2007 Suburban / GMT 900 Hitch Bolt Movement

Question

So I am endeavoring on a long trip next weekend and decided to give the truck a good going over...and found what looks like the hitch is walking on the frame. Now I know the bumper was replaced by the previous owner AND while under the truct I noticed a few kinks in the bumper steel (as if it was bumped in a small rear hit). So I am wondering if anyone has ever seen the hitch on these truck walk at all from a bolt loosening up. I checked the torque and the bolts seemed to be torqued to about 80 ibs.

If no one has ever seen this, I am assuming that when the rear body work was done they pulled the hitch to bend back some sheet metal....hence the bolts are not in exactly the same position as they came from chevy.

photo can be seen here of the bolts in question. You can see the rust proofing removed from what seems to be the bolts moving....

http://public.fotki.com/danphealy/junk/hitch-bolt.html

thoughts?

Thx,

Dan

benk · Answer

Also suspect a rear ender that both the bumper and receiver took the hit

I'm not a fan of GM's last three receivers...

GMT900 Suburban's are welded onto the rear frame rail, so ask where are these
two bolts?

Assume they are from the brackets that tie the bumper cross member that also
serves as the receiver to the Sub's rear frame rail, right?

Those welded in brackets are also notched and must be part of the bumper's duty
to crumple during a crash...that is my guess the reason GMT900 Sub's receiver is
rated for a max of 1K WD'd tongue weight

Since these are metric grade 10.9, also suspect those bolts if they reused them.

Could you post some more pic's of the frame rail welded in bracket and where the
bumper cross member is bolted to that bracket

Also, check to see if the bumper cross member is new or did they 'un-bend' it?

burbman · Answer

If I recall from when I changed my trailer hitch on my '01, the torque spec for the bolts was like 145 ft-lbs or something ridiculous like that.

jbarca · Answer

H'mm a 2007 Burb, and the 1500 at that. I use to be a K2500 Suburban tower so your post triggered my eye.

The 2007 was the 1st year of the redesign. The receiver is an integral part of the bumper. Looks like this.

If the prior owner took the bumper off like I thought you had mentioned, then the receiver came with it and they have to take those 2 bolts out in your picture.

I can see the witness lines of there the bolts use to be however again if they had the bumper steel off, those bolts came with it. Not shocking they did not line back up exactly in the same place.

So the question now is, did they take the bumper steel off? Is so it may not have slipped, just in a different spot.

Hope this helps

John

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2007 Suburban / GMT 900 Hitch Bolt Movement

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