I hoping the forum can give me some welding advise.
I had a mobile welder lined up to weld a trailer hitch on for me, but now that I need him, he won't return my calls. So I lined up one of the local trailer places to weld it on, they didn't sound thrilled, but they would do it. Its on the other side of town, and based on my work schedule, I don't think myself, the bus, and the welder are all going to be in the same place at the same time. (IE I will have to drop it off before they open in the morning).
I have a curt 15902 Class V hitch to have welded on, basically a big heavy cross bar, with big heavy supports that have to be welded to the frame.
Looking more closely under my bus, I am concerned based on both the bumper and the boxed section for the tow hooks is already welded onto the frame. This hitch has alot of drop, but if neither the bumper mounts, or the box were there, you could probably slide it to the top of the frame and the drop would be much more reasonable without altering the hitch. The welder could choose to weld the hitch supports to the bumper supports and also probably not have to worry about they drop, but not sure that having the hitch welded to the bumper support which is welded to a big spacer, which is welded to the frame is a good idea (at least not for Class V). Am I correct in that assumption or am I worrying too much?
If the hitch supports are cut down to a more reasonable size (I assume the shop will have a plasma cutter which would be much faster way to cut the supports down), they could be welded to the tow hook box & frame. Since the tow hook box doesn't cover the entire frame, I am not sure what the correct procedure would be, to weld in some scrap to make the frame level with the box, and then weld the hitch to that? Just weld it to the box which is mostly lower than the frame?
Or is the right thing to do to pay the welder to cut that tow hook box off and grind the frame clean and then weld the hitch directly to the now exposed frame again?
I normally would just ask them what would be the best, since I assume they do hitches all the time, but its unusual, they weren't really thrilled with the project, and without me being there to discuss the options, they might pick what ever is easiest for them, which may not be the best for the strength of the hitch (I'd like to build a platform back there someday and potentially carry a heavy motorcycle, so having that hitch solid is a must). So any advise is appreciated.
Best option is to take the bus to them and pay them to fabricate a hitch to bolt to the frame.
A lot of shops refuse to weld to frames because it is an insurance liability issue for them.
The frame is heat treated steel and if not done properly( extra time and effort on there part) it won't weld properly and if you were ever in any accident and an insurance that knows what they are looking at see's it then it could be bad JUJU for you in a self conversion and question insurance for others attempting to convert.
It can be done successfully
But it is more time consuming and more specialty skilled for an experienced shop and welder than just asking them to make one that will bolt on to your heat treated chassis.
I have been a universal welder for over 20-years and to this day I will only weld to or into heat treated steel if specifically asked to buy the owner of the company I work for on that specifi piece of equipment. I still have gone out of my way to bolt everything to the underside of my bus instead of welding.
I know this don't help?
It's more to explain why you are having a hard time finding welder's to do it.
Yeah any can do it but if anything ever happens like the hitch comes loose then it's all on them for not using proper weld procedure which is tough to do and frowned upon in our application.
Bolt it please.
I was actually looking into a Ford F350 bolt on hitch (image for example), since by coincidence the frame width is the same, but that box on the back for the tow hooks being already welded onto the frame messed up that idea since the box hangs down a couple inches farther than the frame. If it wasn't there, it would bolt right up to the frame, and that is what several other people with Amtran's have done.
While I understand many shops don't want to deal with hitches at all, too much liability, this shop sounded more like they weren't all that interested in having a 30 foot bus take up all their parking/shop space, so I was worried about them rushing it to get it out of there. The mobile welder that was going to do it sound more like he is just all backed up with jobs rather than avoiding the work. A couple other shops I talked to were backed up for weeks.
So getting back to a bolt on, I can't easily get to the bottom of the frame to put vertical bolts into the bottom of the frame (like the F350 hitch) because of the tow hook set up. So do you think they should fabricate around that box and avoid it, and go back farther, or include it as part of the hitch mount and hope the school district or manufacturer knew what they were doing when they welded it on?
Or drill holes horizontally through some supports into the frame, and place some scrap on the frame so that it shims out to the same width as the box?
Curt, Drawtite, etc. all make universal fit hitches that only need bolting to existing holes in the frame or drilling the side plates to bolt to the frame rails.
If the tow hook bar is causing issues cut it out and replace that brace with the hitch, you're talking 5 extra minutes to cut it out. remount the tow hooks later.