Taking bus to have work done on it has always been a pain. I have to find someone to follow me to where I'm having the work done, and get a ride back from them. It's the same thing when I go to pick it up. I drive an old Volkswagen, and I've had a tow bar for years. I decided it was time do so something about it. When I got my tax return this year, I picked up a pre-made 2" x 2" by 18" receiver tube. My alternator was leaking oil at the time, so I postponed having the hitch installed. One repair lead to the next, and I ended up having to postpone installing the hitch for a little longer than I had hoped for. President Bush came through with his $300 tax rebate this past August, and I saw my window of opportunity.
I called a retired welder that goes to the same church I do, named Ralph. I've seen his work and it neat and sturdy. Since my engine is mount transversely, I wanted to make sure that the hitch was installed properly. Ralph's motto is "Overkill or be killed!", and I like the sound of that. The last thing I wanted was to be passed by my own towd.
Ralph had me bring my bus by one afternoon so he could measure it. A couple days later he called me and asked me to drop it off at his house. Ralph has a cement pad leading down one side of his house, to the welding shop in his backyard. He parks his small class A motorhome there. There was ten inches of clearance, leaving me with about five inches on either side of the bus. With him guiding me, we slipped it through the get. Talk about a tight fit.
I backed it up on to a couple pieces of 4" x 12" beams. Two days later he called to say the air bags had settled, and he couldn't hardly get under it anymore. I stopped by after work one night, in my dress slacks and a polo shirt. I climbed under the bus to position a 12 ton bottle jack and jack the body of the bus up. Once it was high enough, we slipped a pair of heavy duty jack stands under the engine cradle mounting points. As usual, I ended up with a little grime on my arms, but fortunately the dress clothes were clean.
After careful consideration, Ralph decided that he was going to mount the front of the hitch to the back radius rod/swaybar mount. He used one of the existing bolts.
As you can see from the pictures, the hitch follows the contours of the engine cradle pretty closely. This gives me plenty of ground clearance. The hitch bolts to into the bus, so it can be easy to remove should I need to pull the engine.
Well, I hope this inspires some of you. Installing a hitch on a GMC coach isn't nearly as easy and an Eagle or a MCI. On the other hand it's not all that difficult either.