Custom Camper Receiver Hitch

[Music] today I'm going to be working on a project where I'm gonna be building a hitch that's gonna go into the back of the camper here so what I've been wanting to do was add add one of those carriers to the back of the camper to be able to hold things like the cooler and the grill and possibly maybe a you know a storage container that has things in it things like that just have a little bit more capacity back here for outside storage and free up a little bit of space in the truck or inside the camper there as well and this will also serve really well for long term hauls down the road if we're kind of going across country if we're going up you know you know Texas out west or something like that have a little bit more area back here so what I learned after you know getting this camper is that these these factory bumpers here they're not very heavy-duty they're very thin-walled they're very thin wall tube so they're really not made to hold a lot of weight you know they you can put these spare tires on there and I've actually got a bolt on receiver hitch that goes on there that you can use for holding like your bicycles and they're okay for that and we may use that for the bicycle still as well but I don't want to put a bunch of weight on this bumper and risk the the weld starting to tear there with it where they're welded on and I got in here and looked and where these tubes here are welded to the i-beam frame themselves it's not welded very heavily so I think if you've got a lot of weight out here that's pushing on this tube it's going to start bending back here and possibly start breaking these welds so I want to try to eliminate those kind of problems down the road if we're traveling I don't want to deal with that if we're you know somewhere down the highway and things start bending and breaking and I got welts breaking here you know so I think the best solution is to try to come in here and tie into the the frame itself which is an i-beam I know it's kind of hard to see but it's got an it's got an i-beam in here and even the i-beam and so is not very heavily because everything on these campers are made light duty so that it's not so heavy but there is room underneath here to fasten flat bar I've got enough room underneath here on the inside for a two inch flat bar to come up underneath on both sides there and then we'll have a cross crossmember welded to that and then I'm gonna have a slip tube in the middle for a standard receiver hitch you know two inch square receiver hits there that goes in the middle so I've got some flat bar we've got we got some flat bar that's going to go on each side there and I've got some two by four rectangular tubing that's gonna go down the center there and then we got our slip tube in the middle alright and what we will do let me see if I can get under there and show you what we will do right there I'm just gonna have the the flat bar just bolt on right there I will mark my hole locations will probably have to hold to will have to half inch bolts on each side to where they'll bolt on you know this thing will just be able to be removed I don't that's just the way it needs to be mounted it's like a factory one so we'll just bolt it on do that on both sides so what I was gonna say was instead of fabricating one I decided to buy one it's the I believe it was the Curt brand and I bought it off Amazon for a hundred and twenty-five dollars and it's a sixty inch wide 24 60 inches wide 24 inches deep and I just didn't want to deal with the you know buying material and fabricating one for $125 so I think that's going to serve its purpose there it's supposed to be ready for 500 pounds and we're just going to put a cooler and a grill and you know a couple things on there so that's the plan and we may go ahead what I'd like to do is possibly store the bikes up high I've got a bike rack that somebody give me that goes in those receiver hitches as well so the bike rack is supposed to come out and hold the bikes but we may modify it so that I have the bike rack coming up this way and then coming out so that the bikes are up here in this unused area there above it so we're doing we're gonna continue to make improvements as we work on this but let's go ahead and start with the receiver hitch first all right this is looking at one side underneath here where we got to work with so there's the factory tube it's welded on and this is what I'm talking about there's just two little small tack welds on the bottom there and then you've got the you got a weld on the front seam there and then these two there so that's what's holding the bumper on so we've got this area of the i-beam to work with and we've got plenty of room for a two inch flat bar to fit in here and then what we've what we've got is from this plate here out to the edge of the bumper we've got twelve inches all right we've got 12 inches there that's how long I'm gonna cut my flat bar and then we'll have our tube we'll have our 2x4 rectangular tube and parallel this bumper here it's gonna go across underneath and I'm gonna have it welded I'm gonna have it weld it all set on this flat bar so that we've got room for our u-bolts like this