The below post is from July – this was iteration 1 of my rover rebuild idea. I may still run with this for microwave equipment in June, however I did finally order my roof rack allowing me to repurpose my old system, and that should be delivered next week. Here’s a peek at my project in July that hung up in Drafts (aka I forgot to schedule it)
Step one is finally complete for the interim rover build – the hitch mount is on. Now, this wasn’t as painful as I had anticipated. It was a bolt on, Class I Curt Hitch from made by Draw-Tite, and purchased through etrailer.com. The boat I’m in process of rebuilding can realistically be towed using a Class I hitch as it’s just shy of 2k lbs after motor and trailer, and the only other things I’ll realistically be using a hitch for are a trailer for moving larger items, cargo carrier, or my bike rack, so we’re in good shape there.
This was my first time doing one of these, so it was a little bit of a learning experience as well – four wire pull through that you feed into the end point, out of a rubber drainage stop on the frame, push the carriage bolt holder over and in the frame, twist the threading of the bold around a coil on the wire, and just pull. The first one was a little tricky, but then it was like a breeze for the other three.
The hard part was getting the actual receiver itself hung up – I was able to use a pair of jack stands to hold it in place, and then feed the wire through, and hoist it up one side at a time. I fed the washer over top, started to pull the coil off a bit, and then attached the nut. When it seemed secure, I pulled the rest of the wire off, and clamped it down. I had to cut away a small section of the plastic cover that goes under the car to be able to fit it back on over the receiver.
This is where the fun part will begin in the rover build though – now that the receiver is on, it’s time to move to Part II, which will be creating a short section of mast to weld on a rotor shelf. A few ideas are on the table as far as this goes – do I want the rotor closer to the base of the mast, and just have a short section from the base of the mast to the rotor shelf? Or do I want to have some clearance, guy the setup at the shelf to the car, and then go higher? There are a few different options to weigh, but it’ll be a little bit until I can get that squared away, so I have time to think there.
Roving On 