Looking for pictures or measurements of Torklift Ecohitch

[yahshoor]

Do any of you folks out there have any pictures or images of an i-MiEV compatible Torklift Ecohitch?

I am working on a plan to modify other Torklift hitch products to our cars, but in the absence of an actual hitch, I'm just guessing from cached images on Google. I posted my request over here in this other thread in the classifieds subforum (https://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4630&start=18), but only realized after the fact that I should probably post a fresh thread with a meaningful title. (The upshot is that I think that many vehicles might have hitches that might be easily modified into compatibility with our car, but the hitch receivers that Torklift sells for mounting bike racks on the back of one's Airstream trailer looks like it's possibly a very close match.)

If you're in the Portland, OR area and don't mind me crawling around under your car, I could easily take my measurements & photos of your hitch while it's still mounted on your car.

 

[MickeyS70]

I could easily take my measurements & photos of your hitch while it's still mounted on your car.

Don’t have one and live nowhere near you but assuming that this hitch is using existing mounting holes in the chassis like on other models, wouldn’t you be able to measure these dimensions on your own car?

 

[yahshoor]

I might be able to approximate. I just don't think that guessing at the shape of an object is the most reliable way to get dimensions, you know what I mean? I've already looked at the Torklift Ecohitch installed manual, and looked at my car from underneath, and have made some measurements, but it sure would be nice to confirm my measurements with measurements made from a real object. For example... I suspect that the two end-plates are mounted at 90 degree angles to the horizontal bar, but what if it's actually 89 and 91? Or some other angle that's not a perfectly right angle?

Suffice it to say that, while you're not totally wrong, I would still like to hear from people who actually own the actual object.

 

[jray3]

Hi yashoor, another dweller of the wierd city is coming up to Tacoma for parts this weekend, but I don’t wanna pull my hitch. Being a Torklift, it is vastly overbuilt and makes a great jacking point, plus I can hang my miev up to dry! PM an addy for photos- too painful to post here!

 

[PV1]

Unfortunately, I’m on the other coast from you, but here are pictures of installing mine. The only fit problem with the Torklift hitch is the mis-aligned hole on the rear sway bar structure. I ended up using a ratchet strap to line it up and pull the bolt through.

On the passenger side, there is an extra bracket that attaches to the car that’s not shown when the hitch is on the ground. Overall, installation was rather easy except for that one mis-alignment. Didn’t need to pull the bumper cover off, though taking off the left rear wheel made things easier.

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

 

[jray3]

Great photos from your Wayback Machine, PV1!

 

[PV1]

Thanks. I just wish the undercarriage was still that clean. Things have rusted up quite a bit since then, especially the hitch. I plan to fix that this winter, but we’ll see.