share what I found on my old beater project.  But boy, those old bumpers were tough.  It seems a shame to not use all that structure.

 

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

my comment was based solely on the rear of the hitch mounting point and what seems to be the metal of the trunk pan and not tied into the frame.  While the front mounting is at the bumper and along with the supporting cross brace for the bumper...I will not say the towing force would not be adequate only that the rear does not fully check rocking and does not displace tongue weight effectively.    For sure as in the past and you can still see being done in the present, one often does with what one has at hand at the moment and am fully aware the intent was to beef this later, but as it did the job....the later was often not at the forefront.