MSR Racer

Anybody here has attached a tow hitch to their 911s. I am exploring the possibility so I can take mini trailer with track tires and tools to regional DEs.
Thanks

Minok

There are solutions for this. The one most familiar to me is a company that makes a hitch system that gives you a fold down rear plate to expose a standard square hitch receiver behind it. You then attach bike racks and trailers to that; its been used for track tire trailers by some folks.

Look at http://www.willwoodsystem.com/

tcouture

I have the above and it works very well.

T.

MSR Racer

Thank you guys both. Tcouture, can you please send some pictures and details about your setup. I would appreciate it. Apparently there is no cure to the track sickness one its begun!

tcouture

Here are a couple of pics from the hitch itself. Note that I am holding the license plate up bu it would be covered if I let it fall.

There are really three parts to this solution on a 997 (four if you count the license plate holders but that is not really important).

First, you get reinforced bumper holders. Once you remove the bumper cover and the aluminum C-beam that is really the bumper, there are two holders that need to be replaced because they would not be able to hold and tow anything. So you just replace them with the ones provided by Will.

The second piece is a steel receiver. This is a very well made chunk of steel than needs to be bolted to the C-beam, you need to drill 4 holes and attach solidly then reinstall the C-beam to the reinforced holders that were installed in the previous step using the factory hardware.

Now, for the tricky part, you need to put the bumper cover back on temporarily to find where the receiver hole is. I just drilled a hole in the middle of the square and used a drywall saw to expand the hole until it fit. Then used a coarse file so it looked good. But you need to put the pumper back on a couple of times just to check. Once you have a nicely finished hole, you can reattach the bumper permanently.

The last piece is the ball holder and that just slides into the receiver and is held in place using a cutter pin. When the ball holder is removed, the whole thing pretty much disappears.

I bough a cheap Harbor Freight trailer and just put 4 tires and a tool box on it when I go to the track.

All in all, it worked pretty well for me, the HW provided by will is very well made and comes with all the installation hardware. The instructions were not easy to follow because he explains it in a way that you would not have to remove the bumper cover (but would need a bigger hole) but thankfully, once I saw the parts, I had a pretty good idea how to do this and IMHO, removing the cover is 500% simpler. Just take your time.

The last part is the wiring and there is a pretty decent DIY on the planet-9 forums for that piece.

Hope this helps,

T.

No HTwo O

Seen this on a Boxster too:

MSR Racer

Thank you guys for the great responses. Much appreciated.

BlueJay73

Minok
Did you have your trailer custom made? Where did you get it?
Rather, where can I get it?
Thanks

mdrums

Contact Deputy Dog over on the 997 GT3 forum. He has had several tow hitches and has the best solution for this.

f4 plt

I have a hitch on my 997. You fold up the license plate and insert the draw bar. the receiver for it is mounted in the rear bumper. I use a small all alum enclosed trailer that is low enough that I can still see out the rear window and it hold tires and tools.

The draw bar has enclosed retaining pins that expand as you turn a key in the draw bar so it locks itself in place.

---- and the trailer does extra duty around the house hauling stuff from the local garden center either behind the 997 or my wife's BMW 328

BlueJay73

Thanks for the responses guys, but I'm interested in the trailer. I have the Willwood hitch ready to install. I've been browsing around at tire trailer designs, and was interested in the one in Minok's picture. I'm collecting different designs of tire trailers to see which one most appeals to me. I want to see what trailers are available besides that Harbor Freight ones. Again, thanks for the responses.
f4 plt: can you post a picture of your trailer? The only small enclosed tire trailer I've seen is Nick Wong's, which is fantastic looking.

f4 plt

Will try and get you one tomorrow, I'm at the Rolex Grand Am all day today. Trailer is from Aluma trailers and is featured on their website. Single axle enclosed trailer. Expensive but I like the fact everything is out of site and locked. It even comes with rails on the top if you have to load something outside the box.

BlueJay73

f4 plt-- Thanks. Now, from your description, you don't have to send a picture. What you described is the same thing Nick Wong (he's on Rennlist or 6Speed, or both) has. It's by far the best tire trailer I've seen, but the most expensive, and I wonder about its weight. It's the heaviest of the small tire trailers. How does it feel to tow?
Hope you have a great time at COTA. I was at the Rolex 24 Hrs at Daytona a couple weeks ago (also GrandAm). Hope its not too cold.
Thanks.

surathdp--Sorry, I just realized that I sort of hijacked your thread. My apologies.

osteoman

Philoo did a great step by step on the Willwood hitch install on the 996 forum. Its titled willwood trailer hitch install help I am about to install one myself and his write up is really good.

Thundermoose

Anyone know how to get in touch with Willwood? The link I get sends me to some strange site.