2" removable receivers

[OldDominionIron2]

Like I said before, I love the way this mount looks, and there's no doubt it's solid. That being said, someone else had pics of their hitch, and it had a 2" receiver tube welded to the back bumper for vertical support. I like having the two vertical supports of this design, and am wondering about using two receiver tubes welded to the bumper to insert the vertical bars into. Food for thought....I'd like to keep the shackle points available for shackles.

 

[AGE|kshaufl]

If you were willing to make another set I would be willing to buy one. $$$ or if you post plans with dimensions that would be great too. Great Idea For Both!

 

[treeguy]

ODI2, The reason I cooked up this design was to avoid any visible permanent attackments that would alter the classic look. If you want to weld to your bumper, its your truck, go nuts! There are few uses for the rear shackle as I can figure; tie downs for being transported by trailer, and where you would hook the safety chains of your own trailer. The bumperettes block any horizontal pulling so they are limited to vertical down only use. If you wanted a spot to hook the military safety chains that use the large sorting hook design, than shackles/mounts, rings or the kitcken sink could be welded to the design that anyone comes up with. Just my . This design IS removable so you don't really loose anything.
I'll get some prices tomorrow and try to add it all up. I haven't weighed these yet but how do guys typically ship heavy bulky stuff like this, just wrap it all up in newspaper and then layer on the cardboard and send to UPS?

 

[3dAngus]

What is the total weight? If 150 pounds or more, freight shipping. Get on Uship or Freightquote dot com and get the prices of a palletized load. Probably about $150 average.

If pieces are less than 70 lb packages, you can go UPS. If over, you encounter excess weight fees. With packaging, it might actually cost more, but then, I don't know the total weight or how you break it down.

Those things should give you some food for thought to get started on your research on.

UPS has an online calculator for cost based on size and weight. First thing you should do is weight and measure width, height, and depth of every piece, then calculate.

Often easier to just strap on a pallet and drop off at the carrier, of have them pick it up at a commercial address. Picking up at a residence is costly. Those huge trailers don't always do well going through neighborhoods, so they will penalize you via cost if you have them pick it up at a personal residence, regardless of it's location, or convenience of getting in or out.

 

[cbvet]

Very nice design! Only thing wrong is that it gives me more "ideas", and I sure don't need another project!

 

[treeguy]

The front hitch weighs about 65# and the rear is about 64#, the rear's arms are about 12# ea. So the whole rear structure without pins and the mount bolting to the truck is about 88#. Another thought I had for this design you can see in red in the pic. but then it will start to get heavier than managible, esp. trying to line it up to slide in the pins.

 

[eldgenb]

ODI2, The reason I cooked up this design was to avoid any visible permanent attackments that would alter the classic look. If you want to weld to your bumper, its your truck, go nuts! There are few uses for the rear shackle as I can figure; tie downs for being transported by trailer, and where you would hook the safety chains of your own trailer. The bumperettes block any horizontal pulling so they are limited to vertical down only use. If you wanted a spot to hook the military safety chains that use the large sorting hook design, than shackles/mounts, rings or the kitcken sink could be welded to the design that anyone comes up with. Just my . This design IS removable so you don't really loose anything.
I'll get some prices tomorrow and try to add it all up. I haven't weighed these yet but how do guys typically ship heavy bulky stuff like this, just wrap it all up in newspaper and then layer on the cardboard and send to UPS?

thank god it is removable!! I think its a great design, but I do have to say that front setup looks like you put braces and headgear on your truck! The other MV's are going to make fun of it. All kidding aside, excellent fab work, 1st rate.

 

[3dAngus]

The front hitch weighs about 65# and the rear is about 64#, the rear's arms are about 12# ea. So the whole rear structure without pins and the mount bolting to the truck is about 88#. Another thought I had for this design you can see in red in the pic. but then it will start to get heavier than managible, esp. trying to line it up to slide in the pins.

OK, that's not bad at all. You're probably looking at UPS in two packages. Packages need be less than 48" long.

 

[tm america]

NIce job.. i like the rear hitch but love the front hitch...64lbs for the rear seems really light ?I did mine with a 2.5x2,5 reciever tube and a 2x2 tube running side to side with 3/4 x3 flat bars running up to the pintle hitch and it weighs just over 80lbs..You have more tubing and weigh less i'm guessing 1/8 wall tubing..As far as shipping it could shipp ups in two pachages pretty easily.i like it

 

[treeguy]

It is definitly 1/4" tubing, I'll have to check the weights again but if you look at these pics. There is not very much to them.

 

[tm america]

4x2 1/4 wall weighs 8.81 lbs per ft. 2x2 1/4 wall weighs 5.41 per ft. ..

