2" receiver mod

[herm]

Scubarx, I'd like to know more about your 2" receiver mod, because I'm also interested in adding this feature. It is fabricated from aluminum? Does it reduce your ground clearance? How exactly does it attach to the frame? I'm only looking for a single receiver, preferrably mounted on the centerline of the trailer. If anybody else has this option, I'd like to hear from you. Thanks.

[ScubaRx]

Hi Herm,

 

I am at work today, but I will try to get some pictures of the modification up tonight after I get home.

 

I know a picture would be better than all these words but basically, what I had Daniel do is to weld a piece of aluminum tubing onto the rear of each frame rail. They are mounted far enough from the end of the rail to still allow the rear bumper to fold down. He drilled a hole thru each to receive a hitch pin. My plan is to build a rear carrier that utilizes both of these at the same time by sliding into and extending between each of them. I will fabricate the frame of the carrier to bring it up once it clears the rear bumper. This will eliminate any chance of it dragging when going thru any low spots. Although it would, I don’t plan on this rack being required to carry huge amounts of weight, probably 100 pounds or less. I plan to make it out of 1 inch tubing and expanded wire.

 

If you go to: http://www.flickr.com/groups/oliver-trailers/ you can see some pictures that I posted of the under construction. Pict 5075 and Pict 5094 shows the longer tongue and, if you look closely in Pict 5105, you can just see the receivers welded under the frame rails.

 

I'll take some new pictures tonight that will show the finished product and how it looks.

 

Any other info I can share, I will be glad to do so...

 

Steve

[herm]

Thanks for explaining your set-up, Steve. I'd prefer to buy an 'off the shelf' aluminum cargo carrier, so that will require a different solution. My initial thought was beefing up the rear bumper and attachments to the frame rails if necessary, such that a 2" tube could be cut and welded through the center of the bumper. That would be a relatively simple modification, but I have concerns over the suitablility of using aluminum as the receiver tube. I've seen ball mounts made from aluminum; however, I've never seen anything other than steel used for the receiver. Like you, I'm not looking to place a lot of weight back there, so maybe it's o.k.

[dougi]

How about using two smaller standard hitch receivers? I think they are 1 1/2 inch square, rather than 2 inches. I think using two 1/8 inch thick aluminum square tubes as receivers would be plenty strong for what we are talking about. Why couldn't these tubes be welded outboard or inboard on either side of the two main aluminum frame members and place the holes for the pins running up and down rather than side to side, so as not to penetrate the frame?

[herm]

Based on my limited understanding of the Oliver frame, I believe that the bumper covers the entire depth of the frame rails, making the attachment of receiver tubes on either side of the rails fruitless. I think that's why Steve had them welded to the underside of the frame rails, so that the custom carrier he is fabricating will slide in directly underneath the bumper. Either way, I really don't want to do a custom carrier if I can avoid it...that would likely get costly, since this is not something I could do myself.

 

FYI, I found a rather nice aluminum carrier at Northern Tool today. It has a rather stout 2" square tube for the mount (and nearly 1/4" wall thickness!), but the standard installation requires bolting on 2 additional sections of steel tubing which also allows for a swing-up position when not in use. I would rather try to make it work without those steel pieces and have a direct connection to the bumper-mounted receiver...assuming I'll still be able to angle the bumper down far enough to access the waste hose. Being aluminum the carrier only weighs 42 lbs. and the dimensions are approx. 4' wide and 2' deep.

 

We'll see how far this idea goes...

[dougi]

Yep, you're right about the bumper covering the ends of the frame, so that a side mount is not possible. I just saw the picture earlier today that showed that to be the case.

 

Currently, I have a set up like you are talking about on my 5th wheel. It worked just fine. I carried two solar panels, two Honda 2000i generators and eight 6 gallon water containers. There was a little play up and down at each end of the carrier, due to the center mounting of the rack, but not enough to be of concern.

 

I covered it with a flexible black vinyl top zippered case that could have been locked with the zipper pulls. It kept everything dry, clean, and out of sight.

[herm]

Just to follow up on this topic, it appears that the factory is already working on a solution for a receiver. They would rather not install a custom bumper-mounted receiver with limited capacity, as this would allow a potential future owner to use the receiver in way that was never intended (is tandem trailering even allowed anywhere?). Therefore, I'm going to wait and see what they come up as their standard receiver option. If that doesn't pan out, I might also reconsider the tongue basket.

[dougi]

Most 2" hitch receivers are pretty heavy. I opted not to have one installed, primarily because I think it would distract considerably from the appearance of the trailer. I would like to have the capacity to carry our two folding bicycles, but we (especially my wife) use them too infrequently to deal with them. I may sell them. They are really nice (not the models Camping World sells) . If anyone is interested, just let me know. They are like new, premo, and beautiful bikes.