Hitch Installation

[JackE]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

on almost on a daily basis i haul a 12k excavator with a 5000k rated ball and have never had a problem with the reese bolt on hitch receiver.

That's all fine and dandy. I'm not saying I have never grossly overloaded my equipment, once that I can think of. The day you do have a problem and your trailer ball brakes and your trailer runs over a family in a mini van and kills half of them, that's when you have the big problem. Investigation will show you grossly overloaded the rating of the equipment and bragged about it on this site, your insurance company will tell you to go pound sand! Mulit-million dollar law suit just landed on your shoulders to bare all by your lonesome. And in that case, I will have no sympathy for you, or anyone else who blatantly disregards the safety of others just to save a buck.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

i know my equipment my trailer and what is required for pulling it.
and i am known to overkill anything i build to last.
my bolt on hitch for my company truck has been welded solid the drop in hitch is a solid 2' bar stock with the balls welded solid including the stud of each ball welded solid
i have over stressed them on purpose to many times and looked for stresses and those?
(found none) those went to the trucks that didnt really haul weight.
now my heavy weight haulers get my hitch.
i understand your concern but we weld for a living and tend to over build.
will send you what is on my truck for a slide in hitch right now if you have any questions.
i make sure my men have the same priorities anytime they hook up to a trailer

[JackE]

I get that, and it's good that you over-engineer your equipment. You will likely never have a problem. But if you do, just know you are screwed, especially if you are a business and using equipment that was specifically manufactured for a weight limit much lower than you are using it for.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Originally Posted by JackE

That's all fine and dandy. I'm not saying I have never grossly overloaded my equipment, once that I can think of. The day you do have a problem and your trailer ball brakes and your trailer runs over a family in a mini van and kills half of them, that's when you have the big problem. Investigation will show you grossly overloaded the rating of the equipment and bragged about it on this site, your insurance company will tell you to go pound sand! Mulit-million dollar law suit just landed on your shoulders to bare all by your lonesome. And in that case, I will have no sympathy for you, or anyone else who blatantly disregards the safety of others just to save a buck.

to be honest.
regardless of what i am driving i will hit the ditch or shoulder before i leave myself in that situation.
when you have a load or driving a big load you have to be the responsible one and pay attention to the idiots surrounding you cause one of them is gonna do something stupid

[JackE]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

when you have a load or driving a big load you have to be the responsible one and pay attention to the idiots surrounding you cause one of them is gonna do something stupid

You get no argument on that one from me!

[Mandinee1]

Originally Posted by JackE

If I remember right; Bus is in Nebraska, or Iowa maybe, Amanda, husband and 3 year old are in the North East, maybe Maine. I think if it were only a few hour drive they would go get it themselves. I also believe Cheese_Wagon is their driver.

You remember right on all points! Impressively so.

Well all, the bus is at the hitch place. Will hopefully get some news tomorrow. Hopefully the job will get done and then CheeseWagon will head on over and take er home.

Exciting, and a bit nerve-racking. Months of cross-country coordinating finally coming to a head. Ah!!!

[Brad_SwiftFur]

Originally Posted by WIbluebird

It would be interesting to see how all those driveaway companies connect their toad vehicles to the new buses they deliver from the factories.

When I was on the Interstate near Fort Valley GA I noticed a lot of new Bluebird buses with transporter plates going down the highway with vehicles being flat towed behind them. I'm assuming they use the factory tow hooks?

Having done this for a living - these companies use custom made temporary hitches which basically "clamp" onto the frame rail flanges using 1/2" bolts and jamb-nuts. Hitches are adjustable width again using bolts/jamb-nuts.


*MOST* truck and bus frames are 34" outside-to-outside (this does not include cutaway style bus frames). I believe old Mack trucks were an exception and even nowadays they may use the typical 34" spacing.

[Sehnsucht]

I'm glad to read you're having a pro shop tackle this because especially with REs a novice isn't always going to comprehend what is and is not the truck frame versus a sub-frame assembly that's only designed to support that rear-mounted engine and if they try tying a hitch into it can do damage to both the towed and the tow rig.

[bus-bro]

On my rear-engine'd bus the bumper is a corrugated 12" wide thing that I'd say is 3/16" thick steel connected to the frame with 8 fine thread 5/8" grade 5 bolts.

Now, the engineer in my says I could weld a receiver hitch into the bumper and be good for a 5,000 lb pull (or more). It would need to be certified welding, not me with my Harbor Freight wire-feed.

What say you?

[bus-bro]

Oh, a double post. May the doppelganger be deleted.

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

to be honest.
regardless of what i am driving i will hit the ditch or shoulder before i leave myself in that situation.
when you have a load or driving a big load you have to be the responsible one and pay attention to the idiots surrounding you cause one of them is gonna do something stupid

Wow! Just wow! So because you know how to weld you know more than all the engineers that designed that hitch and tow ball? Take a moment and read what you just wrote. Your welding ability means nothing if the metal can't take that stress. So a 6 ton excavator on a 2 ton trailer(16000lbs) being towed with a 5000lb ball is ok because you welded the ball to the receiver? Do you know what SWL means? Oh and the "I'll take the shoulder or ditch if some idiot cuts me off" ya good luck with that. I guess that makes you the responsible one.
Sorry for calling you out on this one but that is all total horse sh*t.
You're a professional driver and all the rest on the road are idiots!

