My girlfriend's roommate has a trailer hitch on her "00 that she never uses. I'm wanting to take it and put it on my 99 but it seems that it may be more difficult than installing/ removing an aftermarket one. Does anyone have any experience with this? any advice is welcome

 

The tricky part is going to be stopping the bolts from spinning. Some of the bolts face down from the frame, are not secured and will spin as you attempt to losen/tighten the nuts. It's a tight fit, but I was able to install mine without removing anything (some people have said to remove the rear bumper, which I did not do). Also, one side is metric and the other side is SAE (just an FYI for whatever decision you make).

 

When I installed the receiver on my '01 I remember the instructions mentioned something about "cleaning the threads in the nut strip with a 12x1.75 tap". I didn't have a tap in that particular flavor but I do have a really good impact wrench, I think you get the picture. lol

 

If your XJ by chance does not have the nut strips installed/or jacked up you can buy them from aftermarket to use.


Mine had a lot of rust inside the nuts so I sprayed them with WD40 and used a wire brush on a Dermel tool to reach up in them, about 15 min of work.

 

Depends on where you live. If it's had 17 years of winter salt, it will be next to impossible to remove without cutting bolts or nuts but it will come off. If the hitch is still in the 2" receiver, make sure you can get that out before you get the whole receiver off the vehicle. I had one and got the receiver off fine but the hitch was basically rust-welded into the hole and couldn't budge the thing even with heat. The pin was also rusted right in to keep the whole thing solid. Very frustrated and gave up after a weekend.