Hitch Mount Tire Carrier.

[koda6966]

Pulled my bar a few minutes ago to check a side profile for clearances. (No it's not cut yet, they're stacked on top of eachother) Should fit nicely, if anything it will give me more of a turning radius with my trailer which is always a plus. I'm going to pick up a cheaper bar though, I've had this reese one for a while and it's been good to me.



Basically I'm going to cut it at the bend just above the bottom of the tube. It's only going to extend as far back as the side brackets, since that's just about where it enters the reciever.

 

[koda6966]

No special updates today. Just picked up the draw bar. $19.99 at tractor supply.



Most expensive part of this so far.

 

[koda6966]

Didn't get a chance to take my breaks at work until an hour before I left, so I decided instead of eating some food (I can wait the other hour until I get out) I'd throw a few minutes at this project.

Got the bar dissected. A little less metal on the bottom side than I wanted to work with, but I can deal. A better plan would have been to come in at an bevel on the 90° instead of making a possible shear point, but oh well. Next time.



How it fits on there. (2nd picture isn't centered, just laying next to eachother)




I'm also looking at the idea of running a bolt through the face of the ball mount to secure it better, you know, in-case my welds are junk.

 

[koda6966]

If anyone duplicates this to include the hitch, DO NOT use the cut and sleeve method I'm using above. There are much easier, stronger, and overall better options available. If I had the time, I would have ordered the extended draw bar and welded the plates directly to that instead of to the SS tubing.

Adding that bit in there for, you know, safety purposes.

 

[UrbanRedneckKid]

I'm not so sure about that. Maybe for very light duty towing, Class 1 type of stuff.

I think to have a ball mount integrated, one should make the tire mount from an off-the-shelf receiver extension.

Also note that having the ball out so far dramatically decreases the allowable tongue weight, and increases the chance of twisting your receiver and/or bending your frame rails.

Keep up the progress. It's moving along nicely.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

 

[koda6966]

I agree, it should only be used for light towing. I usually don't tow more than a small trailer with my Jeep, that's why I also have a truck. If you look at what I posted above, I also recommend that anyone integrating a ball mount use the extended bar. It's a much better setup. When I build my rear bumper, it's going to have an integrated receiver, and this will be built shorter with no ball mount, since I will also be able to use my hitch receiver at the same time. But that's down the road a ways.

 

[timbits588]

really like the idea and tweaks you're making/suggesting! pretty cool small project

 

[koda6966]

Got the axle shaft welded in on Christmas Eve. Just in time to consider this a Christmas present to myself.

Man axle shafts are hard to cut. Haha.




It's currently being painted. My first experience with spray on bed liner lets see how this goes. You can also see that I decided to weld the washer to the pin. One less thing to be able to lose.

While that's done I decided to start work on the license plate frame. Easy, basic design once I eliminated the light. (tried it out, didn't look good)

I didn't have any thin sheet metal scraps around the house wide enough to keep a 1/2" lip around the plate, so I had to go buy a small piece at Lowes. Turned out nice. I ended up having to add two more mounting holes in the middle because (silly me) I forgot to tack it down to something solid before I started welding. Something this thin likes to curl. Oh well.




Might paint that too. I'm going to mount it up and see how I like it as is. I'm going to clean up the marks on it too, no worries. There's a small chance it will have to go back under the knife, depending on how large the slots in the light I ordered are. I might have to put longer "studs" on the top of the plate.

Have to remove my JEEP emblem on the hatch to mount that. *sniffle* But if I position it right it will cover up the residue from a giant superman sticker someone had on the Jeep at one time. Yay.

 

[LIMA BEAN]

This should not be let anywhere near the TRS Tech Library, this is death as it is.

 

[myMonstertruck]

I am new to this forum and a proud new owner of an '83 ford ranger diesel. I've been driving her for about two weeks now and the last few times i tried to start her she had trouble then today she tried to turn over two or three times then didn't. This is my daily driver and i depend on her a lot so if anyone can help message me please. Thanks in advance and sorry for the interruption i just didn't know what else to do.

 

[myMonstertruck]

help!!

If anyone is game to help me out with a problem im having with my '83 Ford Ranger diesel please message. She is my dd and i need her.

 

[koda6966]

LIMABEAN, I'll let you know how it holds up.

myMonstertruck, is the battery dead? You could try posting in this forum http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=54 it's for electrical problems, you might get a better response there.

 

[koda6966]

UrbanRedneckKid, you can kind of see the shims in the above picture. I'll be using the shim stock until I find something more permanent to eliminate the slop. I like your idea of bolting it to the back of the hitch. I might look into that down the road.

 

[koda6966]

Also LIMABEAN, I'm very open to criticism. If there's any part of this in particular you don't like let me know.

 

[koda6966]

Well shoot. Managed to screw up the studs for the safety cable, twice. The first one (larger 5/8 thread) I completely forgot about the stud holes on the axle flange, I would have had to drill out the holes to fit it plus I cut it a hair too short to be safely useable with it. Then after I pulled my head out of my rear and made the bottom, it occured to me that an XJ wheel stud is 1/2-20..... I used 1/2-13......

-_-

Oh well. At least I got to play around with a design a little, and find the right settings for melting these together.

I'm going to make another one like the bottom one, only with a 1/2-20 bolt instead. Actually, I may just cut the end off from that one, drill it back out, and insert some new rod.

The top one is a 5/8 bolt with a decent size shoulder (don't remember the particulars) with a wing nut threaded on (then welded), and a hole drilled out in the shoulder for the cable. I also tacked a washer to the wing nut to see if it would help on the back side, it's not needed. I had planned to use an acorn nut, but I didn't really like the look of it on there.

The bottom one is another 5/8 wing nut drilled out to allow the head of a dog cap screw (1/2-13, stupidly) to fit in. I am using the smaller screw both to fit through the axle flange and to allow me to use a standard lug nut. I drilled out the wing nut then welded it on both sides. I turned it up so as to get the maximum penetration on the top side, since I would be drilling it back out for the 3/4 rod. I almost thought I had ruined it from all the discoloration but luckly I didn't make the metal brittle, cleaned up nicely.



I also need to find some sort of a spring-clip to snap over my hitch on the other end. I think they're called carabiners right? I need one of those, just heavy duty.