Bought a hitch & wiring harness

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RageOfFury

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I bought a Reese Class III Professional Series hitch. It says Reese on the front of it. Model # 44082. Yet there is a sticker on the side that says Draw-Tite 51 Series. Model # 51054...make up your mind:p

Anyway, I was wondering if the bolts that come with it are strong enough...would it be wise to upgrade the bolts? If so, to what grade and where would I get them?

Also bought a T-one connector wiring kit that taps into both tail lights. Model # 118382.

My liberty is coming along quite well.:D
 

kb0nly

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Use the bolts that came with the hitch, they are the grade needed.

If you have a gas tank skid plate then its simple as the bolt holes will be in good shape after taking out the skid mounting bolts, if not clean the holes out first with a wire bottle brush, i used a plumbers brush, and some penetrating oil. Otherwise if you can find a tap the right size run that through.

Also do yourself a favor and support the passenger side rear with a jackstand and pull off the right rear wheel, its hard as heck to get the front right bolt into the hitch because the exhaust goes across below the head of the bolt, but with the wheel off you can do it from the wheel well no problem.

I just did this on mine as well, i cleaned the holes and got five of the bolts done in about 15 minutes, the last bolt took me nearly 45 minutes.. LOL

Oh one more thing, with that T-One style wiring harness don't put much for trailer lighting on it, it can't take much of a load before your vehicle lights dim along with the trailer lights. Also if you pull the right rear corner of the interior trim panel out a bit you can get to the factory floor grommet to drop the wiring harness down through the floor, thats how my wiring harness works but mine is the powered converter that plugs into the rear end harness plug in the back right corner, not to both tail lights.
 
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Blue KJ in PA

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heck...they should have added a Hidden Hitch sticker too...then all of the family would be covered. Bolts it came with should be fine...one that came with my Draw Tite were same as the one for my tank skid
 

kb0nly

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heck...they should have added a Hidden Hitch sticker too...then all of the family would be covered. Bolts it came with should be fine...one that came with my Draw Tite were same as the one for my tank skid

The bolts with the tank skid are not the same grade of bolt however...
 

RageOfFury

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Alright I'll use the bolts that came with it. Yeah this evening after installing my mud guards I used a plumbers brush to clean the threads. Used a lot of WD-40 as well. Tomorrow I'm going to try each one with a bolt to see if they all go in smoothly.

For now, the only trailer I will be pulling only has tail lights. Single bulb in each. So that shouldn't be a problem.

Aside from the mopar harness(which costs an arm and leg btw) and the T-one connector harness, I wasn't aware of any other harness.
 

kb0nly

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LED trailer lights are awesome, slowly going to swap out the lights on my utility trailer for LED.

I don't know if you have a source for it in Canada, but Hopkins 42475 is the best aftermarket harness for the KJ in my opinion. Takes like five minutes to install, just have to pull a trim piece and pull out the right rear panel to access the wiring harness plug, it goes inline with that plug and your done. It's a powered converter that takes power from the rear power outlet circuit.

Your trailer shouldn't be a problem though, just wanted to make you aware of it. I know people that have used the T-One harness and blew out their BCM or burned up something. Not on the KJ but other vehicles though.

Definitely run a bolt through each hole first, that's what i did also. Scrubbed it and oiled em and then run a bolt through them. Don't force it, if it starts to turn really hard back it up a few turns or even out all the way and use the brush and some more oil in there. Mine were full of crud and it took a while.
 

lbeothuckl

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Also do yourself a favor and support the passenger side rear with a jackstand and pull off the right rear wheel, its hard as heck to get the front right bolt into the hitch because the exhaust goes across below the head of the bolt, but with the wheel off you can do it from the wheel well no problem.
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I was just going to say the same thing. I put one on last week. I had a ***** of a time with the holes. They were rusted. I got a wire brush and worked them clean. I also did the same thing with the last one on the passenger side, took the tire off, it was much easier.

Also the model number confused me as well, I got mine directly from Cequent Towing Products. They apparently own all the major brands so I believ they make them slap on a new tag to whichever brand (i.e. Reese Hidden hitch etc..)
Those bolts will be fine for a class 3.
 

RageOfFury

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I'll look out for that Hopkins 42475 harness. But for now, the only trailer I will be towing on occasion is my dad's trailer and like I said earlier, it only has single bulb tail lights. No side markers or license plate lights.
 

tjkj2002

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kb0nly Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue KJ in PA
heck...they should have added a Hidden Hitch sticker too...then all of the family would be covered. Bolts it came with should be fine...one that came with my Draw Tite were same as the one for my tank skid

The bolts with the tank skid are not the same grade of bolt however...
Watch out with the bolts,some hitches have been known to come with low grade bolts and even the wrong bolts.To take full effect of the classIII hitch you will need a hitch that uses all 6 bolts(3 per side) and the bolts must be M12x1.75x40mm bolts that are metric grade 10.9 or higher only.Grade 8.8(same as SAE grade 5 bolts) or grade 9.8 are not strong enough for towing.
 

RageOfFury

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Yeah they say 8.8. I would like to get 10.9 or 12.9. Would Home depot carry that?
 

RageOfFury

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Couldn't find any 10.9 or 12.9 grade so the 8.8s will have to do. I cleaned out 5 of the 6 holes. The one hole I am having a really hard time cleaning and getting the bolt started is the one above the tailpipe. Jesus H Christ I cant push it enough to get my socket up there. Looks like I might have to remove the wheel and use a wrench instead.

I took back the T-one connector and got a Modulite harness. Spent the entire afternoon installing it. Lots of work involved, but it supports more trailer lights and also protects the Jeep's electrical system.

