i-MiEV Trailer Hitch Wanted

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JoeS

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My next door neighbor is now looking for a trailer hitch for his i-MiEV. IIRC, Torklift has stopped making them. Anyone have a hitch before my neighbor tries to make one? PM me or simply respond here. Thanks.
 
I am looking for one too! I think going to have to resort to make one shortly.

If anyone has photos to share of their hitch and how it installs, I'd appreciate them.

Now that summer is here, I really want to put the bike rack on my Miev!

Andrew
 
I have pictures from my install below.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r2q4ce5b29rut4t/AADoN2P6qKf_k5XQm7Fc3kQoa?dl=0

As for Torklift, would they make a batch if enough people are interested?
 
Excellent idea, Joe. I’m about to buy a Model S hitch from Torklift, am local and have dealt with them directly before, so would be happy to echo your efforts or just walk in with the offer myself.
 
Thx Joe, I spoke with the production foreman and am awaiting a response. He did recall several previous requests to restart this hitch, and should get back to me tomorrow. I told him all 2012 models with 2" receiver. I don't believe there were any differences in 2012-16, do you?
-Jay
 
jray3 said:
Thx Joe, I spoke with the production foreman and am awaiting a response. He did recall several previous requests to restart this hitch, and should get back to me tomorrow. I told him all 2012 models with 2" receiver. I don't believe there were any differences in 2012-16, do you?
-Jay
Jay, thanks. Good that you selected the 2" receiver. I'm not aware of any differences 2012-2016 that would affect the receiver mounting. Anyone know of any?

If anyone is interested in a hitch for a North American (wide-body) i-MiEV, right now is probably the last time we'll ever have this opportunity, so please do add your name to this list. Thanks.
 
I just sent an email to the other I-MiEV owner I know. Waiting to hear back.

Not sure if I want to put one on Koorz or not. Bear and Photon both have them.
 
I exhausted my appeals to Torklift to produce a few more hitches. I believe when they claim to have scrapped the jigs, but “threw out the drawings”?!!
Anyway, the lightweight design posted here by a user years ago should be good for bicycles and light towing, but it’d take replication or a quality custom hitch for full utility. Meanwhile, I feel like repositioning the tiny home.....
 
Jay, thank you for taking the time to approach them on this and for asking them to do it in the first place way back when... I can't help but wonder if they even sold enough units to amortize the labor required to design the hitch and build their tooling jigs and come up with the installation procedure (love their little unique spring tool for feeding bolts through the channel).

When Tesla first announced their Model Y came without a hitch option, that immediately became a non-starter for me - I must not have been alone, as within a month they reversed their position.

Then there's the fellow in my community who asked me to show him how to attach garbage cans for pulling them to the main road as the local garbage company would no longer come up the driveways ... he had no idea what that square thing in the back of his monster SUV was for :!: :?

MitsiTrashCanTow.jpg
 
Adoepner said:
Bummer. I guess I'm fabbing something myself!

You can buy used trailer hitches for other cars very cheaply - Find one in a recycling yard & you might get it for $10 or $15. *Assuming* you can find one with a center section similar to the hitches made specifically for the iMiEV and *assuming* the car that hitch came from was a bit wider than our cars, it's not too hard to cut off the ends which made it fit the other car and fab up ends which fit the iMiEV. I have a friend who is a welder and he's done several 'repurposings' of used trailer hitches - He's a bit of a collector of used trailer hitches and rather than pay $150 for one to fit a specific car, he's made quite a few with just an hour or two of labor and a few bits of scrap iron . . . . which he also collects :lol:

So, if you're at all handy with a welder, this might be an option for you. If anyone discovers an ideal used hitch for repurposing, maybe we could share it here?? If it came from a Ford Focus or a Chevy Cavalier, there are likely hundreds, maybe thousands of them out there waiting for a new home

Don
 
Does anyone out there have a real Torklift Ecohitch that is not installed? Or pics of a real one? or measurements of a real one?

I have this sailboat project I'm working on, and I'd really like to know if I am speccing out my boat & trailer to be towed to the ramp by my i-MiEV, or if I have to do it based off of the RAV4. So, I'd like to install a hitch on my i-MiEV, a real one. These are, of course, unobtainable. However, I've been doing some research into the matter, and I'd come to much the same conclusion as Don did in the post above mine from 2020. It shouldn't be hard to find something comparable and modify it, right?

So, I started looking. Here's the image of the i-MiEV hitch straight from Torklift (they've hidden the image from their shopping interface, but it's still up on Google Images:

1uCY31H.jpg


I started working on this post, thinking I was going to ask for some dimensions, like so

KvwIU2u.jpg


But then, due to my Airstream-related search history no doubt, Cascade Rack down in Bend, OR serves me an ad for an accessory hitch for an Airstream. It looks like this...

5ZEAPxX.jpg


Looks awfully similar, doesn't it?

I am going to try to wrangle dimensions or images out of Torklift, or perhaps from someone on one of the Airstream forums. Can any of you, Torklift hitch-having or otherwise, contribute any images or measurements?
 
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