73 & Later 'Hidden-Hitch'

[SCOTI]

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Recently, I needed to set up my 74 to ‘shuttle’ my trailer back & forth. I wanted a hitch that could not be seen (similar to the ECE set-up I have on my 68). The problem I encountered was the availability of ‘hidden-hitches’ for 73 & later trucks.

Sir-Michaels advertise a ‘hidden-hitch’ that works w/their roll pans, but my measurements indicated it would most likely position the ‘ball-mount’ too high in relation to the license plate & LP box. It also appeared that the mounting points of the SM hitch were on the side of the frame which would directly interfere w/my factory sport bumper brackets.

I called ECE & spoke w/Mark about the possibility of using the 67-72 Hidden-Hitch on my 74. Mark indicated they wanted to try their hitch on a later model truck but had done no evaluations @ this time so he couldn’t give me a definitive answer. I knew the frame widths were the same so I yanked the ECE hitch off of my 68 to see if it would work.

What I found was that 67-72 leaf spring trucks are different vs. 73 & later trucks because the 73 & later trucks use a support bracket that triangulates the rear leaf hanger w/the frame. This bracket is right in the way of the mounting flange of the ECE hitch. After some measuring, I came up w/the solution to simply notch the hitch flange to clear the support bracket. This required relocating the center mounting hole of the hitch toward the front of the truck 2” vs. where ECE had intended. I felt this was close enough to not compromise the quality/safety of the hitch so I ordered one of their kits for a 67-72 ‘truck’ & got started.

The cuts & clearance grinding took about 2hrs total; about 1.5hrs for the first side & less than 30mins for the second. That should be the ‘worst-case’ scenario to make the cuts & clean-up the edges. Most of the time was spent trimming as little as possible on the first side so I had to repeat the process a couple of times. Once I had the first side done, the second side was just a measure, drill, cut & grind deal.

Here’s the kit from ECE. It was $209 (+ $46 to ship) & included everything required for installation (the bolts supplied w/the kit didn't appear to be GRADE-8 so I went to the hardware store & purchased some just for piece-of-mind). It comes powder coated in semi-gloss black. Drilling, cutting, & grinding are going to mess that up so you'll need to either get it re-coated or touch-up the areas effected w/some satin black paint. I did the rattle-can thing for now but might get it PC'd again in the future.