Custom Receiver-Hitch Clevis project

[ez bake]

I have to say that my boy over at KenKay machine shop is insanely good at what he does. I've seen these receiver-recovery Hitch kits online, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for.

I dropped the Clevis off with him and described what I wanted (loosely) and he called me a couple of hours later and had it done. He machined it out of a solid piece of steel.

I have to point out that he designed the whole thing based on a conversation only - he knocked the edge off of all the sharp-edges, chamfered the corners of the main 2"x2" section so it would fit into a receiver easily, contoured it down to fit the Clevis perfectly, and rounded it so it wouldn't cut a tow-strap (and added the extra pin-hole so it could be flipped side-ways should I need to be pulled out of the mud at an angle - I didn't even think of that when talking to him - that part friggin rocks).

I painted it with some ceramic engine paint and threw it in the receiver on the Jeep today and it fits perfectly.





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[_CY_]

pretty slick... gotta make me one of those
could come in real handy yanking a tree down

 

[gillman7]

Andy, that is cool!!

What does he charge for that? I need a couple of those?

 

[ez bake]

Andy, that is cool!!

What does he charge for that? I need a couple of those?

Well - I discussed that with him and he said that if he got 30-40 or so folks interested, he might actually make a run of them (he's a member on here, but he doesn't post often).

The big problem for us is that the Clevis shackles (or D-Rings) from Orschlens or Tractor Supply make the cost of something like this around $45-$55 when you can order them online for about $35-$45 shipped (but they wont do the two-axis mount, and they use smaller clevis shackles, and most of the one's I've seen are welded together and not solid (or if they are solid, they're much smaller overall).

If we can find an online retailer for the Clevis Shackles for cheaper (or even a local source), it might make it cheaper. I'll gauge interest here and on a couple of other forums (shipping these beasts is going to be a b!+@#, so it would probably not be worth it to ship - I can deliver them to almost all over the middle part of the state though).

 

[_CY_]

yup it's hard for any custom part to compete price wise against mass produced items.

really fortunate to have a full machine shop at home.
coming up with solid stock for small runs will be another fun item.

here's a solution using a HD hitch

 

[ez bake]

yup it's hard for any custom part to compete price wise against mass produced items.

really fortunate to have a full machine shop at home.
coming up with solid stock for small runs will be another fun item.

here's a solution using a HD hitch

There's a lot of work in that hitch man - did you do all that yourself?

 

[Shoot Summ]

That's a good looking setup, seems like you could take a 0 drop receiver and use the clevis sideways on it. Wouldn't look as cool, but would still function and be safer than a ball.

 

[_CY_]

yup sure did... all $150 worth from Craigslist
it's a weight distribution hitch with round bars that I've towed 25k+ lbs with.

not nearly clean as your setup.... but pretty sure a clevis attached to it will pull out anything I'd want to tackle.

There's a lot of work in that hitch man - did you do all that yourself?

 

[ez bake]

That's a good looking setup, seems like you could take a 0 drop receiver and use the clevis sideways on it. Wouldn't look as cool, but would still function and be safer than a ball.

You know - I looked desperately for one in 2" and couldn't find one anywhere (all the Class IV receivers I could find were at least a 2" drop or more). I was looking locally since I was piece-milling things together (didn't want to go through the hassle of ordering online only to have to pay return shipping).

I then looked for a Clevis or D-ring that was 2" wide at the pin so I could just drill a piece of 2" bar-stock and use it. I found one locally, but it was a long D-Ring and it looked like it would have caused problems when pulling at a steep side-angle (just in case I was stuck at an angle that didn't allow for a direct-line pull straight back). Ordering a shorter 2" wide D-ring online seemed pretty expensive, so I opted for a smaller clevis instead.

My main concern was having the ability for my Jeep to be pulled out of a ditch/high-center from the rear should I need it (since my winch is attached to the front bumper) and most of the setups I've seen online don't allow for a steep angle from either side, and honestly, a lot of them are only rated for 9,000Lbs or less (not that I'd need more, but I like to have double what I need pretty much everywhere I'm pulling/towing).

My JK weighs right around 3800Lbs and its rated for towing 1,000Lbs so I'm not planning on towing anyone else out (but I want to make it easy on anyone who wanted to tow me out). Also, its nice to be able to easily anchor myself to a tree or something if I do have to use the winch to pull someone else out.

There are a couple of back-stories of me getting stuck and simultaneously caught without all the right gear for being towed out that lead me up to this point.

The frame and class III towing hitch I got will probably only support about 4,000Lbs (without yanking), but my thought process was that since I do some off-roading with some buddies every now and then, and especially with this recent snow-storm, it would be nice to be able to yank this thing out of my JK and put it in a buddies truck that was more heavy-duty if they needed it (and I happened to be there) and not worry about breaking anything.

And it was partially just a fun project to see if we could improve on a concept - my buddy did all the heavy lifting by being creative with the design and the machining tools, so I've got to give him all the credit (I didn't have to pay anything for the machining because I do some computer work for them every now and then - I'm starting to think that having a machinist friend is more handy than having an IT friend, so I'm probably abusing my privileges a little

 

[SureShotXD]

Andy, that is cool!!

What does he charge for that? I need a couple of those?

I could use one also.