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kamzcab86
Samba Moderator
Joined: July 26, 2008
Posts: 8438
Location: Arizona
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 Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2025 1:10 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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| Matt & Stan the Van ' wrote: |
Has anyone posted a reverse engineered fabrication design/plan for this Burley hitch? I live in Halifax and to get the Burley hitch delivered from California, after taxes, shipping, USD exchange rate, is about $2600 CAD +, which feels a bit crazy and beyond my budget. With a drawing I could get it fabricated locally.
Any leads, anyone? Thanks very much. |
What about shipping it to a Maine location (perhaps even to a Vanagon owner who lives there), then picking it up, or even installing it, there? That would save roughly CA$1000. Just a thought.
_________________
~Kamz 
1986 Cabriolet: www.Cabby-Info.com
 1990 Vanagon Westfalia: Old Blue's Blog
2016 Golf GTI S
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - 孔子 |
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syncrodoka
Samba Member
Joined: December 27, 2005
Posts: 12295
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2025 11:10 am Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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| The factory tow bars that I am aware of all use the 3rd hole |
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4Gears4Tires
Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018
Posts: 4157
Location: MD
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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What I am planning on doing with my Westy is welding a 2x2 steel beam across the bumper supports. Then welding a 2" hitch to the bottom of that. Then adding 2 triangle gussets. Functionally it should be very similar to the Burley hitch and should be relatively easy to make. I see that Burley slotted and slightly bent their 2x2 beam, but unless that's 100% necessary I don't plan on doing that.
The extension to reach the 3rd bolt hole is nice, but it's not needed. On my Syncro I welded a Jeep bumper to the Vanagon bumper supports and put my dirt bike on it. I added soft straps around the tail gate hinges and then ratchet straps to the rack. If you wanted the 3rd bolt hole, it's just flat bar stock with a nut welded to it.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition |
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Matt & Stan the Van '
Samba Member
Joined: June 04, 2022
Posts: 15
Location: NOVA SCOTIA, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 6:32 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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Has anyone posted a reverse engineered fabrication design/plan for this Burley hitch? I live in Halifax and to get the Burley hitch delivered from California, after taxes, shipping, USD exchange rate, is about $2600 CAD +, which feels a bit crazy and beyond my budget. With a drawing I could get it fabricated locally.
Any leads, anyone? Thanks very much.
_________________
1988 Vanagon named Stan the Van, purchased by my mom new, then I got it from her in 1996. Finally learning to take care of him now!... |
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Buggeee
Samba Member
Joined: December 22, 2016
Posts: 4929
Location: Stuck in Ohio
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| Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2024 3:08 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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| 4Gears4Tires wrote: |
| Nice job. How much weight do you think that you were pulling? 2500lbs? |
I don't know what the trailer weighs, but I would imagine 2,500# wouild cover the situation. It's balanced pretty good with the engine out back - so not a lot of tongue weight.
| alexvbugman1 wrote: |
Is that a Rathbun enterprise trailer? Looks like one I bought back in the early
90s out of Michigan. |
I did pull this trailer out of Michigan a while back, but was told by the guy that he and his buddy built it to pull small English sports cars to road courses. One was an engineer with a CAD system used to draw it up, and they welded it together. It does look professionally built, has trailer brakes, a nice low deck height on a dropped axle, and is perfectly proportioned for what we do. I've pulled buses on it too, but a Bay is as big as I would go, would think a Vanagon is just over the line (hope to never find out that Ha Ha!).
_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out) |
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alexvbugman1
Samba Member
Joined: July 18, 2005
Posts: 37
Location: Crown Point, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2024 2:15 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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| Buggeee wrote: |
Well it's no bug hunting rig, but the Burley Hitch and my Vanagon got the bug home on local country roads after breaking a fan belt.
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Is that a Rathbun enterprise trailer? Looks like one I bought back in the early
90s out of Michigan. |
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4Gears4Tires
Samba Member
Joined: October 08, 2018
Posts: 4157
Location: MD
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| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2024 9:43 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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Nice job. How much weight do you think that you were pulling? 2500lbs?
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition |
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Buggeee
Samba Member
Joined: December 22, 2016
Posts: 4929
Location: Stuck in Ohio
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Buggeee
Samba Member
Joined: December 22, 2016
Posts: 4929
Location: Stuck in Ohio
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| Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2024 5:27 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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| eugenev wrote: |
Bungee, can you comment on how the van rides with the two ebikes on it? I'm in the market for setting something like this up and worried about the squat it will have. I'm thinking I will still go for air bag helpers.
Got any images of the van with the bikes on it?
TY |
| fxr wrote: |
You'll never notice a couple of e-bikes. We use an electric scooter lift to carry a Vespa with the Burley hitch - no complaints from the van. 
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This is correct. There are pictures of the bikes on it in my Big Time Westy thread in my signature block.
For a real test, check it out with a 1984 Yamaha BW200 with a transplanted 2-stroke engine out of a Blaster quad. The Westy rolled a steady 70 mph for hours in each direction without difficulty. Felt good in corners too, not getting pulled around.
| Buggeee wrote: |
Enhanced with a Burley Motorsports heavy duty receiver hitch, Westy and I stole away for an indulgent weekend together.
