Great info here and wanted to check back in.
I went with the Curt 15324 unit. Super easy install. Well, it was a full day, but pretty straightforward. I took the whole back end apart to do it right and clean.
A few observations.
- This hitch is beefy. Full .25" everywhere. Weighs a full 55lbs. A serious piece of kit. Very impressive. The install is doable by one. But I have a full shop and lifts. Better to bring a friend.
- Factory bumper / hitch is very light duty. It weighs about half of what the Curt does. The welds are sloppy, and the metal is thin. It is possible to visually observe torsion in the bumperhitch when load is applied. Ugh!
- Did end up grinding the factory reinforcement plate on one side. The additional metal of Curt bolted in that area more than makes up for any potential loss in that axis. FEA confirmed. :-). You are basically losing 3/8" of support in the y--axis, but adding back in several inches with the hitch. So the frame is supported better than it was prior to mods.
- The factory bumperhitch needed clearancing where the frame extension meets the bumper tube as well to fit the Curt unit. I then cut off the factory tongue so it could be never be used as a hitch again because of this. Then I will just place one of the factory covers.
- The plastic bumper itself comes off easy enough. I cut a nice little clearance notch with a fine blade jigsaw. Looks darn factory if I do say so myself.
- If anyone decides to do this, you will also need a fab a little 1"x3"x.060" spacer to slide under the rearmost mounting holes as the Suburban frame is not flat here, but the hitch is.
- The hitch comes down exactly 4" from stock. This puts it at a much more normal height relative to other tow rigs.
- I replaced all,the hardware with slightly longer brand new metric 10.8 and blue loctite. This was a wobbler as I had a decision as to using the factory hitchbumper mounting plate or not. After inspecting it, I decided it is a very robust unit, the nuts were of high quality, and the full length reinforcing plate is an advantage. It would be possible to use aftermarket hardware here, but you would need to fab a little plate to slide in the frame. No big deal, but the factory hardware was nice in that area.
- My next step is going to be to add some side plates to the hitch to extend it further up the frame. This was described in another thread, and I like the idea.
Additional words are appreciated. I don't claim to have all the answers. My hope was to provide a nice source of info for other owners of these otherwise nice tow rigs.
Stand by for my report on heavy.duty tie rod ends, Rare Parts pitman and idler arms, as well as a very small lift. :-)
