|
|
Installing Rear Roll Pan & Hidden Trailer Hitch Kit - Go With The RollInstalling Street Scene's Rear Roll Pan And Hidden Trailer Hitch Kit From the April, 1999 issue of Mopar Muscle By Brad Ocock
|
|
We started with Street Scene's... We started with Street Scene's hidden trailer hitch kit. It's a receiver-style kit, and arrives with all the necessary hardware and instructions. You supply the ball and hitch insert. You can do a lot to your truck to improve its looks, but for a cost-to-results ratio, it's hard to beat ditching the rear bumper for a roll pan. Traditionally, bumpers are a classic example of function over form; they're really good at doing their job, but they don't look all that great, although we must admit that has started to change in the last couple of years. Even so, a roll pan gives the rear sheetmetal a clean, finished look you can't get with the stock bumper in place. Roll pan designs are fairly simple, and a lot of companies make them for Rams and Dakotas. When it was time to clean up the back of our Dakota, we chose Street Scene's because it was the only one we've seen that looked as if it was designed specifically for the Dakota. The bottom of the pan has a scallop-or flair-that mirrors those found at the top of the tailgate and on the body sides. We also ordered their hidden receiver hitch kit to mount behind the license plate for towing and to hold Mopar Accessories' bike carrier. We removed the rear bumper... We removed the rear bumper before we installed the hitch kit. This kit would work with the stock bumper left in place if you so desired, but we would still recommend removing it for the installation. Here you can see the spare tire winch in the "down" position, and the winch's driveshaft, which we'll eventually modify as described in the text. The hitch kit mounts to existing holes in the frame with six bolts, so no drilling or welding is required. However, one thing we weren't expecting with the hidden hitch was the interference it caused with the spare tire. The stock spare won't fit with the hitch in place-the tire contacts the hitch frame by 2 inches on each side. One solution is to buy a new, smaller-diameter tire and mount it on the spare's rim. A potential problem with this is in case of a flat, you could end up with two different-diameter rear tires, which the differential probably won't like for too long. This is why "Dinky Doughnut" spares recommend 50 mph for no more than 50 miles. Other solutions include throwing the stock spare in the bed, or joining AAA. We've done the latter two, but aren't happy with those solutions. We'll probably mount a smaller-diameter spare, put it on the carrier mount under the truck, and hope we don't have to use it. Another point of interest in our installation is that the Street Scene roll pan has the appropriate holes molded into it for the spare-tire winch crank, and what we believe is a hole to route any trailer wiring through, though we're not certain. We dropped the roll pan off at A Perfect Image to be painted, and asked shop owner Mike Volpe to 'glass over the holes and clean the roll pan further. This is where we learned the trick about leaving the gas filler door with the body shop, so they can match the paint. Removing the mystery hole doesn't present a problem, but access for the winch no longer exists. We're planning on shortening the shaft that drives the winch, and welding an old socket to the end of it, then operating it with a ratchet if the need ever arises. But the totally smoothed-off roll pan-sans holes-looks great. Installation of the roll pan and hitch kit is fairly straightforward, and Street Scene provides a highly comprehensive set of instructions. One thing we would do differently is mount the roll pan before we had it painted, then remove it to have it painted. Although we didn't hurt the paint, installing the roll pan with the gelcoat finish the first time would have alleviated a lot of stress.  Our Gibson exhaust system...  Our Gibson exhaust system was mounted in existing frame holes, but these were needed for the hitch kit, so the tailpipes were unbolted.  Here you can see how the hitch...  Here you can see how the hitch mounts to the truck's framerails with the existing holes. They even include a notch cutout for the flat rivet in the frame. The hitch mount is fairly heavy, but if you don't mind bench-pressing it a few times up to the frame, it can be installed alone quickly.  The tailpipes, as they were,...  The tailpipes, as they were, interfered with the hitch frame. This necessitated a trip to The Muffler and Exhaust Center (TMEC) in Lakeland, Florida (941/665-9297), which did the original installation of the Gibson system to refit the tailpipes.  This is a detail of the area...  This is a detail of the area on the roll pan we had reworked. The semicircle to the left corresponds with a hole in the sheetmetal below the tailgate, and the one above the license plate recess is for running the spare-tire winch. While you wouldn't see the semicircle when the roll pan is mounted and the gate is closed, you definitely see the winch handle hole. We had them filled over by A Perfect Image, then had the part painted to match our truck.  Here's the roll pan after...  Here's the roll pan after filling and painting. We've taken a strip of masking tape and covered the top edge of the pan where it mounts to the truck, so we could mark on it for locating and drilling holes to bolt it in place.  Before we mounted the roll...  