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Trailer Hitch Insanity


bestbowl

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OKay ,

With the talk about hitches and I like the pictures of the hitch pf the cargo hitch with blue storage box . I measure the frame to frame being 39 inches on my toyota rv i heard the other say 37 inches but on mine it 39 inches . With that being said i went out to find a hitch for my toyota rv and get rid of my little bike rack i have now . What i found at a junk yard off a 1994 full size ford van a 39 inches across with a 2 inch receiver for $ 28.00 what a deal . To hook this up to the frame was to cut off the bumber so that i can reach the 2 inch receiver with a bike rack or a cargo box storage thing . I would like to know if the motorhome will look kind of off with no bumber i could leave a cargo storage on the hitch so it will cover the area of a missing bumber what do you folks think about this ??

Thanks

Price

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Where do you carry your sewer drain hose? Mine lives inside the bumper.

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mine is in the bumper but will have to move it to another location as that is a minor thing to me i like the idea of having a bike rack then a cargo rack i also see where they have a table hitch where you can put a bbq on when you are camping . so many ideas with a hitch mount

Price

Where do you carry your sewer drain hose? Mine lives inside the bumper.

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What i found at a junk yard off a 1994 full size ford van a 39 inches across with a 2 inch receiver for $ 28.00 what a deal .

Well, you even beat me, and I'm cheap. The 1992 dodge caravan reciever I installed was $29.00 at the junkyard.

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Nice looking hitch there WME. I remember going to my local bike shop inquiring about cheap bike racks (whatever happen to those semi-circle hoop ones?) but the cheapest thing they had was about $400 bucks + you needed a hitch. Screw that! I went to Orchard Supply and bought about $12 bucks in 3" ABS pipe and made my own. Held 2 bikes for hundreds of miles of nasty washboard dirt roads without a problem. Worked great as a way to climb on the roof too! Pics around here somewhere.

I don't think mounting the bike by setting wheels in "slots" such as some of those racks pictured is a good idea. Would seem rims will be susceptible to bending with that design.

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Nice looking hitch there WME. I remember going to my local bike shop inquiring about cheap bike racks (whatever happen to those semi-circle hoop ones?) but the cheapest thing they had was about $400 bucks + you needed a hitch. Screw that! I went to Orchard Supply and bought about $12 bucks in 3" ABS pipe and made my own. Held 2 bikes for hundreds of miles of nasty washboard dirt roads without a problem. Worked great as a way to climb on the roof too! Pics around here somewhere.

I don't think mounting the bike by setting wheels in "slots" such as some of those racks pictured is a good idea. Would seem rims will be susceptible to bending with that design.

WELL lets see the picture of your $ 12.00 3 inch ABS backyard made bike rack !

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Sure np. The rack itself is long gone so I don't have any closeups sorry. I only needed something quick for the trip (4K round trip btw at least 300+ miles dirt roads so it definitely withstood the test. The design could benefit from a little more thought tho that's for sure.

camp.png

bikes.png

I'll admit it was a bit goofy looking, but it didn't bother me that it looked so "homemade". It worked great, took about 1/2 hour to build and didn't cost much. $12 bucks sounds about right. Those fittings add up quick. The handlebars had to be turned 90 degrees and it wasn't designed for 2 bikes really. My wife changed her mind at the last minute and wanted her bike too. She flew down to SanJose del Cabo for 2 weeks btw and used it maybe twice while she was there! :) I toted her bike all over for the remainder of the trip and 2K miles back home where it eventually was given away! I'd do it all over again tho every time. Bikes are so nice to have! Gotta have em!

Not sure what to do with my new camper setup. Would like to make something a bit more professional tho. :)

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Just to let yall know the trailer hitch is used to pull a trailer too. Its sorta hard to read with all the bullet holes but the sign says "Powder River Pass Elevation 9,666 ft". Its real interesting going down :blink:

Just in case you are thinking that Toys only go to the beach, the second pic is climbing to the Gore Range cut in

Rocky Mountain National park the cut is 12,183 ft and we made it over

post-18-12741517055666_thumb.jpg

post-18-12741532015789_thumb.jpg

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That's a really nice setup and rig there WME. I really like the colors (pretty sure already said that). Could use a few more windows? Is that a V6 manual 5 speed or auto?

12,000 ft. is pretty impressive. Here in California we have a few paved hills (Tioga Pass + Lake Tahoe). Not sure if those reach 12K ft, but they might come close.

Unfortunately there aren't any beaches in California to "camp" on. They don't exist. Pismo Dunes doesn't really count as it is an offroad/party zoo. Jalama beach might be the closest thing. For Day use, San Onofre's Old Man's is the closest thing to the real deal. We have plenty of mountain wilderness for camping, but you'll have to go north or south of the California border to find beach wilderness.

