lol just thought I'd throw in some pics of my "hidden hitch" I finished today. Weighs a boat load but I'm hopin she'll hold, cost me $26.04 Canadian! Lol don't be to harsh, grade 11 MIG welding at it's finest, if it looks like **** it's because 40% of the work was done in 2 hours. I spent all my other classes doing welding tests and practice. Not to mention, it may look bad on picture, but I scored an 83%.






Made out of 3/8" flat and 2 1/2" hitch tube.

 

Looks good, throw on a coat of black spray paint get it on the truck and post some pics.

 

tight dude

 

Definately throw some balck spray paint on there and mount it. If it works that's all that matters!

 

nice oxy cutting. lol


looks good. what you be pullin with it?

 

what kind of weld you use..MIG or stick..doesnt look like MIG cuz of the beads..unless you just pushed..

 

prolly TIG... :P

 

.

 

SuperGildo@RRP - Haha I did those holes in about 2 minutes, too bad I have to use school equipment with kids who just don't care about the equip. I'll probably pull you Sea Doo trailer, dual snowmobile trailer or just for backup incase I get stuck with my 2WD.

HighRollerII - Ohh no they're MIG alright, used 21V/220WS for most of the 3/8" weld and 18V/240WS for the lighter stuff. I was in a pretty big hurry with all the city kids in the way who've never used a d*mn tool before to be able to do my project slowly and "properly".

 

looks good, but i wouldnt pull anything without more gussets than that.

were you just pushing the mig gun? you'll get much better penetration if you are ocsillating

 

not to be mean but man that is some pretty thin tubing for the reciever part idk about that...

 

I was doing backhand (towards me) in small circles for most of it, if the close-up of the side looks bad it's because I ran a double bead, the first was great I just decided to play it safe and run the double, looks like cat turds but it'll be under the truck.

 

oh sorry didnt see that just looked at the pics

yah need dimes kid..lol...make it look like a roll of dimes..

other then that it looks really good..paint that mo and you good to go

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that what most class 2 & 3 hitches use? 2.5" square with 1/4" walls?

 

it looks thick enough to me...

 

mean would be talking about the lack of penetration, failure to clean and prep the weld area, surface rust all over the weld, if you didnt wire wheel the entire area before welding i'm sure theres alot of dirt and crap in the weld

i wouldnt trust pulling anythign with that, but what do i know

 

Actually I did wire wheel brush all welding points before welding, and lack of penetration, not to be mean to you but I highly dought you know because you can't see jack in any of the pictures. If my welding teach who has been in the trade for 27 years says it looks good and held (strength press) . . . which started to moan at 4756lbs pushing down on back of reciever (4" on each side of reciever).

And, not to be cocky, but I'll take some pics of what it'll pull when I get it on. If you had read "if the close-up of the side looks bad it's because I ran a double bead, the first was great I just decided to play it safe and run the double, looks like cat turds but it'll be under the truck." it might have helped.

 

idk honistly my class 3 looks thicker then 1/4" walls but eh oh well aint my hitch..i got my draw tite for free so i cant complain

 

looks good,, nice work,, wish i had the tools/skills to do that,,

 

Don't worry some ppl jus like to be very judgemental.

Aaron

 

it didnt look like you wire wheeled it because i can still see writing right up to the weld itself.

in this pic theres alot of the edge of the plate that was not incorporated in the weld, just the very corner of the plate was. You could weld it 4 or 5 times, but if the initial weld isnt a good one, the rest dont matter.

and not to be cocky, but i'll take some pics of my welding to show you what mig welds are supposed to look like.

i dont care to see pics of what it will pull, i just dont want to see pictures of what happend when it didnt pull anymore. I've just seen some shady work that people have done and treated it to be as safe as any manufactured product. Dont get me wrong, some peoples work is great, but i would rather criticize you till you cant stand me anymore than see it fail because it "looked good".

I took 3 semesters of welding classes at the C/C and only didnt get certified by the state because i had to go away to college. I've also worked in a fab shop working on race jeeps, race buggies, rock crawlers etc. At work I even built a double decker jetski trailer from scratch, so i think i have a little backing for my concerns.

edit: also the horizontal square tubing should have gone through the side plates, but since you did not do that i would reccomend plating the top and backs to strengthen it

 

Alright now I see what you mean, and thanks for the advice. About the reciever tube, the only reason I didn't run through the middle is because I didn't want all of the hitch below my bumper. I will brace it on the front and back of it and add 90 degree triangular pieces to support the long tube. Just to add, yes my first welds were quality, I did my lap and corner tests on the initial welds and scored 90% on lap and 94% on corner, I should pad up the rest when I get our MIG working. The reason it looks like there is alot of spare edge is because remember it's 3/8" and I did weld it on both sides with high penetration and low deposition. Thanks again for help, now I see what you meant.

 

Don't worry about these guys, if you build it too small, they will whine, and if you build it too overkill they will whine...

 

shut up for once

i am giving him some feedback instead of doing what everyone else is doing.

I'm not just goign to say it looks good when i see where it can be improved.

 

so if your the one pulling him out by his hitch, and he didnt weld it well enough and it comes through your windsheild, your just gunna not care....