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Originally Posted by Oscar1

Wow! Just wow! So because you know how to weld you know more than all the engineers that designed that hitch and tow ball? Take a moment and read what you just wrote. Your welding ability means nothing if the metal can't take that stress. So a 6 ton excavator on a 2 ton trailer(16000lbs) being towed with a 5000lb ball is ok because you welded the ball to the receiver? Do you know what SWL means? Oh and the "I'll take the shoulder or ditch if some idiot cuts me off" ya good luck with that. I guess that makes you the responsible one.
Sorry for calling you out on this one but that is all total horse sh*t.
You're a professional driver and all the rest on the road are idiots!

NEVER said i am better than any engineer?
NEVER said everyone on the road is an idiot?
you can read and take what you want out of my post thats fine.
there are a few other details about what i used as far as metal applications you didnt ask about so you just assumed.
everything i have as far as tow hitch and receiver are all custom made buy me including the trailer.
i might have posted the wrong numbers but it was a 12k tractor on a 10k rated trailer.
it wasnt happy but it had know problems.
my trailer after i built it was/is ASME badged.
none of my hitches or receivers are.
but i can promise i have put them through the ringers with alot more stress than a pickup or mini ex will do.
and now you can holler about stress fractures and the type of steel.
i make them for myself and anything i make for someone else is built the same if not better regardless of what you have to say about my welding procedures or finished product.
anything on the market rated for example at 5000 pounds safety rating actually has a rating of double that for safety factor.
you never bothered to ask what i used for steel you just assumed a jackleg somewhere doing stupid ****.
thanks

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

NEVER said i am better than any engineer?
NEVER said everyone on the road is an idiot?
you can read and take what you want out of my post thats fine.
there are a few other details about what i used as far as metal applications you didnt ask about so you just assumed.
everything i have as far as tow hitch and receiver are all custom made buy me including the trailer.
i might have posted the wrong numbers but it was a 12k tractor on a 10k rated trailer.
it wasnt happy but it had know problems.
my trailer after i built it was/is ASME badged.
none of my hitches or receivers are.
but i can promise i have put them through the ringers with alot more stress than a pickup or mini ex will do.
and now you can holler about stress fractures and the type of steel.
i make them for myself and anything i make for someone else is built the same if not better regardless of what you have to say about my welding procedures or finished product.
anything on the market rated for example at 5000 pounds safety rating actually has a rating of double that for safety factor.
you never bothered to ask what i used for steel you just assumed a jackleg somewhere doing stupid ****.
thanks

"on almost on a daily basis i haul a 12k excavator with a 5000k rated ball and have never had a problem with the reese bolt on hitch receiver."

Pretty sure that says 5000lb ball and Reese hitch? So you say that's used on a daily basis and now you say you build everything yourself, did you machine that ball?
I've made no assumptions.
"Anything on the market rated for example At 5000 pounds safety rating actually has a rating of double that for safety factor" are you kidding? That 5000lbs is the safety factor for Christ sakes! That's why they call it SWL=safe working load!
Listen Jolly Roger I don't care to argue this point any further with you, obviously you're comfortable rolling down the road doing anything you want because you think you've got it all figured out. I'm just saying I don't want to be on the road anywhere near that sh*t.
You take care and be safe.

[demoman]

It has been proposed that welding a hitch to the frame would be a solution. This is not a good idea for a couple reasons.
Welding can change or weaken the temper on the frame rails.
Cracks can form and propagate from the welded area and are not easily visable especially when covered with road dirt.
The frame of the vehicle is meant to flex and twist. Bolts allow this, welds resist it.
Bolts are easy to do the required periodic tightness check.
Bolts allow the unit to be easier removed if needed.
Welding the hitch together from custom pieces is allowed then bolt this unit on.
My suggestion is to find a ready made hitch that matches the existing frame rail and bolt it on. This is what the hitch shop will probably do. If someone doesn't have a hitch shop nearby it has already been mentioned etrailer.com. I have not used them but been to their site. They have a lot of information and appear very helpful.
John

[Falkör_Bus]

Hi Amanda!

I just had a hitch installed on my 40ft BB. It’s going to have to be a custom weld job. Find a local shop hitch installer, they will let you know what will work and what won’t for your frame. I just hauled my BB and towed a flat bed with my Lexus on it about 2k miles. It did great! So it definitely can be done, it’s just about finding the right shop.

[gs1949]

I am sorry, but I missed this thread until now. Maybe 3 years ago there was a post on this forum about somebody ordering everything from Amazon that they needed to put a hitch on rear of a RE Bluebird.

They removed the tow hooks and just bolted the receiver they ordered from Amazon through the same holes the hooks came out of. No drilling, no torches, just 2 guys, one on each side, to pick it up and bolt it on.



I've searched for the post I was referring to but couldn't find it because there were so many posts that came up with the Key Words receiver, hitch and Amazon.

So I looked at several and really like this one because it has mothing hanging down:
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/t...bus-23495.html

[Meathead]

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/h...gine-8999.html

On your browser.
Google. —> Skoolie.net rear engine hitch

There are a few more threads on this subject.

[gs1949]

Thanks for the suggestions. I spent some time after I made the above post looking at many more of the search results from this forum. I was very pleased to see that I don't have the engine cradle setup. The main frame rails run beside the engine right to the bumper, which is good. I don't really want to use one of those car dollies, so I think the best way to tow my car will either be on a trailer or involve getting a different car that I can tow on 4 wheels.

[gs1949]

In case anyone is interested, I have just been looking at hitches on etrailer.com. They have lots of hitches. That did not surprise me, but I was very surprised to see that they also allowed me to view hitches which will fit my 1995 Bluebird T2000. I have never seen a website before which included Bluebirds amongst the vehicles that you can check for fit for anything. I did have to click on more choices to get Bluebird to show up, but I am still very impressed.

[Native]

Since Cheese_Wagon is currently on the road with the toad, I would say the hitch addition went well.