It's my understanding that the hitch is rated at 350lbs at the ball, which would be 6 inches off the face of the receiver. I cut down my motorcycle rack to center the bike at 10 inches from the face of the receiver, and loaded it up. My bike, fully wet, plus the the rack, weigh about 320 if I recall. Anyway, it worked.
After getting it loaded for the trip, I had about an hour of sunlight left to play with so hit a little cruise in spot.
Saturday morning I met a new friend while waiting for my buddies a rest stop
Then tore it up all day before heading home. Left everything on the trail!
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_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out) |
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fxr
Samba Member
Joined: December 07, 2014
Posts: 2639
Location: Bay area CA
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| Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 12:19 pm Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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You'll never notice a couple of e-bikes. We use an electric scooter lift to carry a Vespa with the Burley hitch - no complaints from the van.
_________________
Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300 |
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eugenev
Samba Member
Joined: November 19, 2018
Posts: 101
Location: Riverside
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| Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 11:47 am Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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Bungee, can you comment on how the van rides with the two ebikes on it? I'm in the market for setting something like this up and worried about the squat it will have. I'm thinking I will still go for air bag helpers.
Got any images of the van with the bikes on it?
TY
_________________
1986 Savannah Beige tin top GL 2.1 manual... sold
1990 White Westfalia 1WD |
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Buggeee
Samba Member
Joined: December 22, 2016
Posts: 4929
Location: Stuck in Ohio
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| Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2024 9:36 am Post subject: Re: "NEW" Burley behind-bumper hitch |
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| Buggeee wrote: |
The plan is to carry two e-bikes on the back for me and the missus so I wanted a proper receiver hitch that could bear some weight. Here is my experience installing the
Burley Motorsports Heavy-Duty, High-Clearance Trailer Hitch for Fiberglass Bumper under the fiberglass bumper-shaped body panel that hides the muffler:
It arrived well wrapped, with Grade 10 bolts, and a neato sticker for the tool chest:
Staging the pieces before assembly gave a clear contrast between the stock tow-hook brackets and the Burley receiver hitch. Looking closer at the meager bent-wire tow hooks really confirmed for me that this was the right move - that hanging something off the tow hooks is not the way I wanted to go while carrying stuff off the back of the Westy on the interstates.
The Burley looks worthy of its rating for 350 lbs. tongue weight:
So the first step was to cut a hole in the fiberglass to clear the receiver, and Burley provided a PDF download that prints on a 8x11 paper at real size to use a template, if you like. Its intentionally a tight fit so you can clearance more as you need. I decided right away that this was going to be an exercise in frustration for me so I ditched the paper template in favor of some measuring tools.
I measured the distances involved relative to a known point - the internal bolts for the fiberglass cover, and found that two round molding injection blobs were in just the right place for me. This provided me with some clearance around the hitch penetration, plus reinforcement at the corners of the cut to help avoid future stress cracking.
I drilled two smaller holes towards the bottom inside the injection blobs (as with sheet metal, I'm thinking a rounded edge in the corner helps avoid future cracking). Then I eye-balled some lines using a straight edge and then cut a rough square out of the fiberglass with the little pneumatic hacksaw. From there I used a curved-edge die grinder flap disc to dress the opening to its full size. It all went without a hitch (sorry, had to do that somewhere in this post).
I bolted the fiberglass to the Burley and mounted it to the van. I found that the fiberglass side-caps for the bumper interfered with the wheel opening so I re-assembled it with some spacers between the fiberglass cover and the Burley. These spacers are from a TV wall mount or something, and serve as an opportunity to tell the youngsters why it is that old men save all extraneous hardware bits in a cookie tin on the workbench.
The end result is really satisfying. The Burley fits like the quality American Made Hand-Built piece of Art that it is, meaning all the welds are beautiful, all bolt holes line up perfectly, and the symmetry to the van and bumper cover leave an OEM impression to the system.
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_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out) |
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j_dirge
Samba Member
Joined: August 08, 2007
Posts: 4641
Location: Twain Harte, CA
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Vnyd Dog wrote: |
| Can the Burley hitch be mounted onto/into an older style GW aftermarket steel bumper? The ones they did before offering the hitch? Has anyone done it or does it require too much cutting up of their bumper? |
I have not seen the GW bumper mounts..
Burley's hitch replaces the OEM VW bumpe brackets/mounts.. and the OEM bumper bolts onto/over the Burley hiitch brackets.
Can you take some pics of your GW bumper mount?
Where there's a will, there's a way.
_________________
-89 GL Westy, SVX.. finally.
-57 pan f/g buggy with a 67 pancake Type 3 "S"
"Jimi Hendrix owned one. Richard Nixon did not"
-Grand Tour, Season 1, episodes 4 and 5
| danfromsyr wrote: |
those are straight line runs with light weight race cars for only 1/4mile at a time..
not pushing a loaded brick up a mountain pass with a family of 4+ inside expecting to have an event free vacation..
