solutions for sloppy hitch?

It is going to difficult, if not impossible, to make a silk purse out of a sows ear. I bought my Curt WDH for around $350. Step up to the pump and make us all safer with a quality hitch. It will be a lot less than you paid for the truck.
RichH

So, I have a "fancy" chinese made pricey hitch shank, and have had the same problem!!! I first welded the top of the shank at the front of the receiver, and at the rear bottom and ground down to a fairly solid fit that could still be installed and removed. With the high hitch weight our newer trailer has, it soon "egg" shaped the top of the receiver and slop returned. All that tongue weight and force of the hitch bars is increased in that small welded area!!

I replaced the OEM receiver with an aftermarket, ground the shank back to normal measurements, and now use a flat 2" wide thin metal spacer on the top surface. It is as long as the shank length inside the receiver. So far, in a year of towing, it has helped a bunch. Still a small bit of vertical slop, but not very much, and no apparent distortion to the receiver box. I do have to replace the "shim" every so often, due the the forces applied to it tends to "squash" it out on the edges that touch the inner edges of the receiver box.

Should be easy enough to get a rough measurement of necc thickness for a shim in your case, then find the right metal to do it. Your trailer probably does not have as much tongue weight as ours, and also a lighter set of hitch bars, and you may not need to replace that shim very often.

I had the shop drill a hole and weld a grade 8 nut along with a bolt and stop washer into the side of the hitch and that quiets down any noise and slop I had once tight.

Look at it this way: You can grind paint to weld in the X heading or you can wear the paint off with hitch slop you have. So.....

I found a gizmo at Uhaul that allows you to tighten up the hitch. I had the same problem with my cargo carrier. It has an inner nut and outer bolt and lock.
I think this is it:
https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Hitch-Towing-Security/Anti-Rattle-Receiver-Pin?id=16372

you can tighten it up with a wrench and the hitch stays in place, and won't wobble around.

Roadmaster "Quiet Hitch": http://roadmasterinc.com/products/accessories/hitch/quiet.html

I have tried almost every Anti Rattle device on the market, most have been no good or so complicated and cumbersome that they are useless. Including the Roadmaster type,totally useless.
Until I found the one at Hitch Rider.

Their Hitch Vice is the best and easiest one I have come across and it really works.

SCVJeff wrote:
I had the shop drill a hole and weld a grade 8 nut along with a bolt and stop washer into the side of the hitch and that quiets down any noise and slop I had once tight.

Look at it this way: You can grind paint to weld in the X heading or you can wear the paint off with hitch slop you have. So.....

What Jeff did except I did it my self, works great for over 15 years now.

SCVJeff wrote:
I had the shop drill a hole and weld a grade 8 nut along with a bolt and stop washer into the side of the hitch and that quiets down any noise and slop I had once tight.

Look at it this way: You can grind paint to weld in the X heading or you can wear the paint off with hitch slop you have. So.....

I like this idea, except I'm borrowing the truck from Fiat and I don't want to be making any permanent mods.

You're right about the paint - it's already wearing on the sides from one 200 mile trip.

I'm going to sand the paint off and have a welding shop up the street lay down a few beads for me, then I can grind them down as needed.

Thanks for the feedback everyone :)

I was lucky with my first hitch, a fixed drop Reese - it fit very snug in the receiver on the old truck, no slop at all.

X2 what Wolf10 said. that is an excellent solution to your problem.

Could you tap some metal shims in between the hitch and receiver? You could get them back out when you return the truck.