Terrh
Member
- 147
- 8
- 18
- Location
- Detroit, MI
I've got a 1991 Leyland with the standard giant NATO 24v trailer plug, airbrake gladhands and a beefy pintle hitch that sits about 33" off the ground.
I've also got a 1999 Haulmark 24' enclosed trailer that I'd like to pull behind it. It uses a 2 5/16 ball that is set up for roughly 20-24" ball height, has electric brakes and 12V lighting. Lets say it'll never weigh more than about 10kLB fully loaded, that gives me a pretty solid safety margin in case I need to tow one of my pickups behind it on my open trailer or something.
What's the best way to go about handling this? I'm thinking I'll need to build a receiver for the leyland that sits under/bolts to the framerails at the back of the truck. Looking at how thin/small the factory one is behind my GMC, I'm thinking if I use 2.5" 3/16" wall square tube welded to some big C channel, and bolt that to the framerails with some 14mm or 5/8 bolts it should be plenty strong, and easily twice as strong as the factory setup under my GMC.
Anyone make an affordable adapter harness to handle the lighting things? I don't want to have to install dual voltage lights into everything, and I need a brake controller to be legal even if not to be safe.
I think my interior lighting/etc might be 12V already, which means I could probably pull a turn signal/stop signal from the gauge cluster bulb and run through a relay to power the trailer. That's a lot of work though if I can avoid it and just buy a harness with built in conversion.
Oh, and right now the leyland is on the opposite side of the continent from me, so I need to build all or most of this stuff here and then get it rigged up and working where the truck is.
I've also got a 1999 Haulmark 24' enclosed trailer that I'd like to pull behind it. It uses a 2 5/16 ball that is set up for roughly 20-24" ball height, has electric brakes and 12V lighting. Lets say it'll never weigh more than about 10kLB fully loaded, that gives me a pretty solid safety margin in case I need to tow one of my pickups behind it on my open trailer or something.
What's the best way to go about handling this? I'm thinking I'll need to build a receiver for the leyland that sits under/bolts to the framerails at the back of the truck. Looking at how thin/small the factory one is behind my GMC, I'm thinking if I use 2.5" 3/16" wall square tube welded to some big C channel, and bolt that to the framerails with some 14mm or 5/8 bolts it should be plenty strong, and easily twice as strong as the factory setup under my GMC.
Anyone make an affordable adapter harness to handle the lighting things? I don't want to have to install dual voltage lights into everything, and I need a brake controller to be legal even if not to be safe.
I think my interior lighting/etc might be 12V already, which means I could probably pull a turn signal/stop signal from the gauge cluster bulb and run through a relay to power the trailer. That's a lot of work though if I can avoid it and just buy a harness with built in conversion.
Oh, and right now the leyland is on the opposite side of the continent from me, so I need to build all or most of this stuff here and then get it rigged up and working where the truck is.