• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

Reciever on deuce

Barrman

Well-known member
5,250
1,756
113
Location
Giddings, Texas
I have read on here for years that a Chevy truck receiver is a basic bolt on. I have been looking for one at junk yards and such. I found a Dodge truck receiver (Mopar sticker on the hitch) for the right price (free) and set to making it work. It was about 8 inches too wide, so I had to cut the ends off and reweld them at the proper distance. I bolted it on and was happy with what I had. 25" from the top of the ball to the ground. The next day I used it to pull my 18' car hauler to go pick up a truck and parts. We probably had about 8,000 pounds on the trailer and about half of that was between the hitch and the front axle of the trailer. We drove 15 miles and stopped for food.

I checked the tie downs on the trailer and noticed the trailer sure did seem low. I got to the hitch and was amazed to see the ball almost touching the pavement. The flat sides of the receiver frame had buckled and the ball end just rotated down. Several bottle jacks along wth the trailer jack got it back up to proper distance. We wrapped about 20 feet of chain around the hitch, pintle hook, shackle mounts and rear bumperettes. That got us home without more problems. The moral here is get a hitch rated for a bunch, don't overload the tongue of the trailer and stop to check things out often.

By the way, the M35A2 pulled the trailer like it wasn't even there.
 

neilhendrix

In Memorial
In Memorial
1,658
5
0
Location
Reidsville N.C.
Barrman ,great story and good advice for everyone. The reciever came off a Dodge ramcharger. Class 5 if i`m not mistaken. pulled a 10,000# travel trailer with no problems. I don`t plan to pull that much weight with this hitch set up. I always way over kill . Bolted to the frame with 6 grade 8 bolts. BUT I will watch and check as I always do ..Thanks. Neil
 

Barrman

Well-known member
5,250
1,756
113
Location
Giddings, Texas
Another tip that made my install real easy. You need to drill into the M35 frame rail to mount up the hitch. I hate laying on my back and drilling up. It hurts my arms and no matter what I wear for eye protection, something always gets by. So, this time I put the big reduction 1/2" drill on a floor jack, lined everything up and turned it on. I just kept slowly pumping the jack and made sure my fingers were on the drill in such a way that if it caught, I wouldn't be caught too. Each 7/16" hole took longer to set up the jack than it did to drill. Just something to think about the next time you have to drill up.
 

67Cougar

New member
37
0
0
Location
S. Arizona
Barrman I'm going to have to try your jack trick. I got one of the Curt hitches. Going to drag my Ford behind the Deuce when I drive it from Utah to Southern Arizona. Been without my baby for almost a year and a half. Time to make the trip. Hard to spend money on it when its 850 miles away.
 

neilhendrix

In Memorial
In Memorial
1,658
5
0
Location
Reidsville N.C.
Interesting thought. I did it a little differant though. I thought about the jack trick but descided against it because of the pres.comtrol. I used a crow bar so I wouldn`t have to twist the jack handle to release the pres. I could control the pres on or off very easy. Just another way of getting the same results. But I sure am glad I added a hitch to my deuce.
 

toddm

New member
462
0
0
Location
Pewaukee WI
I dressed up from head to toe and parked myself under the duece and proceeded to drill eight holes. What fun, I was covered with chips, as my son handed me the small drill for a pilot holes and then the bolts, not looking forward to it ever again. Actually building the hitch was pretty easy. Thanks Todd
 

snocrazy

New member
18
0
0
Location
Munising, MI
I built a custom hitch. My problem is how to go about building a wiring harness - converter so that I can plug in to the 24v supply, and use with any 12v trailer.
To complicate matters more.... 3 axle trailer with electric brakes. Any recomendations on how to set up a porpotional brake controller?

My vehicle is a 1967 m35a2

Thanks
 
Top