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Vnyd Dog
Samba Member
Joined: August 25, 2015
Posts: 384
Location: Napa
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| Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Can the Burley hitch be mounted onto/into an older style GW aftermarket steel bumper? The ones they did before offering the hitch? Has anyone done it or does it require too much cutting up of their bumper? |
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madspaniard
Samba Member
Joined: August 18, 2008
Posts: 3795
Location: Alameda, CA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Howesight wrote: |
| ... there is a LOT of slack/adjustment room in the attachment points where the fibreglass bumper is fastened to the factory VW brackets. Every installation of Burley's excellent hitch will involve some fiddling with the notching in the fibreglass. His template has to be considered a guide. Measure five times, cut four . . . slowly. |
Absolutely correct and exactly word by word what I was going to say, this was also my experience when I installed mine a while ago. The hitch is really amazing, very very strong attachment to the van's frame.
_________________
1991 Westy auto w/ Peloquin TBD
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad” - Salvador Dali |
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redeyeksc
Samba Member
Joined: October 14, 2012
Posts: 116
Location: guelph, ON
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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I'm wishing I had gone Burley after seeing this. My GW bumper and trailer hitch look like a noodle after carrying 4 bikes across the east coast. The way the GW hitch mounts to the vehicle is a joke.
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84 Westfalia, now with Bostig Zetec 2.0L, Manual Transmission
Alex |
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Howesight
Samba Member
Joined: July 02, 2008
Posts: 3402
Location: Vancouver, B.C.
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:11 am Post subject: |
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I copied Burley's idea and welded up my own hitch because I needed a couple tweaks in the design due to my SVX. I also repaired a fibreglass bumper I bought and noticed that there is a LOT of slack/adjustment room in the attachment points where the fibreglass bumper is fastened to the factory VW brackets. Every installation of Burley's excellent hitch will involve some fiddling with the notching in the fibreglass. His template has to be considered a guide. Measure five times, cut four . . . slowly.
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'86 Syncro Westy SVX |
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LemonCove
Samba Member
Joined: July 29, 2010
Posts: 324
Location: Henderson, NV
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| Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:10 am Post subject: |
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Just an update on the Burley Bumper.
Installed my hitch today. Used the template from Burley, but needed several adjustments to get the cutout correct. This is what I ended up with . . . may help others get dialed in:
I measured the center piece of the rear bumper to find absolute center.
From bottom edge of bumper to top of cut 4 7/8"
Width of cut 2 3/4"
Now that I have it fitted, I have to clean and paint it. (Done)
Love the way the extended mounting bars use exisiting holes. Great fit.
_________________
'88 Bostig Westy
Last edited by LemonCove on Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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BillWYellowstone
Samba Member
Joined: July 16, 2011
Posts: 767
Location: Yellowstone NP
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| Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:42 am Post subject: |
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My Burley arrived on Monday afternoon at work, left work at 5PM, got home, (1 mile commute), and figured I would get the bumper removed. That went very easy. Figured I was probably done for the night, but decided to see about removing the oldg bumper mounts. Borrowed friends breaker bar, and couple minutes later they were off. Easy so far. I was actually amazed at how easy they came apart. Still early, so figured I would try a test fit. Slid right in, there was a small amount of play, but nothing requiring sending back for shims. Bolts threaded right in, nice and slid. Well, nice amount of work, but figured I would wait on the bumber install (steel), hmm, still pretty early. Taped the template on after centering. Still early, so got the saw out. Made the cut, needed just a little more clearance on the top. One more cut and perfect. Good amount f work done for the day, hmmm, still early. OK, really just another couple tasks, so drilled the holes for the bumper. The attachment strap was outside the bumber holes by about 1/8 inch, so required drilling a new holes in bumper. Got it done, got it bolted up. Snapped the rubber trim on net. Still early!
Put away tools, slid the carrier in and stoood and jumped at end! SOLID
Cleaned up looked at clock, 7:30PM. 2.5 hours frm leaving work, and having to walk to friends to get breaker bar. plus clean up.
Since install, I have emailed with Burley and he was interested as to how much more he needed to add to the attachment strap. He wants to get it as perfect as possible.
My use is a carrier rack, get some things ut of the van for travel when we camp. Not the amount of weight the rack is rated for, (500 lbs), maybe 100 lbs max.
My old hitch is now available, would work in some applications if anyone is interested.
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Live Fulltime in motorhome
Have 86 Westy Camper 2.1 rebuilt
Work in Yellowstone NP year round. |
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IdahoDoug
Samba Member
Joined: June 12, 2010
Posts: 10355
Location: N. Idaho
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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In a post above there's a Harbor freight hook shown for use in a hitch receiver as a recovery point. Made me shiver. So I tracked down a link to something seriously stout which is what I use from Warn. You can find them cheaper than this Warn link, but these are seriously strong and a closed loop so no way for the strap to fall off during the chaos of a typical recovery. The enormous forces generated deserve a quality item in your hitch receiver, where a cheap one can kill if it fails.
The Warn Industries version:
http://www.warn.com/truck/accessories/shackle.shtml
_________________
1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1993 Toyota LandCruiser, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader |
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