MrChips

Nice truck! What's the spec's on the tires and any other goodies you may have added?

Here's some more pictures of the install...

I installed the factory hitch in my 2018 a year ago and I can tell you that it bolts to the frame. I looked at several new trucks sitting on car lots that came from the factory with the hitch installed and they are identical to what I put on my truck. The install actually was fairly simple, the toughest thing for me was getting past the fact of cutting holes in the bed floor of my brand new truck. GM makes drilling the holes a little bit simpler by putting dimples where the holes go, the first picture is of the slug that came from the hole saw and you can see the dimple indention around the center pilot hole. After I cut the holes in the bed I painted the edges with some black bed liner to keep it from rusting. Next thing is I had to remove 8 bolts that hold the box to the frame and then lift the box up about 7" to allow enough clearance to slide the hitch into place. There's a factory heat shield that has to be removed and it's held in with 4 bolts, the new hitch has a heat shield that fastens to it but it has to be ordered separate. After sliding the hitch into place it gets fastened into place with (4) bolts on each side, the frame comes with pre-threaded holes in the frame so you don't need nuts. I just hand tightened the bolts on the hitch and then lowered the bed back down on the frame so I could make sure it lined up with the cut outs in the bed. Once I checked the alignment I torqued the bolts tight. GM doesn't supply any installation instructions which sucks but I did find a post on another forum from a guy who had made up a step by step process which really helped. I will see if I can find a link to that post and I will share it, here's some pictures of my install. It wouldn't allow me to download anymore than 4 pictures at a time so I will add some more shortly...

Nice looking truck rickit, how do you like the Defender tires? Do you have any pictures of it from the side?