to clear this and if I want to bolt another one of those little receivers up here for the bicycle rack I need to build it get these u-bolts on there so it's gonna be hanging down just a little bit below that these are our materials that we'll be using there that's going to be our crossmember 2x4 or tubing that's quarter wall that's a drop that my buddy Joe had the welding shop I would have went with 1/8 wall but that's just a piece that he had on the drop shelf and he gave me a good deal on so we went with that and then this is a piece of quarter by 2 flat bar that's what we're gonna use there I mean that's that's thicker than the web of the actual i-beam so we're just gonna go that and that matches the thickness of the tube so I just another drop so he just gave me a deal on both those pieces right there and then our so this is going to be our slip tube right here and I bought this from our local trailer company here Rob's hitch trailer Center and this will be this is what's going to be welded on the bottom of that piece right there to go on the bottom of that it looks like so [Music] a bolt pattern is going to be one inch and in four inches from the end where it's bolted in to the rail I'll describe one of them and then we'll stack them together and the vise and just draw them both at the same time we got both of our flat bar brackets clamps to the i-beam there I've got them measured out where I wanted they're flush with the end of the bumper and they're surprisingly they're both measuring the same from this piece back here out all right and I've got them level so we've leveled them because the camper is level two always level it out so they're level this way so what we're going to do is just go in there with this transfer punch this is a half-inch transfer point so I'll go in there like that and transfer it points to two holes and we'll get in there and drill it should be it by the way this this cheap free tarp that I got from Harbor Freight perfect use to lay it down in this concrete now see if I can swing this and we're left-handed I need is one good hit on it it's a good short point so it'll go in there our pilot hole for one the problem is just getting enough pressure behind it push it looks like it's working pretty good though there we go that did the trick right there okay we got both of the brackets now mounted onto the onto the beams so now it's on to the crossmember the 2x4 tubing we get a good measurement there on what we are Center to Center and get that piece cut this is now floating outside but I got the holes drilled just in time and the brackets mounted on so I'm gonna go ahead and get this crossmember cut I've done my measurements twice wrote them down double-checked and I'm exactly 67 and 3/4 between the beams or between the the two brackets anyway so I've got it measured there and I have given myself just a little bit of clearance there about a 30 seconds of an inch so I've got it where we want to cut it so I'll go ahead and get this piece cut and I'm gonna just go ahead and wire brush and get it cleaned off while the rains here right now we're dealing with that tropical system that moved out into the Gulf that everybody in the South especially Louisiana is going to be dealing with so this rain is going to be on and off for the next few days [Applause] all right we got our tube cleaned off fitted with the wire we'll also pointed out that I deburr the ends always talk about deburr and the ends it's very important that you do that so that you don't cut your fingers when you're having to handle this not only your hands other people's hands too I wanted to point that up because the other day I was on the road and I happen to see a trailer for sale and I was curious about that trailer I stopped and looked at it and when I was looking at that trailer there were certain areas of that that I was inspecting and none of the none of the material pieces that were cut and welded together were de Burgh there was sharp there was still that you know the razor edge on it from the bandsaw there was still those pieces left on some of those those pieces of material on that trailer that were just painted over and I just couldn't believe it you know after seeing that I just completely walked away from it I wouldn't buy something like that so always deeper your parts just makes for a nicer quality piece so I'm gonna go fit this up and make sure that it that it fits properly now I think we've got good fit up there I've got it I've went ahead and checked the level the bumper and it's good in level and I've got the the new hitch level I'm using my Armstrong planer jacks to actually hold both sides of the tube in I used my little floor jack there to kind of move it in there and I use the planer jacks to to get it in there so I know where I want to weld it on to these I'm not gonna make it flush I'm actually going to offset it just a little bit and I'll show you that later on but I just wanted to make sure that everything was gonna fit right and I wanted to make sure that I had room here for this kind of stuff so that's why I've got it set right where it's at so now I know that I can put these u-bolts in there for other for this and another