Before we mounted the roll pan in place, we wanted to cut the access hole behind the license plate for the trailer hitch. We found the center of the license recess on the back of the roll pan, marked the location of the hitch, and found the center. The instructions that came with the hitch kit provided a template for this, but it indicated cutting out a huge rectangle behind the license plate. That would have been fine, but we did not want any chance of seeing the hole behind the plate. The small hole also will not let as much dirt and debris through, which should keep the license plate recess cleaner.  We used a 311/44-inch hole...  We used a 311/44-inch hole saw, which was exactly big enough to let the ball mount through. Put masking tape on the painted side of the hole, and drill through from behind until the tip of the pilot bit comes through, then flip the panel over, and drill the hole out from the painted side. Drilling through the tape will keep the paint from chipping.  We remasked from the painted...  We remasked from the painted side and hit the raw edge around our new hole with some black paint, primarily so we wouldn't see a white ring of raw fiberglass. Nobody else will ever see this, but it gave the hole a finished appearance from behind.  We put a strip of masking...  We put a strip of masking tape on the inside of the quarter-panel's edge, below the tailgate, and marked where the bottom edge of the tailgate was in the closed, opening, and open positions. As the edge of the tailgate swings through it's arc while opening, it is lower than when it is in the full-closed or full-open position. The lowest point in the gate's travel is where the roll pan's clearance must be determined.  For the mounting holes on...  For the mounting holes on the roll pan, we measured in 1 inch from each side and marked them as the two outer mounting holes. We then measured the distance between these holes to find the center of the roll pan, and marked a hole there as well. Each half was once again divided, for a total of five mounting holes; one in the center and two on each side of the center. All the holes are 1⁄2-inch down from the top.  After drilling the holes in...  After drilling the holes in the roll pan, we held it up to the back of the truck to mark the holes we would drill in the panel below the tailgate. We lined up the top edge with our predetermined line on the masking tape at the edges, and folded over some business cards to even up the gap between the quarter-panel and roll pan on both sides. Then the holes were transferred to the sheetmetal behind them.  This is the part we always...  This is the part we always hate-drilling holes in sheetmetal. Seal the hole with a dab of silicone after you drill it.  From underneath the truck,...  From underneath the truck, a fastener is installed in the side flanges to keep the roll pan anchored flush with the back panels. Without the screw in each side, the roll pan will move around a lot if it is only anchored along its top edge. Street Scene provided enough sheetmetal screws to mount the roll pan, but we upgraded them to panhead machine screws with Ny-lock nuts on the back (arrow). We were concerned with the sheetmetal screws loosening up over time; that won't be a problem with the Ny-lock nuts.  This is the license plate...  This is the license plate light included with the Street Scene kit. It splices right into the existing wiring harness with no problems.  We were originally going to...  We were originally going to go with a really cool, black anodized, lighted license plate frame from a street rod company, so we didn't cut the holes in the roll pan for the kit-supplied light. Then we were told that a flip-frame license plate has to flip up so the cops can still read your plate when looking down on it. The light built into the aluminum frame only allowed the frame to flip down because it came in contact with the top edge of the recess in the roll pan. This required the kit-supplied light. Because the roll pan was in place, we had to drill a series of small holes, lying on our back, and connect-the-dots with a small hacksaw. It was at that moment we remembered exactly why we hated working with fiberglass. Street Scene does supply a template, but we couldn't use it with the pan already bolted on. Had we just installed the kit per their plans, there would not have been any difficulty.  This illustrates how the license...  This illustrates how the license frame flips up out of the way. The flip frame is a standard hidden gas filler style found on older cars. The spring it came with was so stiff, though, that it was actually bending the metal frame. We didn't want that kind of pressure on the fiberglass panel, so we removed it, and will replace it with a hardware store-supplied spring.  From underneath the truck,...  From underneath the truck, you can see how the tailpipes were moved outboard by TMEC. You can also see that except for choosing a smaller-diameter tire, there really isn't another option if we want to keep the spare under the bed and out of sight.  The curves of the roll pan...  The curves of the roll pan make it look as if it was designed specifically for the Dakota, rather than a universal application.  Here's the reason we chose...  Here's the reason we chose the hidden hitch mount-the Mopar Performance bike rack. The hitch is plenty strong enough to haul any trailer we'll ever tow with the truck, including a flatbed with a car on it. With the solid tonneau we have on the truck, we didn't want to damage it by loading and unloading bikes for trips to trails and parks. The MP bike rack is a complete kit, and includes a cable for locking up the bikes. The upright swings down, out of the way, with the bikes still on it, for access to the tailgate and the truck bed.
|
|
|