Is there such as thing as a quick detachable/3' extendedd tow hitch for a dump truck?

[treeclimber101]

Yea go three foot with no gussets and watch that limp #### flex everytime you go through a traffic light , theres no way in hell that I would ever use a hitch thats sticks off the back of the truck like that, and lets not even talk about sway , just cause some bozo has made something doesn't mean its safe , have the hitch made correct by someone who can PROPERLY build a permanent welded hitch that is a extension of the frame ..When you buy equipment in the future learn what your needs are and think about how your gonna SAFELY make it work......

 

[ForTheArborist]

TC101, that is utopia, and this is... well, the way it's going to work for now. My driving skills - those are something comparable to utopia. Really, I don't see a problem with the class V Tow Beast.

Arbor Pro, that is a great tip - the sliding stow position for the extension arm.

 

[treeclimber101]

TC101, that is utopia, and this is... well, the way it's going to work for now. My driving skills - those are something comparable to utopia. Really, I don't see a problem with the class V Tow Beast.

Arbor Pro, that is a great tip - the sliding stow position for the extension arm.

Whats utopia safety? Just think when your rigging something for the "now" would you feel safe following your trucks down the road if not than change it and do it right

 

[arbor pro]

Yea go three foot with no gussets and watch that limp #### flex everytime you go through a traffic light , theres no way in hell that I would ever use a hitch thats sticks off the back of the truck like that, and lets not even talk about sway , just cause some bozo has made something doesn't mean its safe , have the hitch made correct by someone who can PROPERLY build a permanent welded hitch that is a extension of the frame ..When you buy equipment in the future learn what your needs are and think about how your gonna SAFELY make it work......

We're real quick to mock what others do arent we? So you wouldn't build a hitch that way. Fine, don't do it. But don't mock the success of others when you have no first hand experience with it. The way we had it built worked great. It was done by a machine shop that works on building custom stuff for farmers, industrial equipment, you name it. When they build something, they overbuild it. No flex, no sway. Perfect solution to the problem we had.

Say what you want and namecall all you want - the only bozo in this thread is the guy who think he's the only one with a PROPER solution to the problem.

By the way, that same truck with the unsafe 'slip' hitch that I had welded up over 10 years ago is still pulling a 9000# vermeer 1800 chipper around today. The guy who I sold it to hasn't modified it one bit. It never needed re-welding, never had a problem with sway or flexing. I guess 10 years of road testing isn't enough for some critics.

OH YEH - I just remembered - we had a second truck (same year and model) welded up with the exact same hitch. It pulled around a 6000# bobcat plus attachments (rock hound, tiller, seeder, etc) on a 20' beavertail trailer. I used that setup for 4 years before selling the truck. I guess that was just a bozo setup too.

 

[Metals406]

Read the load chart on this page: http://www.adventurerv.net/torklift-supertruss-extension-bar-p-5107.html

 

[pdqdl]

An extension of any sort to a normal drawbar mounted on a truck is fundamentally weak. While there are probably dozens of ways to compensate, it is probably stronger, safer, and cheaper (in the long run) to just make the chipper tongue longer or mount a sturdy hitch at the rear of the truck.

Chipper tongues tend to be simple channel, tubing, or i-beams that are easy to cut, weld in an extension of the same kind of metal, and call it good as new. If you don't trust your welding, then bolt on some fishplates afterward for additional strength and security.

If you just lengthen the hitch on your chipper, that won't solve the problem when you hook up to a different trailer. If you are spending time and money adding an extension hitch (as shown in previous posts), will it require removal each time you pull the dump lever?

Better solution: mount your receiver at the rear of the truck, permanently suspended from the truck bed. Truck beds with large overhangs tend to be "dumping flatbeds" rather than "dump beds". They invariably have two sturdy rails down the long axis of the truck that are super easy to attach a tow hitch to.

By mounting the hitch to the bed, you eliminate any super weak hitches than need to be dis-assembled each time you dump, as the sturdy hitch goes up & down with the dump bed.

You need to pay attention to your engineering. Measure the height of the bed above the ground when the bed is raised, then measure the height when the bed is lowered. Calculate the amount of drop you have to work with, subtract a few inches, then build your receiver to not go below that point. Otherwise, you will bury the hitch in the dirt when you dump, then you can't drive forward until the bed goes down.

This design generally requires that you remove the drawbar when you dump. Most trailers are designed to have a ball height of 16" - 18" to travel "level", and you can buy a drawbar of almost any drop distance to accomodate that height. Pintle hitches are usually taller than tow balls, but you can still buy drawbar adapters that let you hook up to any height from just one receiver height.

I have done this to many of my trucks in the past, and it always takes care of the "short hitch" issues.

 

[pdqdl]

Read the load chart on this page: http://www.adventurerv.net/torklift-supertruss-extension-bar-p-5107.html

This silly hitch requires a load equalizer to be used. [Read the ad carefully!] These things are not meant to haul loads behind a work truck, they are supposed to allow you to hang a camper shell on your pickup, then tow the recreational boat.