hits there for the bicycle rack so I'm going to dismantle it now and set it up on the welding table inside and go ahead and no welded up the way I want it and then now it should be able to bolt it on there you've got the left side fixtured up where I want it we're getting ready to tack it off making great use of the fire ball tool shop blocks to raise this thing up because I want to fill it around three sides so I've got it spaced off at eight to financial on the end of the tube here we've also got it raised up here so I got to fill it on the top and of course I'll flip it over and we'll have a nice fill it there as well and I'm not gonna weld the inside because then that's gonna draw the the bar in to that so we're just gonna have three wells and of course we're using our our mini monster square there to hold this nice and squared of the beam this is the flattest table that I have my welding table here this is more flat than my roller round table in there it's it's absolutely flat down on that so that's why I'm using this one right here so we're gonna get the Everlast ready I'm just going to TIG everything will get in here and we'll tack this off and get it welded up just a little closer shot showing you there we've got it spaced off of eight of an inch so that we have a nice area to fill that weld bead right there and of course we'll have it for the same the top and the bottom there as well so we'll have a nice place for a fill it there on the top and then on the bottom side all right that one looks pretty decent - we got one side done I cut me up a couple pieces out of this angle iron two by two by quarter angle iron one inch wide I'm going to stitch them into the corners right there just to give that corner a little bit extra support I honestly don't feel that what this thing is being used for that it's going to need it but I'm gonna do it anyway just to just to stiffen the corner up a little bit and to provide a little bit of lateral support on over side shift in there but again this isn't being used for any any substantial weight or pulling trailers or anything like that it's just to hold a little bit of cargo but I think that's going to look pretty nicer there's nothing right here that's going to be in the way that this is going to be in the way so we're just going to fill those in right there I swear we're perfect keeping that thing nice and straight while I tick that on there we are down to our last component that's the center slip tube there and I'm using the mini the mini square there with the tabs we got it squared up to the side of the tube clamp down to the tube here and fold up there just another great use of the monster square to make the job nice and easy so we've got it squared up on in the center there it's at equal 32 and 7/8 on both sides here 32 and 7/8 so we are in the center and we are square we're square that way because of the the monster square makes it nice and easy all right so we're gonna I wanted to have a little bit of overhang here in case I want to use one of those they've got those little anti-rattle clamps that you can put over it's like a little u-bolt that the clamps over this and it'll come down and keeps the keeps the hitch the receiver that's going in there from riding lund around so it needs to gives you a little bit of room right there for the u-bolts actually I think it goes on this side here and it clamps of this so I just got it over hanging a little bit I'm just going to blast some tacks on this thing to get it in place and then I'll probably use my stick welder and just go ahead and run some stitches on there and fill it up [Music] I wanna run someone 870 18 that's the new extractor on food [Music] [Music] one-pass that's all we need I'll clean that up and then we'll flip it over into the other side all right we got it all wire brushed and cleaned up and I'm gonna take it in there on the other table and brush it down with the it's the CRC rust converter and go ahead and coat it down with that it's because this was a rusty bar when I got it and I'll let it sit overnight and tomorrow I'm gonna spray-paint it black and then once once we get it painted I'll go ahead and get it bolted on there so I do I do have another idea for this thing that'll probably come later it's not going to be right now but I'm probably going to buy another one of these slip tubes right there and these are about I think it was like 24 bucks out the door down at the hit Center so I'm thinking about I had an idea while back it already mentioned this on a previous video I'd like to have a vice mounted on the back of the camper and I thought it would be I thought it'd be nice to have a nice classic and our Vice something like this but you really don't want something like that really out in the weather and it's more likely something like that might get stolen I might get one of those one of those Wilton all-terrain vices it's more of a light duty you know they're made to go onto a trailer hits like this and get one of those vices and use that on this hitch right here and so I could probably take another one of these slip tubes and weld it I would weld it to this end over here and have it so that I could mount mount that vise