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No V-6 its a 4 cyl with an automatic. The engine has had a mild hot rod rework done and is around 135hp.

Somehow CA. wilderness, and beach don't seem to belong in the same sentence. Ive camped om the beaches in Or. and Wa. The beaches are OK but the water is a bit gray, not a proper blue.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just installed a Curt bumper hitch on mine. Seems like it will work fine. It will hold a bike rack and I even use it to carry a light weight motorcycle rack and put my Honda Trail 90 on it. My bumper doesn't seem to be the strongest, with 2 welded attatchment points to I beam channels, but it seems adequate. They make bike racks that hang off rear ladders also, but you'd want to watch the weight.

Good Luck

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I have a bumper mounted spare on the sunrader. I strapped a bike rack to it. I then took a long piece of nylon rope and made a suspension system from the roof rack. I ran the rope back and forth between the rack and each mounting point for the rack. It worked well with three bikes on a 7000 mile trip. I'll see if I can get pics up.

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  • 8 months later...

I figured as much although I won't be "towing". I will be carrying bicycles. I would think that after 30 years of Dolphining someone would have come up with something for carrying bikes... I could not imagine driving an RV any distance without bring along a bike or two.

Anyway I was hoping it would be old news in a forum like this and someone would have figured out that an '87 Toyota Silverado (or whatever) hitch is the same. I suppose I am overly optimistic ;-)

I own a Dolphin and have been wrestling with the idea of welding on a hitch in order to hold my big 2" bike rack receiver. Instead, after much research of condensed size, quality, and price, I'm going with folding bikes. Can then place them safely inside the RV.

So, I'd say after 30 years of Dolphining, someone has come up with something for carrying bikes....the inside of a Dolphin!

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  • 3 weeks later...
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  • 1 year later...

This topic appears to have exhausted itself about 18 months ago, but the thread title seems appropriate.

mh-cargo-box.jpg

Here's how someone a long while back resolved the problem of hitch recievers on the 1983. As nearly as I can discern the only price paid was possibly the rear spring issue I'm currently dealing with.

mh-cargo-box-reciever-1.jpg

A major piece of the strength appears to rely on the welds along the tubing bumper, though there's more.

mh-cargo-box-reciever-4.jpg

Looks as though a cutting torch was involved, though not extensively.

mh-cargo-box-reciever-2.jpg

The person who did it must have been an accomplished welder.

mh-cargo-box-reciever-3.jpg

But all in all it appears to me the stress on all this was the dolly-wheel banging on the ground all these years. I'm tempted to believe the fact all those welds are intact are a testimony there's a diety up there somewhere watching over things.

When I began reading about trailers and trailer hitches here I'd been thinking about getting a trashed out popup camper and reducing it to a 2' high cargo box to pull behind for extra clothing, a few tools. I thought the issue would be keeping the tongue-weight neutral and the entire thing down to a minimum weight.

But this thread inspired me to have a look at what's under there and what would be pulling any trailer of any size.

So, seems to me I'm going to have to go without changing clothes so often, or fly them behind like kites as I travel.

Thanks for opening my eyes and forcing a closer examination, reconsideration, and strange new respect.

JackP

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I used the Curt over and around the bumper hitch, but had square box frame metal welded to my frame and bumper to increase the strength. The attach bracket that came on the home was very weak, and would not suggest towing or putting any kind of load on your bumper without first reinforcing it. Here are some photos of what I did:

post-5603-0-62362000-1346082402_thumb.jppost-5603-0-64749100-1346082429_thumb.jppost-5603-0-95428600-1346082442_thumb.jp

I have pulled my Harley with a trailer many times with this set up without any problems, and without any bending, damage, or signs of failure. If all you are going to do is use a bike + carrier, I would think you should be fine using the Curt around the bumper receiver, but anything more, I’d have the hitch either attached to the frame, or reinforce your bumper to the frame.

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Just to let yall know the trailer hitch is used to pull a trailer too. Its sorta hard to read with all the bullet holes but the sign says "Powder River Pass Elevation 9,666 ft". Its real interesting going down blink.gif

Just in case you are thinking that Toys only go to the beach, the second pic is climbing to the Gore Range cut in

Rocky Mountain National park the cut is 12,183 ft and we made it over

WME: Pure inspiration to me. After studying your overkill hitch and seeing evidence of what you're pulling on it I'll feel a lot more comfy doing some reinforcing on my existing configuration and putting together a hitch to pull a gutted out popup camper converted to a cargo trailer a couple of feet high with a snap-off roof. Something to hold a few prospecting tools, a handyman jack, clothing, and a few hundred pounds of cat food. Jack

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