I bought a stock XJ hitch for my 98 the other day and in comes with two bolt holes above the reciever about 4 inches back. I am not towing anything heavy. May get pulled out a time or two. I understand why the holes are there but how important are the two bolt holes and would you recommend installing the bolts.

I have heard that to install these two bolts, you may have to unsecure the gas tank and slide it forward. Any thoughts
Thanks

 

a class three hitch is much better for using it attachs with 4 bolts on each side ,also nut srtips should be used inside the frame

 

I wouldnt trust just the 2 bolts on each side.The class 3 is better. Recovery points should never be cheap ones.You can do some serious damage.

 

Maybe this ins't a stock hitch. It is a class three rated to 5000lbs. It has the nut strips on each side and has about 5 bolts on each side IIRC. it just has the two exta bolt holes at the top middle behind the receiver. I wont be able to pick it up till i go back to my home town, I will try to get pics in the mean time to explain

 

Do you know what brand your hitch is?

 

This is just a quick paint job but this is what it looks like. Those two holes bolt to factory holes in the jeep between the gas tank and the bumper. I can understand that they would assist in supporting tongue weight. But how much tongue weight would you need before you need to use these two holes. Most hitches i see do not have this extra support

 

I've never seen a hitch with that backplate on an XJ. I'm surprised to hear that there are stock holes in place for it. My hitch was class III and looked very similar to that one (4 bolts on each side) and I never had an issue with moderate weight towing. Definitely get a consensus though, hitch instillation should not be taken lightly.