Replacement for homebrew hitch

[jsmith294]

In addition to serving as a combination pickup truck, passenger car, and kayak/fishing gear transporter, our 2003 DS on North Captiva Island also has to function as a tow vehicle. I sometimes need to pull a small boat trailer or a two-wheeled trailer loaded with vegetation (total weight of around 600 lb). We may have the slowest cart on the island, but it seems to have a lot of torque. In fact, I am amazed at how much it can haul.

When we got it, the cart did not have a tow hitch. It has a folding rear seat with a lower step that blocks access to the frame bracket used for the "standard" hitch. As an expedient solution, I came up with the rig shown in the photos. It consists of five parts:

- Main crossmember: .75"x2"x48" square steel tube oriented parallel to the bottom of the step.
- Intermediate supports: two 2"x2"x5" square tube sections that rest on the seat frame and support the main crossmember so that it is level with the step surface.
- U-bolts that wrap beneath the seat support tubes and pass through holes in the intermediate support and main crossmember.
- Ball passing through a 0.75" (or there about) hole in the center of the main cross member.

The u-bolts have a round bend. I used them with strap plates to distribute the load on the top of the cross member. The hardware is (or was) zinc plated. I wrapped the seat frame with rubber sheets (old inner tube) to prevent crushing damage and galvanic corrosion. Believe it or not, the main crossmember came from the frame of an old storm door!

The rig has some problems, corrosion being the most obvious one. For a permanent job I would have primed the inside of the tubing, sealed the tubing ends, used SS u-bolts, and painted the assembly. Also, the design is not as strong as it could be. All of the two load is transferred through the u-bolts, and the assembly tends to rotate around the point where the intermediate supports meet the seat frame. I considered passing a horizontal bolt forward through the seat frame upright, through the crossmember, and through the step flange. This would have required me to use a pair of spacers (or maybe just a stack of washers) to take up the gap between the edge of the seat frame upright and the crossmember edge. I would have also welded the crossmember and intermediate support. These two additional bolts would have made a very strong, rigid hitch. I decided not to go this route to avoid putting holes through the step flange and seat support uprights.

This design was intended quick, dirty, and temporary. It proved to be durable and and has now been in service for more than four years. However, the hitch looks awful, and the boss is pressuring me to spruce up the golf cart to make it look "nicer" relative to the tricked out carts the neighbors drive. You know how there always seems to be one family in even nice neighborhoods that drive POS vehicles? Well, that's us.* Does anybody know of an off-the-shelf hitch that is designed to be used with this seat style? A lightweight receiver design would be nice.

Thanks!

* Just wait 'till I build my chicken coop on the island - ha!

[texastbone]

One of my rigs had this bolted to the bottom step...I took it off because it hit my trailer when i backed on it, But it did look good

[jsmith294]

Originally Posted by texastbone

One of my rigs had this bolted to the bottom step...I took it off because it hit my trailer when i backed on it, But it did look good

It does look good - compact and neat. I should have mentioned it, but that step is made of plastic. Was your step plastic?

[texastbone]

No,
It is metal

[jsmith294]

Shucks!