Re-tap bolt or weld trailer hitch?

O

Olde English

Member
Well, I went ahead and screwed up the most basic of installations and now I'm in a dilemma.
I was installing a class 3 trailer hitch for my Rav4 and I managed to cross-thread 1 of 4 bolts. What happened was the hole was rusted and the bolt would not thread. Well, it finally caught, but after cranking it half way, I noticed that it was cross threaded to the max. Like, it's going in sideways :doh::banghead:

So now I'm in a pickle. 3 of 4 bolts are in good and are torqued properly. Should I re-tap the cross threaded bolt or have it welded onto the car? I've never had any experience with getting either done so I don't know the costs or where to get it done.

The problem with retapping the bolt is that the hole in the trailer hitch where the bolt goes through is a tight fit and it would probably have to be widened and the steel is pretty thick.
Also, this is all taking place underneith a SUV so it makes it that much more difficult to work on.

I thought about getting it welded on, but I'm not sure if this is advised. Also, I'd like to have the option of taking it off one day if I don't need it anymore.

Are there any other options? I won't be towing anything larger than a 2 motorcycle open trailer.
Where can I get this type of work done? About how much would it cost?

Thanks everyone
 
dmb367

dmb367

New Member
Olde English;48892 wrote: The problem with retapping the bolt is that the hole in the trailer hitch where the bolt goes through is a tight fit and it would probably have to be widened and the steel is pretty thick.
Click to expand...
How thick is pretty thick?
 
O

Olde English

Member
I'm gonna guess half an inch thick? I'm trying to gauge what the best option is.
I'm thinking that re-tapping it is the best, but I don't know where to go to get it done (specialty shops perhaps?) and how much it's going to cost.
 
ninjamansc

ninjamansc

THE Comstock
Control Rider
I'm pretty well versed in metalwork, so here's my opinion. If the mounting hole serves no other purpose (just an unused pre-existing threaded hole), then by far the easiest way to go is just welding it to the unibody. Depending how bad you boogered up the hole and how corroded it its, you could try running a thread chaser or bottom tap through it. There's alway's the heli-coil option as well.
If it were my vehicle, I'd weld it on without a second thought (but I weld stuff all the time). If you do end up needing to remove it, grinding out a weld is pretty easy. Just brush/grind off any paint and rust, then take it to your local weld shop (muffler shops have good MIG welders). Should only take like 10 minutes.
 
Steve

Steve

New Member
When the pretty much the same thing happened to me, I had my brother weld it. He's admittedly not the best welder, but it worked. I don't know how much someone would charge you.
 
Backmarker

Backmarker

Control Rider
Personally I'd use welding as a last resort. But if you do.......make sure to unhook the battery and check for the location of your gas tank.
 
O

Olde English

Member
dmb367;48906 wrote: I would use a heli-coil. It's pretty simple to do yourself, I had to use one on a rearset bolt once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFYa6sjhh_E
Click to expand...
Thanks dmb. After thinking about it for the past few days, I'm going to attempt to retap the thread myself. I purchased a thread repair kit and a m12x1.25 bolt die to fix the bolt that I messed up in the process. I couldn't find the appropriate bolt size at the local home depot so I ordered the die.

If re-tapping the thread doesn't work, I'll resort to getting it welded. The videos that I've watched online make retapping look so easy, that I couldn't resist trying myself. I'm most concerned about not drilling out the hole straight since my exhaust is in the way.

In my original post, I thought that I would have to create a bigger hole, but after reading up on tapping new threads, I found out that you can use the same size bolts. So I won't have to drill out the hitch, which would probably be tough. So I'm glad about that.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
A

aronhalt

New Member
Another option, if the retap doesn't work.

Assuming this is a standard setup and you can actually get to the parts I'm describing. I'm guessing that you have what amounts to a nut welded on the inside of the frame and that is what your bolt is engaging through the hitch.

Step 1: Find a longer bolt...same diameter, and a nut for the bolt. Try a mom and pop parts house, Ace, etc.
Step 2: Drill out the existing welded-nut hole large enough for the replacement bolt to fit through it.
Step 3: Put your new nut on top of the old nut and install the bolt through the old nut(drilled out now) and engage the new nut.

Heli-coils work well too
 
O

Olde English

Member
I totally forgot about this thread. Here's an update.

So like I said above, I bought myself a thread repair kit similar to Helicoil. I also bought a bolt die to repair the bolt that I messed up since I could not source the same bolt anywhere online. And the appropriately sized drill bit was purchased too.

Fixing the bolt was easy. Just screwed the bolt into the die and it came out good as new.

The hardest part was drilling out the existing hole that I screwed up, mostly due to location (underneath the car with the exhaust in the way). I charged up the battery packs for the cordless drill, loosened the exhaust hangars, and had my gf hold the exhaust to the side while I tried to drill as straight as possible.

Important note to anyone who tries to drill out a hole in metal: Wear goggles! Those shavings are super hot! While I was drilling out the hole, the shavings were falling directly on my face and were burning me, but I couldn't stop drilling. It felt like I was getting stung by a bee and I couldn’t swat it away lol. I wore goggles of course.

Drilling out the hole was much harder to do that I thought. It wasn't a smooth process and it kept getting stuck. I was also unsure of how far to drill.

Next, I had to cut a new thread into the cleaned out hole. This too wasn't as smooth as I thought it would go, as it started going in sideways, but I corrected this. At this point, I thought that I had screwed it up and it wasn't going to work.

After inserting the threaded coil, the moment of truth came as I inserted the bolt. It went in smooth as butter! The only thing is, I don't think I cut thread far enough, so I had to crank the bolt to go in all the way. It is not coming out lol.

So the problem was solved without needing to weld so I was pretty relieved. I towed a trailer for the first time and it was easy as pie. I was glad that I had a trailer too because I managed to crash and the bike wasn't rideable for the 3+ hour drive back.

To conclude, thread repair kits work well. Just make sure you drill deep enough and wear goggles.
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
I would have to ask the same question as ERB. Your putting a class III hitch on a RAV 4? Seems a bit over the cars capacity?
 
O

Olde English

Member
physicistkev;58567 wrote: I would have to ask the same question as ERB. Your putting a class III hitch on a RAV 4? Seems a bit over the cars capacity?
Click to expand...
I think a class III hitch is the only one available for my vehicle and they are all made by the same company (I think it may be made by sequent and sold through various companies like hidden hitch?)

As far as towing anything that REQUIRES a class III hitch with my vehicle, I wouldn't. I got it just to tow small trailers for my bike.
 
physicistkev

physicistkev

Control Rider
That seems weird that your vehicle's max tow rating is around 3500#'s but you are forced to use a tow hitch that usually has a 5000# capacity. Was reading that the RAV 4 tow hitch from Toyota uses significantly more bolts to attach to the uni-body construction of the RAV 4. Something around 14 bolts, vs the 4-6 bolts of most aftermarket hitches.
 
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