So what's on your trailer hitch mounts???

[TerryH]

Designing a couple of new benches and I'm considering mounting a vise, grinder and maybe even my little sheet metal brake on a 2" reciever. What have you got mounted on one? I see that most are mounted horizontal but seems that a few have them mounted verticaly which seems kinda cool to me. One tube or 2 tubes? Ideas to secure them in the reciever so the slop in the hitch doesn't make my head want to explode? Post up some pics and opinions.

 

[alan camby]

Thread the inside of the 2" tube and put a bolt through the receiver mount and tighten into the 2".
I also have a few nuts welded on the side of the receiver that a bolt tightens against the 2" square. In the picture you can not see the pinch bolts since they are inside the bench. You can see the the bolt that threads into the 2". My attachments are rock solid. Of coarse it helps having a 1200lb + bench.

 

[Clik]

I welded up a vice mount that I could slide into a hitch receiver. I found he usual step bumper mounted location too low and a bad angle for my poor old back when welding. My vice sat on a plate that was welded to a 2" sq tube that was welded to the horizontal tube of the hitch. It was a little heavy and awkward to pull when I wanted to use another hitch. I often had to switch from ball to ball or pintle hook. I think if I ever do it again I'll rig it to slide out of the back door of the service body rather than block access to the bed and have to wrestle with it when switching hitches.

 

[TerryH]

That is a sweet setup, Alan!! Thanks for posting. My issue is that I want to share my vise between the soon to be built metal working bench and the sooner to be built welding bench. I don't want to take up that much space all the time on the welding bench so I felt like the hitch mount would be a problem solver for me. Then I started thinking about the grinder and so on and so on. Both benches will be pretty heavy but not as heavy as yours.

I'm still intrigued about mounting the tube vertically. Would love to hear from anyone that has one.

 

[alan camby]

That is a sweet setup, Alan!! Thanks for posting. My issue is that I want to share my vise between the soon to be built metal working bench and the sooner to be built welding bench. I don't want to take up that much space all the time on the welding bench so I felt like the hitch mount would be a problem solver for me. Then I started thinking about the grinder and so on and so on. Both benches will be pretty heavy but not as heavy as yours.

I'm still intrigued about mounting the tube vertically. Would love to hear from anyone that has one.

You would not want my Wilton 500 on a vertical mount. It takes everything i have to Pull that beast out and move it to another mount.
I also have a Wilton 1755 vise on the bench. Even that smaller vise would be a real pain to pick up vertically.

Not only the weight, but I like how the horizontal gets the tool out to the side of the bench. Just gives me more flat surface to work with.
Notice how the buffer is out away fro the bench. Gives a bunch of room to get the work piece maneuvered.

Here you can see my smaller Wilton in the background

 

[Farres]

Man, I need to do this for my vice and grinder. Sure would save a bunch of space..

 

[TerryH]

Alan...point taken. How long are the recievers you have welded on your bench? I'm not sure how long the reciever portion should be for adequate support. Did you use a standard reciever or is that DOM tubing or???

 

[bams50]

This is the winch mount I'm setting up on my new trailer. Sometimes I'll want the winch out of the way, and sometimes I'll want to use it in my other trailers. So I'm permanently mounting a receiver on each trailer. Then I can just pull the pin and unlatch the battery box and carry to the trailer I'm using.

 

[alan camby]

Alan...point taken. How long are the recievers you have welded on your bench? I'm not sure how long the reciever portion should be for adequate support. Did you use a standard reciever or is that DOM tubing or???

Mine are about 7" long. I don't think that much length is necessary but I used that for easy access to my jack bolts/pinch bolt(whatever you want to call the bolts that push against the 2" tube). How much is needed for support? Whatever I say someone else will disagree but I feel 4" would be adequate.

My Receiver is just standard mild steel 2-1/2" square with a .250" wall. There is a weld flash that will prevent the 2" tube from being inserted into the 2-1/2". A little time with a long chisel followed up with a file will remove the flash (weld bead). This will give a nice fit. Some buy the bolt on receivers and the available receiver tubing that is available at TSC, Harbor freight and many other places. The receiver tube is a loose fit and most will go this route. I just prefer the tighter fit. If it is a outdoor application, such as a receiver on a vehicle, the extra clearance is needed since any rust would quickly lock the 2" tube in the tube I used.

