For the 78 F250, to tow the buggy.

Seems pretty simple, what am I missing?

I even have some 2" hitch steel. Add some 1/4" plate, a few holes, a few good welds, and of course the all-important Grade 12 bolts ......:flipoff2:

Man.. is shipping *that* bad? We can buy bolt on one for $100 here in the states... Shoot - I have one that I never installed on my 94 Bronco that would probably fit and you could have for $20 plus shipping... getting it there could be the bigger problem ;)


No issue with building your own... Check out how commerical ones are designed and get to it... nothing to them really :)

yup, DRM is right. Hitches are pretty cheap here.....:D

I think ukjeeper has one for sale;)

Go for it. I have made 2 and they have held up very well over the past 3 years. I tow a trailer with it 2 times a week and it has taken some hard hits while wheeling. Depending on how you build it, it can be much better than any store bought one. Weld them up good and maybe throw some gussets on it and call it good.

If worse comes to worse, just copy one exactly. Can't go wrong with that. Only thing to worry about then is weld strength.

I am a cheap bastard, always looking for ways to save money. And I still wouldnt fab my own tow hitch. Its just to inexpensive to purchase one. $100-$125.

Man I dunno. I was gonna build one. Then I thought again:

Time to research, sketch, cut parts, weld, line-up & drill holes; if I were a super-fabricator with ALL the right tools, maybe I could do it in less than a day. A day is worth more than $100 to me. Then there's the "peace of mind" factor...I know I really do have a 10K pound receiver under there. Only took about an hour to bolt up, including time spent dropping the spare so I could get the wrench in where I needed it.

Hmmmm, 2 part thread going I guess.

Part 1 - the tech: I guess there's no reason not to. I was just wondering if the horizontal bar to sideplates was some very carefully calculated torsional spring rate or something.

Part 2 - Economics.

Why bother? Good question, and something I'm toying with. Let's see - with exchange, shipping, taxes, and brokerage fee, any US price you see, multiply by 2.2 for me in my $. So the Hitch is $220 minimum. In contrast, there might be $40-50 worth of steel in it. I have torch, welder, grinder, drills, chopsaw, sawzall etc. Yes, we're looking at a bunch of work, but also at $170 savings.

The other thing is, I'm currently on parental leave, so time I have, and money I don't!

But the peace of mind and hassle factors are not yet completely resolved in my mind yet. It sure would be quick and easy to buy and bolt-on....but I'll have to save until mid November, wheras I could have one fabbed by next weekend.

I dunno, sorry for blathering on!

PS - full-time looking after kids is HARD WORK!

DRM - what is the width on your hitch, and the rating?

Thanks

Originally posted by BillaVista
PS - full-time looking after kids is HARD WORK!

yes, a "regular job" is actually much, much easier. :)

Maybe if you got cable you could stop popping out kids. :flipoff2:

I'd say your fabrication skills are up to it, just build one.

And, like I said before, you need to get out of NS and come on over the land of milk and honey here. Even the cigarettes are cheaper!

Oh, and did I mention, its not against the law to put caffeine in Mountain Dew over here? The benefits are ENDLESS!

Originally posted by BillaVista
Hmmmm, 2 part thread going I guess.

Part 2 - Economics.

Why bother? Good question, and something I'm toying with. Let's see - with exchange, shipping, taxes, and brokerage fee, any US price you see, multiply by 2.2 for me in my $. So the Hitch is $220 minimum. In contrast, there might be $40-50 worth of steel in it. I have torch, welder, grinder, drills, chopsaw, sawzall etc. Yes, we're looking at a bunch of work, but also at $170 savings.


Option 3 - go to the junkyard and pull one off one of the 6 zillion ford trucks there;) Junkyard recievers usually run about $25 (US) around here.

Originally posted by BootsntheJeep
And, like I said before, you need to get out of NS and come on over the land of milk and honey here. Even the cigarettes are cheaper!

We're working on it - he's trying to get his tow rig ready, I'm looking at a trailer this afternoon. Hopefully by next spring we'll be ready to come down there for some real mountain dew. :) Plus I hear those yanky bees have much less sting than the canuck killer bees ;)

Chuck,

Trouble with option 3....have you seen the quality available in an atlantic Canadian Junkyard?? Here's an axle I got:

http://www.rightcoastcrawler.com/billaVista/Ford_Brakes/DCP_4596.JPG

Boots....I dream of the *real* Dew :flipoff2: Oh, and:
1) Where are the fawkin pics?
2) Where's the fawkin article
3) Make me a fawkin sandwich

Sorry for 'jacking my own thread!

Originally posted by BillaVista
Chuck,

Trouble with option 3....have you seen the quality available in an atlantic Canadian Junkyard?? Here's an axle I got:


Sweet axle!. Stuff looks the same in MN - long winters and lots of road salt.

Originally posted by BillaVista
DRM - what is the width on your hitch, and the rating?

Thanks

Bill - if I have to actually go look at it and measure the price goes up ;)


I will see what I can find out this weekend for you :)

Just build one, copy the design of a commercial one and make it out of thicker steel. I made a hitch for my gf's Sunrunner, it's worked well.

As per option 3, I have to say that picture looks good for Atlantic Canada, I know in New Brunswick there are much worse!
Ken

Why not just get one from Cambodian Tire?:flipoff2:

I have had two made with no problems.
One was on a F-250 w/38's.
It was overkill and worked great.
Had the truck hung up on it many times, pulled a 8500 lb cabin cruiser.

The second was integrated into a pipe bumper on a ranger.
Obviously, I never got to test it with a 10,000 load.
But it worked great for my boat and 4-wheeler trailer.

For a stock truck I would probably copy one and beef it for that "sleep well at night" feeling.

I say if you've got the skills and the time and you can do it for cheap then go nuts but I wonder what happens if you get pulled over or into an accident and you don't have that little sticker with the load rating on it.

Originally posted by Paul Gagnon
I say if you've got the skills and the time and you can do it for cheap then go nuts but I wonder what happens if you get pulled over or into an accident and you don't have that little sticker with the load rating on it.


Bingo.

#1 Reason someone shouldn't fab thier own trailer hitch:
Answer: They can't weld.

The fab is easy, just copy one. But how well can you weld? I've seen some scary weld's with a 110 wire feed, yet the owners don't seem to mind.

as far as being legal or not you can make your own
but as in the earlier post in a accident because of hitch failer
who ever made the hitch weither factory or homemade is responsible for it the reciever hitch is a easy hitch to make so the real ? is are you confident enough to put your name on it if it fails

(I have ruined factory built hitches so they aren't any better then some homemade ones out there either)

I personally see no issue... but... liability. if it breaks, your trailer kills/injures someone cause your home made hitch breaks. you could be fawked.