I would not shim it. Just looking for trouble if you are rear ended with a trailer attached. If hit the whole hitch could move forward let alone shear the bolts and then your in for one hell of a problem.

Was just recently rear ended by someone not paying attention (saw him in my rear view while waiting for a light looking around but not in front of his truck) when he hit my trailer. Trailer had damage but my hitch and undercarriage did not.

In my opinion I would rather have a small notch in my bumper than major issues if the bolts shear. And yeah, I know what your thinking, it would never happen to me.... Well I thought the same. I was about one mile away from the service station that did the inspection on the trailer. Never say never.

I also bought the black trailer coupler lock you see in the pic. Got it not so much for the anti theft properties (certainly helps) but bought it so it is almost impossible for the trailer to come off in an accident. Look at the videos on the safety sentry site listed below.



Bought it a while back from:
http://safetysentryinc.com/ (when on the page-scroll to the bottom)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HECL...eature=related

Well worth the piece of mind and the inventor Karl Pratt is a great guy-spoke with him & his wife at length over the phone.

 

Yeah, i went out and took a long look at the clearance today. I'm cognizant of the weakness of shimming. I may not like the answer, but i'm coming around to it.

 

I would figure out how thick of shims are needed then fab them up and take them to your local metal shop (if you have one) and have them welded to the hitch. Replace the bolts that came with the hitch with the correct length and grade to compensate for the shims. With the shims welded to the hitch frame the risk of shearing a bolt does not change as long as the same grade of bolt is used.

 

Still a bad idea if you think about it. Your resting the hitch assembly on small shims with a small contact area still, instead of full sides of the hitch making contact to the undercarriage...
All that instead of losing a small piece of plastic.

 

I think he means a bar-like shim that gives a greater contact area. As i said before, i've no fab skills. Part of the issue is that the hitch would be very close to the ground. So even if successfully shimmed, my eyes tell me that it's too close to the ground. Banging it on the ground can't be good, either. I'm realizing that can-do does not equal should-do.

 

Can always go one step further and drill up thru floor board and then use a strap(metal plate) on the inside of the vehicle...this way the hitch weight is pulling from the top side instead of below the make believe frame..bolts cant pull thru this way..

 

Curt is the way I went. It seems better constructed and it is fully powder-coated. It tucks up underneath the SS's bumper just like you've got it, and I thought about leaving it that way... But, I pulled the bumper over it and 'free-handed' an outline of the receiver box then took my dremel tool and sliced out about an inch by inch opening. After that I took the grinding bit and just took little bits at a time to just clear the receiver.

The 'butt plug' requires a slight push up on the bumper when inserting it into the receiver, as it is partially obscured. I route the chains from under-through-over the hitch openings and hook back onto themselves. Nothing rubs the bumper when hooked-up and I've yet to hear or feel anything scrape.

 

That looks great ScroogeSS. I may buy a Dremel and have at it. I think I could tape off the proper dimensions and get it right. Since I have a Curt also, your pictures are very helpful.

 

Mine was done exactly as ScroogeSS discribed. Looks and works great.

 

Okay, here is a picture from the underside of mine.

This is the Curt hitch on the SS, without trimming the bumper.

I'd like to trim it like others have done, but I was originally concerned that once I trim a hole, that the bumper will come down and cover up the hitch pin hole or near enough so that getting the pin in and out would be a hassle.

In this photo I've annotated measurments of the curt hitch I have.

You can just see the hitch pin hole on the side.

So, those that have trimmed and used a Curt, how does yours look?
Does yours come that far rearward on the car? (only 7/8" from hitch end to rearmost bumper edge.)
Where does your hitch pin hole fall?

I'm wondering if the design changed, or mine is mounted farther back than expected.