Hooked up the 12V line to the rear outlet. I changed the rear outlet fuse from 20A to 10A to protect the modulite.
 

tjkj2002

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Couldn't find any 10.9 or 12.9 grade so the 8.8s will have to do. I cleaned out 5 of the 6 holes. The one hole I am having a really hard time cleaning and getting the bolt started is the one above the tailpipe. Jesus H Christ I cant push it enough to get my socket up there. Looks like I might have to remove the wheel and use a wrench instead.

I took back the T-one connector and got a Modulite harness. Spent the entire afternoon installing it. Lots of work involved, but it supports more trailer lights and also protects the Jeep's electrical system.

Hooked up the 12V line to the rear outlet. I changed the rear outlet fuse from 20A to 10A to protect the modulite.
You will need to order them,the dealership can get them,just ask for 6 gas tank skid bolts.I would highly advise against putting any load on that hitch(any towing or recovery) until the correct bolts are used.There is huge difference between a 8.8 bolt and a 10.9 bolt and if anything would have(like the bolts breaking when towing) your insurance company can deny coverage due to the incorrect bolts being used(I've seen it done before,my buddy is still in prison).


Oh as far as getting that last bolt in it helps to have a heavy set friend pull the exhaust pipe out of the way,or get rid of it all together like I did.
 

RageOfFury

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You will need to order them,the dealership can get them,just ask for 6 gas tank skid bolts.I would highly advise against putting any load on that hitch(any towing or recovery) until the correct bolts are used.There is huge difference between a 8.8 bolt and a 10.9 bolt and if anything would have(like the bolts breaking when towing) your insurance company can deny coverage due to the incorrect bolts being used(I've seen it done before,my buddy is still in prison).


Oh as far as getting that last bolt in it helps to have a heavy set friend pull the exhaust pipe out of the way,or get rid of it all together like I did.
Why would Reese/Draw-Tite sell a hitch with inadequate bolts? And why would the gas tank skid bolts be 10.9 or 12.9? It's just a skid plate.

I went to 2 trailer/towing stores today and both said 8.8 bolts are the correct grade for a class III/5000Lbs hitch.

All in all I visited 5 stores today and none of them sell anything higher than 8.8 grade.
 

tjkj2002

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Why would Reese/Draw-Tite sell a hitch with inadequate bolts? And why would the gas tank skid bolts be 10.9 or 12.9? It's just a skid plate.

I went to 2 trailer/towing stores today and both said 8.8 bolts are the correct grade for a class III/5000Lbs hitch.

All in all I visited 5 stores today and none of them sell anything higher than 8.8 grade.
Those grade 8.8's are not enough.You will find that most aftermarket places give the cheap bolts with there stuff to save cost since the cost difference is alot between a grade 8.8 and 10.9.My MOPAR hitch and MOPAR gas tank skid(both bought separately) both can with the "correct" bolts which was grade 10.9 bolts.
 

LibertyOrDeath

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(I've seen it done before,my buddy is still in prison).


Oh as far as getting that last bolt in it helps to have a heavy set friend pull the exhaust pipe out of the way,or get rid of it all together like I did.

Care to give details on that friend?

Are those bolts strong enough to use the tow hitch as a recovery point? I don't tow but I have a Reese tow hitch and I think it had 8.8 bolts.

Did you just take the exhaust off at the muffler?
 

kb0nly

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First off you don't need to take off the exhaust..

Remove the right rear wheel, put it on a jackstand rather than the factory jack for safety though, then get in there with a wrench and go to town. After you get it in about half way then you can put a socket and breaker bar on it, that's how i did it. Never messed with the exhaust. Took some extra time but i didn't want to take anything else apart to put something together.

As for the bolts... After the posts earlier today i made a phone call myself, just got home and a chance to post tonight. Those bolts, 8.8, come with just about every hitch out there. A friend of mine, whom i called, works for U-Haul and they put on hundreds of hitches per year. I asked him if they ever heard of a broken bolt on the hitch due to it being an 8.8, he said NO.. According to him something else bends or breaks before those bolts do. He did tell me about a story where a tow truck tried to recover a truck in the ditch by wrapping tow straps around its hitch tube, the tube bent, and the brackets bent, and one of the welds on the tube to the bracket cracked, but the bolts didn't break and they were 8.8, he also mentioned one case where he saw the captive nuts pulled out of the frame, bolts still intact.

I used the grade of bolts that came with my hitch. Curt, Reese, Hitch-Rite, you name it, they all use the same bolts and they sell thousands of units a year. Is it possible to break one?? Yes... Am i going to loose sleep over it?? No...

If something goes horribly wrong enough to break one of those bolts i got worse problems, like my trailer getting rear ended by a semi tractor, or rolling it into the ditch with a trailer attached, etc.

FYI, the bolts holding the skid plates are NOT that heavy of a grade. There was a long drawn out discussion about those bolts on LOST, i did some searching, where a guy was wanting to install some skids he bought and asked about what type of bolts to use. One guy went and bought bolts from a dealer and they were LESS THAN grade 8 according to a hardness test.

Use the ones that come with the hitch, if you don't your hitch warranty is no good either.
 

kb0nly

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I took back the T-one connector and got a Modulite harness. Spent the entire afternoon installing it. Lots of work involved, but it supports more trailer lights and also protects the Jeep's electrical system.

Hooked up the 12V line to the rear outlet. I changed the rear outlet fuse from 20A to 10A to protect the modulite.

Good choice! Better to be safe then sorry. If you loose your trailer lights at night thats one thing, but if something shorts out and you loose your vehicles lights too your screwed.
 

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