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Well now why didn't you just get the combination
Pintle/Ball hitch we sell here in the colonies? Its
actually just a ball hitch with a top arm that locks
down on the top of the ball, when used as a pintle
hook the lunette is just dropped over the ball and the
top arm holds it there.
Joe
--- Robin Craig <therobincraig@home.com> wrote:
> *This message was transferred with a trial version
> of CommuniGate(tm) Pro*
> Hello all,
>
> A long long time ago in a far off land I was engaged
> in Her Majesty's
> Service and was privileged to see the fine handiwork
> of the Royal
> Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). In our
> outfit we had
> occasion to pull some civvy recruiting trailers and
> other non SMP
> trailers, which meant trying to sign out one of the
> much used Transit
> Vans which as they were multi seater units was a
> hassle. We got talking
> to the REME gods one day and broached the subject
> over a glass of brain
> lubricator and they said that this should be a non
> issue as they could
> knock up an adapter in a jiffy, why hadn't we asked
> for one before?
>
> At the time I thought it was a neat idea and we kept
> ours in then unit
> stores and slapped it on as required. Now in my
> current life I am the
> owner of an ex military Land Rover 110 with the same
> fine rotating
> pintle hitch, which if you ask me is the cats ass of
> all hitches ,
> because it can be locked or allowed to rotate
> freely, unlike most other
> pintle hitches that I know off. I also use my 110 as
> my daily driver and
> want to be able to tow civvy trailers but REFUSE to
> hack my truck around
> and remove the pintle for any other half assed unit.
> So my grey cells
> warmed and glowed recently and after a trip to the
> meditation room with
> a paper and pencil I sketched out my design idea and
> have now made two
> units.
>
> My copy of the REME Gods unit is made up of two
> plates sandwiching the
> hitch with a spacer in-between to stop crushing and
> to located the ball
> hitch which passes through the centre and bolts to a
> captive nut welded
> to the lower plate, as I can't find a ball with a
> long enough shank to
> pass right through and have space left for the nut
> and spring washer.
> The nut is welded on the upper side of the lower
> plate and intrudes into
> the opening. On the lower side of the same plate a
> flat bar, I used 1" X
> 3/8" bar stock, is welded and mates into the lock
> tab for the jaw. This
> now stops the jaw from rotating, and keeps the ball
> upper most.
>
> If you unlock the pintle and rotate it anti clock
> wise by 90 degrees you
> now are presented with a vertical opening. This and
> the fact that the
> Brit pintle locks are the key to this unit. I made
> up two plates of mild
> steel 3" X 3" X 1/4" thick with a 1" hole dead
> centre in each. I am
> fortunate as the hole making is done by an Amada
> Vipros 358 Fabricator
> in one punch in a nano second, I know it is
> sickening for the rest of
> you guys to have to buy the drill bits and all that
> jazz or torch it an
> grind the result. Expensive and messy.
>
> Welded to the upper plate directly under the 1" diam
> hole is a piece of
> 1 1/2" square HSS (hollow structural steel) with a
> 3/16" wall. The
> length of this piece plus the height of the nut on
> top of the lower
> plate should be a tad less than the total width of
> the hitch, to ensure
> a tight fit. You will have to very carefully grind a
> little of one ( or
> more ) of the corners of the HSS to fit your hitch
> real tight. I have
> tried mine on two other hitches and found that they
> are not too NASA
> tolerances so your adapter will only fit yours
> exactly unless by fluke
> another is the same.
>
> I have used a pair of balls from Hidden Hitch in 1
> 7/8" and 2" for my
> adapter, both are 3 3/16" long shanks. The threads
> between the two are
> common. Who knows they may be an industry standard
> but it is of no
> consequence to me. I use the spring washer provided
> on the top plate
> under the shoulder for the ball, to stop this
> un-screwing under
> vibration.
>
> You will notice that using this adapter will
> slightly mark your hitch
> but this will depend on the amount of free play you
> build in, grind a
> little at a time on the tube and you will have a
> real snug fit in the
> opening and a tight grip between the plates.
>
> I am a welder and fabricator by trade and MIG welded
> mine, but stick
> welding with 7018 electrodes would be a good
> alternate. DO NOT USE the
> 60 series of rods i.e. 6011 etc. I ground the nut
> surface to remove the
> chrome plating and laid a nice hot weld around the
> entire circumference
> with a good tie in at the end. The same goes for the
> 1 1/2" HSS to the
> upper plate and the locking tab on the under side.
> If you don't know
> what your doing get a pro to do it.
>
> Because we get alot of our work zinc plated I had
> mine electro plated
> with aprox a 2 thou build up which is actually real
> good because the
> thread was a little sloppy before but now is nice
> and snug. You could
> red oxide prime and paint yours. I hate seeing
> rusting steel.
>
> I am making a few of these for some very close
> friends but other wise I
> am not going into production as I can't stand the
> thought of what some
> idiots who have no common sense will do with such a
> unit and then come
> back with their lawyers in tow, you get the picture.
>
> If you have any questions I would be happy to answer
> them but all advice
> and this article comes with the DISCLAIMER that this
> is for information
> purposes ONLY and you make one of these on your own
> initiative and your
> own RISK and RESPONSIBILITY.
>
> rgds
>
> Robin Craig
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 04 2000 - 21:57:27 PDT