 

[treeguy]

I don't know what to say, I am just using a household bathroom scale. I just measured the notch cutouts from the 2x6 that are sitting on my bench and they are 1/4" thick. I am also holding the receipt for the steel that shows the weight of the 36"x2"x6"x1/4" tube is 37 pounds. 36" divided by 3 feet equals 12.333# per foot. The 1"x2" solid bars are 6.786# per foot, (I ordered 14' @ 95#) the two arms on the 2x6 are 12-5/8" each and the clevis mounts are 4-1/2" long ( - round nosed and 1" hole) added all up its about 34-1/4" weighing about 19.367#.
19.367# + 37# = 56.367#
This is not including four 1/2"x2"x4" pad eyes, 1/8"x2"x6" end caps, receiver, and weld.
Maybe my bathroom scale is busted, my girlfriend was just on it this morning and she didn't seem happy with it!
I'm not trying to argue I just want it known that I don't build junk.

 

[tm america]

I'm not saying you build junk.it looks well built.I just think you were low on the weight.bathroom scales don't do good weighing things like that.I would use the weights from the book to calculate the weight.or weigh yourself then weigh yourself holding the hitch close to your body to get a more accurate shipping weight.like I said nice design and build. Keep up the good work

 

[ApopkaFL]

My question is can you make the hitch adjustable where you can get differnt heights on the drop? I am going to do one like yours but I am going to pin the uprights so I can adjust the hitch height for deffrent trailers that I may haul. My 26FT boat requires the trailer to be straight and low to the ground for the rudder clearnce. ( Just a thought)

 

[treeguy]

I just put the hitch and a 3" drop receiver on my truck and measured from the ground to the top of the ball which is 22". This is the ball I use to tow my 17' boat trailer with and it tows flat. How much drop do you need to be flat? I would be a lot easier to buy a receiver with the drop you need. With the design I came up with I can forsee two issues of making it adjustable; you could pin the uprights to the shackle mounts then mate two pieces of channel together so that they slide over the 1x2's and weld them to the receiver cross tube. Then you could drill a series of holes to use for pins to make it adjustable up and down. The problem would be that if you go down the unit will pull forward because of the forward arm's fixed length and the vertical arms would hit the truck's cross member frame. I suppose you could also do the sliding set up to the forward arms and drill adjustable pinning holes but you'd have to be really good to get vertical plumb on the verticals and get both forward arms to match. With all these moving parts I would be nervous about play in the fit, kind of like how a pintle hitch slams all over the place and you would probably have to reinforce a lot of the parts. I suppose with a creative mind and a welder one could come up with anything. I would just stick with using a dedicated drop ball tube for the boat, then the hitch could be used for other other trailers that are higher with other drop balls. What do you think?

 

[joshuaz223]

not to rain on your parade but the cross braces in red in your one pic are a very good idea. breaking and bumps in a turn are going to try to push the hitch sideways. the flexing even if it doesn't fold will cause inertial bouncing which will want to break the rears loose or add enough pressure to fold the hitch. I'm an electrical engineer but had enough mechanical classes to be afraid of your design.

 

[rnd-motorsports]

LOOKS GREAT AND WAY HEAVY DUTY! factory hitches use less matel! a class 5 hitch uses 3/16 flat plate on the ends ! VERY WEL BUILT! I have seen alot of hitches and snow plow frames even spare tire mounts that I would not trust to the end of the driveway! dont listen to anybody that tells you any dif. GREAT JOB!!!!!!

 

[treeguy]

Thanks, I measured some receivers I saw on some trucks and the side arms are 3/16" stamped plates. I am going to be cutting up some pieces this weekend to start fab on a rear unit for sale. Thanks all for the input! When I was putting mine together I opted not to put in the cross braces due to bulk and that the vertical arms were shorter than I had invisioned so the side torque would also be less, what I had planned on towing was not a large enough capacity for me to worry about. Josh, I had thought about the other triangle plane of the design for the cross regidity. If you guys who want one I can put these on.

 

[atankersdad]

Looks good. I get hot when someone takes the time to create something original, and then takes more time to share it with this group and the manufacturing experts come out and say negative things. Now if you really want then out in mass, just put a price on these and this crowd will be saying it is too expensive, I can do it for less, and on and on and on. You are a craftsman and a thinker. That is as sturdy a hitch as I have ever seen. Both of them. Go for it and do not let them get to you.

 

[AGE|kshaufl]

There are so many great ideas here. This one looks good too.

Here is one that no one has thought of yet:

How about mounting a "Prebuilt Frame Mount" to the frame? But the catch is using the "Lock and Pin" method. Kind of like the mounting system that you would use on a Plow setup or like what is used on a 3 point hitch.

This way all that you would need to do is pull the safety pins and off it comes. Just a thought. Not sure if it would be strong enough but I would imagine that they would be.