 

[TerryH]

Mine are about 7" long. I don't think that much length is necessary but I used that for easy access to my jack bolts/pinch bolt(whatever you want to call the bolts that push against the 2" tube). How much is needed for support? Whatever I say someone else will disagree but I feel 4" would be adequate.

My Receiver is just standard mild steel 2-1/2" square with a .250" wall. There is a weld flash that will prevent the 2" tube from being inserted into the 2-1/2". A little time with a long chisel followed up with a file will remove the flash (weld bead). This will give a nice fit. Some buy the bolt on receivers and the available receiver tubing that is available at TSC, Harbor freight and many other places. The receiver tube is a loose fit and most will go this route. I just prefer the tighter fit. If it is a outdoor application, such as a receiver on a vehicle, the extra clearance is needed since any rust would quickly lock the 2" tube in the tube I used.

Great info. Thanks again, Alan.

 

[ilovevocs]

^ x2. The wobble from the trailer hitch has been the primary detourant for me. I could use the space saving advantages of the setup though. Im going to sell off a disk / floor sander that is sitting on a stand for just a disk sander on the reviever style mount. Should certianly free up some space in my little 3 car fab shop / paint shop / assembly area / wood working shop / storage space / man cave.....

 

[sberry]

Its not for me, if I had the space it would have vise on separate bench bolted to the floor, set the grinder there if you need to and c clamp it down, 90% of that stuff works and looks great on paper but lots of effort goes in and very real use comes out. They aint never exactly where you want it anyway.

 

[TerryH]

For me the space is the issue. My Yost vise takes up some serious real estate. I'd love to have it permanently mounted but not sure if I'd mount it on the welding table or the metal working bench. I figured this would give me the option to use it on both and also not have to have the bench grinder mounted on the bench and so on. I've always been a "bolted to the floor" kind of guy. All of my wood working machines are permanently attached. I just don't have the room left over to do that with the metal working stuff that I'm building now. I figure that if I don't like it all I've lost is a few bucks in tubing and plate and some time. Worth a try in my book.

 

[alan camby]

Another advantage of the horizontal mount, I can take the vise and put it on my pickup or any vehicle with a hitch. I have 5 acres and sometimes it is nice to have a vise at the back of the property.

 

[alan camby]

Its not for me, if I had the space it would have vise on separate bench bolted to the floor, set the grinder there if you need to and c clamp it down, 90% of that stuff works and looks great on paper but lots of effort goes in and very real use comes out. They aint never exactly where you want it anyway.

Space is a problem for me with only a 23'x23' garage. I store my 2 grinders near the ceiling on a mount.
A project i had a few months back, building my car ramps, I needed all of the table space and more on the bench. The big vise had to come out for room. Several time the 1755 was in the way and had to be moved. I used to have the 1755 bolted to the bench and it was always in the way. So, it is working great for me. If I had the building in your avatar, I would not need this setup.

 

[TerryH]

And so it begins. I'll start another thread for the table build but I thought I'd post my first attempt at making the mounts in this thread just for fun. I had the afternoon off and I got a call from my metal dude that my new welding table top (40 x 40" x 3/8" plate) was ready so I swung by the metal place and picked it up and got some 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 1/4" tubing and some 2" x 2" x 1/8" for the mounts. Spend the afternoon getting up to this point.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93396776@N06/8561301054/" title="008 by TerryHatfield, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8239/8561301054_df01397756.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="008"></a>

Thank you again Alan for the great info and pictures. I was hesitant because I really would hate the slop in the regular hitch stuff. Using the regular tubing solved that problem completely. It was a bear to get the welding flash out of the 2 1/2" tubing. It was actually in the corner on this tubing but I eventually got everything fitting together like butta with virtually no slop. I picked up all the necesssary hardware while I was out today so I'm off and running. Couldn't resist capping the tubing to give the mounts a more finished look. I'll pick up the rest of my plate on Monday and continue on.

 

[alan camby]

And so it begins. I'll start another thread for the table build but I thought I'd post my first attempt at making the mounts in this thread just for fun. I had the afternoon off and I got a call from my metal dude that my new welding table top (40 x 40" x 3/8" plate) was ready so I swung by the metal place and picked it up and got some 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 1/4" tubing and some 2" x 2" x 1/8" for the mounts. Spend the afternoon getting up to this point.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93396776@N06/8561301054/" title="008 by TerryHatfield, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8239/8561301054_df01397756.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="008"></a>

Thank you again Alan for the great info and pictures. I was hesitant because I really would hate the slop in the regular hitch stuff. Using the regular tubing solved that problem completely. It was a bear to get the welding flash out of the 2 1/2" tubing. It was actually in the corner on this tubing but I eventually got everything fitting together like butta with virtually no slop. I picked up all the necesssary hardware while I was out today so I'm off and running. Couldn't resist capping the tubing to give the mounts a more finished look. I'll pick up the rest of my plate on Monday and continue on.