to the back of the camper whenever I wanted to so that's that's an idea that I'm kicking around but I'm not going to do it now because I don't know how everything is going to line up on this hitch at this time so I'm just going to wait on that and I have I don't have one in my hands I just I'll just wait but I'm probably going to take this back off and weld another one of those on there at another time so anyway I'm real happy with how everything looks the the welds look nice stick welds look good there so I'm gonna go get it coated and I'll bring you back later and I'll show you how it looks where we got the first coat of the rust converter on there it's already turning nice and black I'm gonna let that flash off and we're gonna put one more coat on there that's this stuff right here CRC rust converter works really good for bare metal it's a great primer but you can also use it just a coat metal down and to keep it from rusting if you don't want to paint on it as well but we're using it as a primer and to get rid of the rust that's on it fresh coat of paint looking good I was doing some test fitting with the cargo carrier there I went ahead and took the spare tire holder off because this this right here is just going to be too low with the tire sitting on it so I think what I'm gonna do is rebuild this guy right here and I don't like the quality of this anyway I mean look at the the welds on this thing just look absolutely horrible just garbage [Music] and it's paper-thin I know everything has to be very light on these campers but that's just so thin so I'm probably just gonna kind of copy this design but just make it taller so that whenever it's mounted I'll mount it on the bumper but it'll just me boobed over a little bit I just need the tire up a little bit higher to clear the the rack and then I'm also gonna custom mount I've got a I got a bike rack here as well that was given to us and I want to utilize this I'm probably going to do some cutting up with this thing and modifying it and what I'd like to do is be able to mount the two bicycles on the back of the camper as well and mount them kind of up up here above everything so I'm still trying to figure out how I want to utilize that as well I don't know if I'm gonna hook to that bumper or mount to the bumper that I welded together and it's gonna mount on there but that's what I'm still figuring out I'm just waiting on the paint to dry so I can get the receiver the new hitch mounted on there and start figuring out how everything is going to be laid out on the back here all right I got two mounted back up in there I didn't really have any issues at all everything fit just like it should I just set it on those blocks there and use my jacks a level it I stuck that pry bar in there and got the hole centered up put the bolts in and tighten it up everything fit just like it's supposed to it looks good it looked like it matches the back of the camper just the way I wanted it I'm getting the tools cleaned up and I'll see how this new receiver or the carrier fits and looks on the back now all right there she has mounted up looks like it's gonna do the job just fine everything centered up it looks good nice and level so how about we step in it I think it's gonna do just fine I'm gonna pull my cooler out set it in there see how it looks we might look how see how the other accessories look on it before I finished it out I'm happy with the results though well there we go that's what it's gonna look like when it's loaded up with my cooler and my grill maybe some other things laid in there with it - of course I'll strap everything down I did buy a cargo net to put on that but the as tall is the pit barrel as the cargo net really doesn't do anything so I'll just use some ratchet straps to hold everything down like it should and then I'd said also that I've got a big cargo bag that lays in there that you can use when you're traveling if you want to put luggage and things like that it keeps it out of the weather because I plan on using this for other road trips on the back of the pickup as well give us a little bit more cargo area but I'm happy with it and I went ahead and bolted on my new my other bumper hits right there as well because I'm gonna use that one and modify the bicycle rack so that it comes up comes up here and then we'll have the bikes up here up top that's my plan anyway I hope hopefully that'll work I'm gonna use this guy right here this this is what was given to us right there so I'll just modify that piece where we'll have a custom hitch that comes vertically up and have the bikes up high above this cargo right there that'll be another project for another time though I'll let you see how that turns out whenever I get to that [Music] you

Channel: Abom79

Views: 123,972

Keywords: abom79, camper, camper bumber, receiver hitch, custom receiver hitch, bumper hitch, custom bumper, welding, welding and fabricating, tig welding, everlast welder, miller welding machine, miller welders, stick welding, 718, fireball tools, fireball tool sqaure, monster square, job shop, machine shop

Id: Iqz1z5JngSM

Length: 31min 53sec (1913 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 24 2019