Daily use with heavy loads will not be a good idea. I'll bet you would play hell finding the right parts to hook up a load equalizer to a chipper, anyway.

 

[jefflovstrom]

This silly hitch requires a load equalizer to be used. [Read the ad carefully!] These things are not meant to haul loads behind a work truck, they are supposed to allow you to hang a camper shell on your pickup, then tow the recreational boat.

Daily use with heavy loads will not be a good idea. I'll bet you would play hell finding the right parts to hook up a load equalizer to a chipper, anyway.

I don't wanna dis a product, but that is not for our industry. The tongue weight on our Morbarks- well, looks "cheesy". Extend the tongue. Read all those warnings in fine print. But hey FTA, you know what you are doing- right?
Jeff

 

[capetrees]

What kind of tongue weight do you have FTA? The hitches shown are primarily for towing but with little tongue weight. If you had to build something, try a rig similar to a 3 point hitch, the 2" receiver with a pin hole welded into the hitch plate and the 2" tube extending from the rear hitch plate out to where you want but with angled support bars attached from the end of the 2" extentionup to the top of the hitch plate, again attached with pins. Lots more tongue support than anything extending out past 12" from the plate.

 

[Metals406]

This silly hitch requires a load equalizer to be used. [Read the ad carefully!] These things are not meant to haul loads behind a work truck, they are supposed to allow you to hang a camper shell on your pickup, then tow the recreational boat.

Daily use with heavy loads will not be a good idea. I'll bet you would play hell finding the right parts to hook up a load equalizer to a chipper, anyway.

Yup, kinda why I posted it, and said to read the load chart. One of these was posted earlier. . . I was kinda trying to make a point -- guess it was lost though.

 

[ForTheArborist]

Inventors - all of ya! No wonder I like this website. :hmm3grin2orange:

I need to look over some numbers and specs you know. I want the thing bulked up far over capacity so there is no problem in the future when the tongue weight does reach any all time highs. That home made job by Arbor Pro's welder is a definite resolution. Some people can look at those prefabbed jobs online, and wonder why it was not framed without any more support welds. I'm sure AP's were over structured.

Definitely don't weld to every dump truck box end. I thought that would be a resolution on mine. When the truck would have it's heaviest load, the hitch would hit the deck,and prevent the box from tipping it's full capacity. Also unless the hinges are as long as reg sized footballs.... I didn't see enough hinge in the two I've got to trust pulling any chippers, etc. Definutely keep it on the frame unless maybe its just a flat bet truck.

 

[JCONN]

I don't know what you bring to every job but I used to have a big tow behind leaf vac that had a short tongue on it. It wasn't worth welding a new tongue on because we only used it a few times a year. I ended up buying one of those extension tubes. We would go to the apartment complex with the leaf vac on the pickup and the dump truck pulled the dump trailer then it would take a few minutes but we would use the tube and hook the vac to dump truck and drive around the complex till it was full then we would hook the vac to the back of the dump trailer were I welded a hitch and again use the extender tube. Then roll piggy back around the complex but I would never trust that tube down the road with that weight. It was a little screwing around but it may work for you just pulling with a different truck the switching on site.
I guess my point is that don't trust that tube you can watch it flex going ten mph on a smooth road let alone 55 hitting bumps.

 

[pdqdl]

Yup, kinda why I posted it, and said to read the load chart. One of these was posted earlier. . . I was kinda trying to make a point -- guess it was lost though.

It wasn't lost on me!

That's what inspired me to look closer. I couldn't believe anybody even made the durn thing. When you announced that it had a load rating, I just had to see what they claimed it was good for.

 

[treeclimber101]

We're real quick to mock what others do arent we? So you wouldn't build a hitch that way. Fine, don't do it. But don't mock the success of others when you have no first hand experience with it. The way we had it built worked great. It was done by a machine shop that works on building custom stuff for farmers, industrial equipment, you name it. When they build something, they overbuild it. No flex, no sway. Perfect solution to the problem we had.

Say what you want and namecall all you want - the only bozo in this thread is the guy who think he's the only one with a PROPER solution to the problem.

By the way, that same truck with the unsafe 'slip' hitch that I had welded up over 10 years ago is still pulling a 9000# vermeer 1800 chipper around today. The guy who I sold it to hasn't modified it one bit. It never needed re-welding, never had a problem with sway or flexing. I guess 10 years of road testing isn't enough for some critics.

OH YEH - I just remembered - we had a second truck (same year and model) welded up with the exact same hitch. It pulled around a 6000# bobcat plus attachments (rock hound, tiller, seeder, etc) on a 20' beavertail trailer. I used that setup for 4 years before selling the truck. I guess that was just a bozo setup too.

You said in that last sentence, its junk bottom line and a half assed way to PROPERLY secure a trailer, if it lasted ten yrs. than you must go to church and be a regular saint , cause someone was watching over ya...OH and you should really read the whole point of my post I was mocking the 4ft reciever no welds there jack just a hitch and a limp #### hanging off the other end ..And how would you even use that on a dump truck , it needs to be mounted somehow on the end and thats little tough on a truck that has a dump that sticks over the back of the frame.....