Think this hitch will fit Festiva ??

[TONYCASH]

I acquired this at an estate sale.It was small and I got a good price on it.

[Levitan]

It may fit, but, imo, won't be safe to pull much of anything. That is designed, if I'm not mistaken, to fasten to the bumper only. IMO, the bumper is not a very strong chunk of metal. You need to get it fastened to the unibody, AND, preferably, back to the spare tire well.

What you do have there, though is the beginnings to a real good setup if you have access to a welder and somebody who can weld well.

Search my name and "hitch", and look at what I did. I pulled a Festiva from Wisc to Iowa with my Festiva.

I'm not saying you should do what I did, I'm just telling you what I did. I don't want any responsibility if something goes wrong.

[Pu241]

Levitan beat me to it!
I was going to reference his hitch build!
So you got if from the Supermodel directly.
Our bumper just were not designed for tensile loads.
Another option would be to re-engineer the rear bumper steel sub-structure.
Probably more trouble than grafting on a cross-member to tie your existing hitch to the unibody as levitan has done.

[Levitan]

"Our bumper just were not designed for tensile loads.
Another option would be to re-engineer the rear bumper steel sub-structure."

John, I just love it when you use big words...lol! Now you see why I'm a supermodel, I'm not smart enough to be anything else!

[Pu241]

"Our bumper just were not designed for tensile loads.
Another option would be to re-engineer the rear bumper steel sub-structure."

John, I just love it when you use big words...lol! Now you see why I'm a supermodel, I'm not smart enough to be anything else!

Actually, I maybe wrong on that!
It may actually be more of a flexural load!
Either way our bumper were not designed for it!
However, I do think a replacement could be manufacturer-ed to better handle a hitch, but then I would wonder about the bumper to body interface.

[FB71]

John, the hitch on Uncle Fester IS the rear bumper!! I welded a receiver into the bumper beam. I pulled another complete Festy, on a tow dolly, from VA Beach to Baltimore at 70 mph with no issues. I'll be adding some reinforcements before I continue to use it, but the rear bumper will tolerate alot.

[Pu241]

OK, so if may not be as weak as I thought, but I also believe that you took care in selecting how and where to weld in the receiver.
I'm just uncomfortable with a few bolts holding on a receiver through the bummers fairly thin metal.
I'd be afraid of fatiguing the thin metal around the bolts.
Jim you got pics of Uncle Festers bumper/hitch?

[FB71]

no pics, sorry. can't get any very easily at the moment, either.

[Pu241]

no pics, sorry. can't get any very easily at the moment, either.

Pics not needed anytime soon just interested in the concept and how it was executed!