Wow, three tubes at once. That would make for a fun afternoon of flash removal. I am glad it is fitting fine. I have never tried the 2"x1/8" and I am surprised it fit. The thicker 3/16" and larger has a more gradual edge while the thinner tube has more of a sharp corner. I would have guessed that the 1/8" corners would have hit inside of the 2.5"x.250 at the corners.

BTW, mine are 3/16" thick and have 1/2" plate welded on top for the vises. I put the holes in the mount, see the pic above, for the Wilton 500 and am glad i did. It is a great place to set stuff in, my MIG gun loves to hang out there.
I will try to get a picture up of where I store my grinders.

 

[TerryH]

The inside radius seemed to be pretty close. I took a bit off of the corner on the 2" tubing that goes where the flash was. I have a stationary belt sander so that made pretty quick work of modifying the corner. Here's a pic of the inside of the bigger tubing. It doesn't look like regular tubing to me but I'm not knowledgeable enough to know the different types but the inside corners matched up to the 2" once I filed the flash into submission.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93396776@N06/8560193711/" title="001 by TerryHatfield, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8102/8560193711_cde91b0e51.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="001"></a>

I've filed the heck out of the edge openings in the larger tubing so the fit doesn't look nearly as good as it is but you get the idea.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93396776@N06/8560272035/" title="011 by TerryHatfield, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8382/8560272035_403fd541d6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="011"></a>

 

[j2jcox]

Hi I'm new to the group and looks like I'm about 3 months late on my post. However, I wanted to share what I did in my shop a few years back. I bought a simple receive tube extension from Harbor Freight. Before welding it underneath my bench first drilled a hole on the underside of the receiver tube (about 2" past where the hitch pin is inserted) and welded a nut over the hole. For the bolt that screws into the nut, I then welded a piece of rebar to bolt head so it will act as a handle. That way I could tighten the bolt without using a wrench. To mount my vise and other accessories, I simply used a trailer hitch. I turned it upside down then welded a 1/4" steel plate to the hitch. My vise is then mounted to the plate. It brings the vise up high enough so that it clears the bench. I've been using it this way for several years and have had no issues. I eventually welded two receiver tubes to the bottom of the bench and have a total of 3 vises mounted to hitches, with plans to mount a chain vise this weekend. I reload ammunition as well, so my shop also doubles as my reloading area. One of the first things I did was mount my reloading presses on a piece of 2" square tubing. As soon as I tighten up the bolt the presses don't move at all. This weekend, if the weather isn't too hot, I plan on mounting my chain vise so that it is not only removable, but can also be turned 90 degrees, depending upon where the pipe needs to face. Once I get that done I'll post some pictures. You'll have to excuse my welds. I'm self taught. They are not pretty but they hold

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

I like the idea of mounting a sheet metal brake on one of these. I've got the receiver hitch in place on the welding table, and a vise sits in the tube now. Putting a metal brake on another spare tube would be a good idea indeed.

I also like the idea of vertical receiver tubes. I might have to steal that idea too.

 

[BD1]

I bought the 18'' receiver tube from harbor freight. Cut into three 6'' pieces to mount to table. I have my bench mount sheetmetal shear setup for the receiver tube and the harbor freight buffer.
I made a portable vertical receiver tube with a car wheel for base, 2'' schedule 40 pipe upright the with receiver tube welded to it.

 

[shooting4life]

I also used the 18" receiver from HF. My brother welded on some angle iron and a couple of nuts for a bolt brace. It is attached to the wooden work bench in an overbuilt section by 10 lag bolts. It has worked well for me so far, though I don't use my vise very hard.

 

[HTGTS350]

I don't have a traditional receiver hitch attached to a bench but I have an upright receiver stand and then another stand which stores all the attachments. Ive got a bead roller, sheet rolls, small vice and various anvil blocks amongst others and I am making new attachments all the time.

 

[Doug Arthurs]

The receiver on my bench is vertical as is the free standing one. Never really understood why everybody seems to put the receiver horizontal.