Hey,
In continuation of a prior post that a sailor was worried about pulling his cat. I used to pull a cat with my VW Fox. One thing I recommend is to just drill two holes into the bottom of the bumper and bolt on the trailor hitch. This eliminates carrying around the extra 40 or 50 pounds of trailer hitch gear to attach to the frame.
People who don't think there is enough support in the bumper obviously have not had to drill through a bumper. Method that I use is to get a good 1/2 inch chuck drill(forget about 3/8 inch or cordless). Tap with punch, take carbon 1/8th inch bit and at high speed try to get through bumper.
Once the 1/8 inch guide hole is through move up to bigger bit until the 1/2inch or 3/8inch hole. Add large washers and bolt away. Other suggestions include adjusting the hieght of drill place upsidedown on floor and have helper step down on bumper.
By the way if you look at most trailer hitch frames they only use 1/4,3/8 inch bolts anyway.
Also I have used the more primative way of putting a hole on the top of the bumper and just sticking the ball on. It was on an old Volswagon Dasher. Never had any problems with pulling utility trailers with dirt and brush but it always seemed to ride high on the tonge.
Pulling Cats usualy means pulling a trailor that is heavier than the boat and usually has total weight of less than a thousand pounds. Don't worry about it looking like hell if I chose my friends by what they drove I wouldn't be a sailor.
I am as Cheap as they get,
JP the Terrible
Isotope 186
JP,
Just wondering how the insurance holds up, using this method, if you have an accident.
Phill
I'm glad you haven't had any failures doing this so far. Seems like an accident waiting........