Putnam Class V Question - Diesel Forum

shuck · 10-19-2007, 01:27 AM

Does the Putnam Class V hitch for the OBS F2/350 bolt into the existing factory holes?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Putnam-Cl...55353QQtcZphoto

STurbo90 · 10-19-2007, 03:38 AM

Dr.Evil · 10-19-2007, 12:18 PM

Clamp the side brackets to the underside of the frame rails with Vicegrips and drill the holes into the bottom flange of the truck frame. I even made a drill pilot for the slotted holes in the hitch brackets so I could drill starter holes centered in the flange to make drilling the large 1/2" dia. holes easy.

You wouldn't want to use the factory bumper holes for a hitch. Two of the holes with threaded nut inserts only accept a 14 MM bolt, which is about 9/16" but under tremendous shear because it's so close to the other 3/4" bolt holding the bumper on. NOT a good design for carrying lots of weight.

The Putnam XDR hitch spaces the three 1/2" bolts over almost 2 ft of the back portion of the frame and the side plates are 5/16" thk steel if I remember right. I think the instructions say it takes 2 hrs to install....Took Me a bit longer than that all by myself but I'm REAL fussy about stuff. I scraped the undercoating off the frame where the bolts & brackets attached, ground the burrs off the drilled holes, re-undercoated the attachment points, etc. Make sure You get the correct sideplates on the correct sides of the truck.

shuck · 11-26-2007, 01:27 AM

I ended up having a local trailer shop install the hitch. I didn't have time with getting everything packed up with the move. They did a pretty good job. One of the bolts isn't 100% straight, but it's not bad - looks like they might have drilled the hole just a little off.

Anyway, the Putnam hitch worked great. I'm glad to have it on my truck now - don't have to worry about that portion of it anymore.