I have someone that wants a hitch built for the rear of their RV. They want to pull the RV with the truck and hook their boat to the rear of the RV. The framing under the RV is 6"x2" tube steel, 70.5" apart and seems a bit on the the thin side. Any ideas on this? Bad idea to do, or is this done often?
I have seen alot of people pull boats with their campers like that. I dont know if they bought the hitch reciever from somewhere or exactly how they were made but i just know that it is possible to do.
Phaux,
We do a lot of that here in AZ. It is legal HERE to pull another small trailer behind your 5th wheel or gooseneck trailer. People want a hitch on their trailer to pull small trailers with boats, quads, supplies, wave runners, etc.
The safety and how much you need to do depends upon the unit you are attaching the new hitch to. I presume you are talking about a trailer not a camper on the back of a Pickup. (Have done those to on the extended campers that stick out about 3 ft behind the truck bumper.)
Most of the time we remove the tinny bumper on the trailer that the sewer hose is in (remove hose first or someone gets to buy a new one) and replace it with a heavy 4X4 TS bumper that I am comfortable welding the receiver tube to. We then re-inforce it with more braces to the frame to make sure it has plenty of start/stop inertia support.
Other than that it is all up to you to determine what is required to make it idiot proof so it doesn't come back around to bite you.
BTW, insurance companies don't like you to "BUILD" hitches. Most of my hitches are bought and installed. We only do custom HD on large trucks and an occassional trailer such as what you are inquiring about. The liability is outrageous because so many people don't have a clue as to what it takes to make it work. You would be amazed at some of the things we have been asked to 'repair'.
Have a Great Day, Brent
You need to beef the frame up I fixed a guys on the side of the road because he was about dragging the front hitch of his boat because it tore off from the frame of the rv.
Remove the oem bumper replace it with 5x5x1/4 ts that will allow the sewer hose to still slide in and you can build some caps for him. Then weld 1/4x8 fb at least 12" long if possible to run down the inside and outside of each frame rail so 4ea, pre drill 2ea 1/2" holes in each plate do not over size them. Make sure you weld on a store bought receiver and d rings for safety chains during your pre fit. Then if it slides on the frame drill your holes and weld the horizontals on the frame. This design gives you a total weld area of 40" to the bumper and at least 48" on the frame with 4ea 1/2" grade 8 bolts for back up. Hope that all made sense its a real simple design you can build on the bench good luck.
Justin and Johnny have added some good points to what I said. There are frames out there that don't need much if any added reinforcing but they are few and far between. Everything is being built so cheap anymore that the frames are very thin most of the time.
Just be careful. Use professional welder's common sense. Don't be afraid of 'over building' it.
Have a Great Day, Brent
By trukfan
Date 05-21-2009 02:01
Edited 05-21-2009 02:05
When I worked at a light/medium duty truck shop, I had to mod a Class 2 hitch on a Ford mobile home. What the shop had me do was, weld the cross tube solid to the mounting plates, since this was one of those bolt together types. I then welded a chunk of 2"x3" x 1/4" Rec. tube behind it, right to the frame of the truck. I then added to 3/8"x3" wide straps, that bent over the top, and down the back of the 2"x3" tube, and went under the original reciever, wrapped up the front. Welded it all in solid, and I may have added gussets to where the strap came off the front of the 2x3. I don't remember. I know you haven't got a hitch on there already, but that at least gives you an idea of what you might want. As I recall, the owner was going to tow a car hauler, not super heavy, but enough to overload the dinky Class 2 hitch.
