"deekster_caddy" (deekster_caddy)
10/06/2015 at 09:30 • Filed to: None
2
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"deekster_caddy" (deekster_caddy)
10/06/2015 at 09:30 • Filed to: None | 2
| 20 |
Finally! I’ve wasted hours of good auto body shop time trying to get this damn receiver tube out of the trailer hitch ball mount out of the receiver tube on my car. It was in for about 15 years and bonded itself into place... The first week we tried heat. Last week we tried chaining it to the floor and driving away (that ended badly). This week I unbolted the hitch from the car and we strapped it down to the frame machine, then threw some heat on it to get the hitch glowing... and STILL had to hit it pretty hard with a sledgehammer... but it came out! DAMN!
Class is only 3 hours once a week. Now I can get started on some real repair work!
This is a class 3 hitch from my ‘73 Buick. I gave the rear frame a thorough inspection while it was up on the lift and the hitch was out - no concerns at all, the frame is going to outlast everything else.
edit - bumped time for daytime fun
edit - had my names mixed up, the receiver tube is fine, we were trying to remove the ball mount.
TheHondaBro
> deekster_caddy
10/05/2015 at 22:41 |
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That’s... That’s like Jeremy Clarkson 2.0 right there. Hammer be damned, indeed.
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deekster_caddy
> TheHondaBro
10/05/2015 at 22:44 |
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We hammered, we hit, we pulled, we did everything. They couldn’t fit my car on the frame machine, so we decided to put the hitch up there. Also where we were heating it on the car is directly below the gas filler neck, I had my concerns about using too much heat while it was on the car..
Urambo Tauro
> deekster_caddy
10/05/2015 at 22:49 |
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Impressive. I’ve never seen one that was rusted so badly come apart. Well, not without destroying the ball-mount or the receiver (or both) in the process...
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deekster_caddy
> Urambo Tauro
10/06/2015 at 09:12 |
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The receiver tube is no more. The hitch is in great shape still though. I’m surprised at how much force we were able to put on that thing!
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Urambo Tauro
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 09:24 |
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Oh, bummer. I thought you had managed to save both here.
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deekster_caddy
> Urambo Tauro
10/06/2015 at 09:27 |
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No, we beat the crap out of the receiver tube trying to make it move in any direction. They are a dime a dozen though, so I had no intention of reusing it. I really wanted it out so I could put in one with a different height.
Tohru
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 09:45 |
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I don’t think they’re a dime a dozen built like that. It’s pretty beefy
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deekster_caddy
> Tohru
10/06/2015 at 09:59 |
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Receivers are a dime a dozen . Whoops. Ball mounts are a dime a dozen. We beat the crap out of the ball mount. Had my names mixed up, I’ve been calling it a receiver tube this whole time. The receiver/hitch is all good. We were trying to remove the ball mount from the receiver tube.
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deekster_caddy
> Urambo Tauro
10/06/2015 at 09:59 |
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Oops. Had my names backwards. The ball mount was wasted. The receiver tube is fine!
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Urambo Tauro
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 10:12 |
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LOL; I used to work in the RV field, and developed a habit of avoiding use of the word “ hitch ”. It just became too confusing around customers...
crowmolly
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 10:18 |
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Everybody jokes about hammers
Everybody jokes about “giving no fucks”
But the truth is nothing says “fuck this part of the universe in particular” like a cutting torch. Hammers are JV squad.
WiscoProud
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 10:27 |
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Is it a rare piece or something? Shit, I would've just replaced it rather than doing all that. Although if I were bored in a fully stocked shop, I absolutely would go to all lengths to get it out.
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deekster_caddy
> crowmolly
10/06/2015 at 10:50 |
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The heat was enough. I think it was the threat of being cut that broke it free!
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deekster_caddy
> WiscoProud
10/06/2015 at 10:50 |
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They don’t make a hitch for that car anymore. It’s a Draw Tite from the 80s sometime.
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WiscoProud
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 11:09 |
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Got it. I'm impressed it took that much work to get loose. Just shows how much of a bitch rusty parts can be.
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deekster_caddy
> WiscoProud
10/06/2015 at 11:41 |
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Yup. It was in there for probably 15 years. I had it off the road for 10 years where the oxidizing metal just sat there bonding...
You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 11:58 |
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I’ve got bad news for you if you plan on reusing this receiver. The heat has weakened it to the point I wouldn’t trust it to tow an inflatable boat anymore.
The good news is that the ball is still good assuming you didn’t need to apply the torch to get that off its mount.
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deekster_caddy
> You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
10/06/2015 at 12:08 |
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Really? The receiver tube was never even glowing. I avoided that intentionally. I understand that it weakens a little bit when you heat/cool it but that much? It’s pretty freakin solid.
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You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
> deekster_caddy
10/06/2015 at 14:09 |
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Whether it was glowing or not heating it with a torch is enough to significantly and negatively affect whatever temper the steel may have had. I don’t know what that is made of, or if it was cold drawn, hot rolled or quench & tempered steel, so I can only speak in generalizations. From one of my reference books I looked up the properties of 1030 steel.
- Hot rolled 37.5ksi yield
- Cold drawn 64ksi yield
- Quenched & tempered ranges from 64ksi to 94ksi yield depending on the temperature they were tempered at
- Annealed 46ksi yield
The temperature for tempering 1030 steel varies from 400F to 1200F, an acetylene cutting torch like the one you used burns around 6300F. Are you willing to bet your life that you didn’t ruin the temper on the receiver?
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deekster_caddy
> You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
10/06/2015 at 14:31 |
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We never used the ‘cutting’ setting on the torch. I can’t speak to the actual flame temp we were using. I have seen an awful lot of steel similarly heated up without a noticeable impact on it’s performance. The issue is that the hitch is unobtainable.
I can’t bet my life on it, but based on a good deal of life experience I don’t believe we’ve weakened the hitch significantly. I won’t overload it, but I will mentally reduce it’s ability slightly. Based on the way it’s assembled, there is far more than the receiver tube itself at work holding everything together. I can’t imagine a scenario I’d put it through in which it fails catastrophically. Worst case scenario is an emergency maneuver which goes south, but it’s my job to avoid such maneuvers in the first place... And even so, if I’m going to jackknife at speed, I’m probably fucked already...
I’ll certainly think about your warnings, but everyone involved has a good deal of experience and was not concerned about weakening the steel at the temps we were reaching. I read that steel needs to reach 900 degrees before it glows orange, and I am sure we weren’t that hot. I forgot to bring my IR temp gun along though.
Thanks for looking up the properties for temps. I’ll do a little more research to see if I can figure out what kind of steel it was made of, and keep an eye on it for stress cracks.