Ball hitch for RTF trailer
Posted: November 5, 2018 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: trailer Leave a commentMy truck is a little on the short/small side when compared to my Jeep. The truck is on 33s and the Jeep is on 35s. There’s two more inches of lift on the Jeep than the truck. When I tow the RTF trailer with my truck the trailer has a mean rake to it. It’s like six inches lower in the front.
So, I got creative:
The adaptor pins on to the trailer like the swivel hitch it came with. The ball hitch is bolted to the tubing so my welds aren’t tested. The two nut/bolt combos are welded over a hole in the tubing and so can be tightened to prevent more play in the system. The spot welds around the nuts were rushed and look terrible. I’m out of practice and used the smaller 110v welder. It was raining. The dog ate my welding gloves. I’ll think of more excuses later.
When I use the hitch below, the trailer is just about level behind my truck. And it’s not too tall to hit the tailgate if I lower it.
I’d like to add a box to the trailer but there’s no easy place to put one.
Rubicon Ronin
New trailer hitch
Posted: October 17, 2016 Filed under: Travel | Tags: maintenance, recovery, trailer Leave a commentFor those of you following my website, you know of my issues with off-road hitches. Here is a link to the two previous postings:
https://theotherrubicon.wordpress.com/?s=hitch
The “Lock N Roll” Great Lake Forge hitch didn’t seem to like the tight turns and difficult terrain of the Rubicon Trail. I bent two of them! Though I must admit, I did roll the trailer twice with that hitch.
So I’ve moved on to the Max Coupler hitch by Kilby Enterprises:
After unbolting the previous hitch, I inserted a 18″ ‘receiver’ tube and drilled two vertical 5/8″ holes to mount the receiver tube to the trailer. A third horizontal hole mounts the unit in the receiver tube and trailer.
FYI, the wheeled trailer stand gets removed before hitting the trail.
I lucked out and the first hitch configuration I used to mount the unit to the Jeep got the trailer pretty level. If I hadn’t bent the stock Jeep ball hitch, I think this would be dead level.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll get a chance to test the new set-up this season. Although I will be out on the trail, I don’t think I’ll be needing the trailer. I’ll post up again after I test it out.
Rubicon Ronin
Trailer Tailgate Rebuild
Posted: July 6, 2021 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: trailer Leave a commentYears ago, I picked up an old highway lighting trailer. I lined it with plywood, did a spring over axle, swapped to it 5 on 5.5 and put on a universal hitch.
Over the years, I’ve repaired and replaced the hitch, rebuilt the front side of the trailer after the my Jeep’s bumper fell off and replaced the tailgate and now it’s time for tailgate 2.0.
The trailer has served me well over the years. This is a very early shot of the trail and me hauling in the kiosk for the Long Lake Trail.
Though I’ve not always treated the trailer as well as I should have…
That was an empty trailer, too much speed and one tire hitting a rock. Two snatch blocks and a winch and I had it rubber side down again.
I did replace that slide down tailgate but it was time for a new tailgate. What I had laying around was a Jeep tailgate designated for my ‘project’ Jeep. Well, the trailer needed it more than the project. Out with the old, broken (again), slide in set-up.
Mocking up the brackets, yes, it is an old bedframe. Cheapest angle iron around.
In with the new Jeep tailgate.
I tried to get fancy with an adjustable bolt set-up for aligning the sides of the trailer to the tailgate. It’s just too loose. I need to weld EVERYTHING.
It’s still using the stock latch system.
Next week, off to Pick-n-Pull to get some tailgate straps, so I can hold the tailgate level when open or drop it vertical to unload rock.
.
Rubicon Ronin
Trailer upgrade – bear (storage) box
Posted: September 21, 2017 Filed under: Travel | Tags: bear, storage, trailer Leave a commentFor those of you that are regular followers of this site, this upgrade is a direct result of the bear getting my food earlier this summer.
I picked up a trailer box from Harbor Freight, yeah I know not the best quality but I’m just going to abuse it. I have an unusually long bar for my hitch. Even with the box I can jack knife the Jeep and trailer and not hit the box.
I just bolted and welded up a couple of piece of angel iron for support and there she sits. I’ll pull it apart and clean the edges and paint it later.
So, as long as I have the trailer with me, I have a safe place to store my food. It’ll be good for storing tarps, tie downs and other stuff.
Rubicon Ronin
Rough weekend on the ‘Con
Posted: September 7, 2016 Filed under: Access, Travel Leave a commentSo, I was out with the Hi-Lo’s on the Rubicon and Long Lake Trail Labor Day weekend. We went in from Tahoe Friday morning early, 7:30am at the staging area. It was nice having the trail to ourselves.
We made camp on the Long Lake Trail at the campsite along the Rubicon River.
I didn’t have to look too hard to see my first issue of the weekend. My hitch had bent pretty good. This is the second time the Great Lakes Forge hitch has bent like this. I didn’t try and bend it back, I just prayed it would make it home. It did.
After a two days of trail maintenance, we broke camp Sunday morning around 8am and headed out. Along the flat portion of the Long Lake Trail, I noticed a ‘clunk’ from under my rig. So, before turning on to the Rubicon, I climbed under the rig to find out what it was making that noise.
Now, I had done the Fordyce Trail during Sierra Trek a month earlier. After that, I felt a very slight vibration but couldn’t find the source. Two weeks later I drove in to the Springs and back out with no issues. And up to this point, this weekend, I had driven down Cadillac and out the Long Lake Trail with no catastrophe. Thankfully.
There it was, I had lost all the needle bearings out of the rear u-joint on the rear driveshaft. It looked like it had been banging around for sometime. But no problem, I had a spare u-joint with me. After dropping the drive shaft, I had the bright idea of driving in to the Springs to use a large vise I’m sure they had in the mechanics shed. A Hi-Lo was sitting in as caretaker for the week and I knew he’d let me use it.
It’s a different feeling being a passenger on the Rubicon. No steering wheel to hang on to and you had to guess which route the driver will take. But we made in to the Springs no problem.
Unfortunately, the caretaker was running out to Observation Point for parts for his Toyota and his wife didn’t know the combination to the lock. Out came the hand tools (big hammer and a few sockets) and I swapped out the u-joint there in the mechanics area.
Back on the road to my Jeep, just out of main camp, here comes the caretaker back in to camp. Too late, I was done and headed out.
I threw the driveshaft back on the Jeep, now eager to get going after a short delay. Before I climbed out from under the Jeep, I looked around. Good thing, but bad news. My leaf spring and perch were not tight against each other. Sure enough, one of my u-bolts had broken.
No problem, I have one of those. Actually, I carry three because there are three different sizes on my Jeep: AMC 20 has one size but the Dana 30 front has two sizes.
I told my buddy to get out his lawn chair and I climbed back under the Jeep. It was a pretty straight forward replacement and we were soon on the road.
I don’t know if it was my blog about V-Rock becoming U-Rock but the revenge of the U-problems hit me pretty good; a u-joint and a u-bolt at the same time.
Rubicon Ronin
The 'Other' Rubicon 