For those that hate reading anyway as much as I do, here is the abridged version…
Enter the hero,
… exit stage left,
Au revoir Pottzy et plus encore!
For those than don't know me and know what to expect, here are the nuts and bolts of this screwed up hitch (with a few more happy snaps thrown into the mix) .
Much as I hate gardening (close 2nd. to reading), I take pleasure in destroying some of my redundant garden jungle produce using my mulcher
Unfortunately for practicality, some of the mulching is better done in my front driveway rather than the back yard.
I don’t believe the designers of the mulcher had dogs and never intended the owners to take their mulchers for “walkies”, however, the “walkie” from the back yard, around the block,
all downhill to the front driveway, is nowhere as arduous as the returning up-hill slog with the near vertical ascent at the end
after prolonged hours of back breaking machine feeding… it was a case of returning it on the same day or parking it in the already cluttered workshop followed by restless sleeps dreaming about the inevitable, oncoming trek back at some time in the future.
After seeing Yolanda’s Thatcher Pull Hitch I got inspired and motivated into some sort of hitching mechanism so I could let my ride-on do the grunt work.
(Bottom line is to never question the benefit of anyone's post whether directly relatable or not.)
This project was fraught with re-do’s as I didn’t goto SketchUp as my port of call… maybe a couple of glasses of port may have helped.
Unfortunately many of my initial failures went unrecorded, but I can post some pictures of the final result.
Initially, because of the design(s), I couldn’t picture a towable solution short of tilting the mulcher and then some method to connect the two horizontal 25mm tubings together.
My initial quick fix was to rest the mulchers bar onto the Ryobi’s and strap them together,
Not surprisingly, any turn of the ride-on sent the whole mulcher pivoting sideways which at 20KPH down the concrete footpath around tight corners was fraught with homicidal/suicidal intentions.
Probably the simplest fix would be to align the two bars and drill a bolt hole through them, however they would need to be offset because of these ears on the Ryobi's bar,
(probably there for accessories’ attachment/alignment) and carefully aligned so they would pivot without compromise. While this may have been somewhat cumbersome to align for the drilling, I wasn’t prepared to drill holes in the tubing.
I initially started with some retainer bars to fit either side of the tubing,
for setup stability and the intention to eventually secure using these u-bolts, but compromised with these more up-market ones,
The mulcher was a heavy bugger and I was sceptical about the integrity of the hardwood timber I was using and contemplated reinforcement. Another layer of 19mm hardwood didn’t tickle my jollies and after ferreting around the workshop found some scrap metal
and with a bit of a facelift,
had a decent ingot to present to my bandsaw,
It was then time to clean up on the grinder (sorry only 2 hands so no happy snaps) and over to the DP to drill some screw holes. I then realised that the u-bolt nuts would compromise pivoting, so I slipped that dreaded extra 19mm layer I was fearing before,
My Vortex drill bits created those dreaded metal swarfs , I had to gather from all over the place, that most woodies detest in the workshop, however, the actual drilling was with pleasurable ease/speed.
I initially countersunk the screw holes using a twist drill bit which I was not happy with as the head protruded enough that again they would compromise pivoting… decided to use a nut between the two sandwiches,
which also served to keep the bolt in place.
Wasn’t happy with the protruding screws, had a vino moment and somehow risked using some countersinks that I initially bought for Perspex years ago
on the metal bits… my eyes may have been blurry, but it seems to have worked,
The top right sink proved better screw head penetration compared to the twist drill (without drilling through the metal)… I was gruntled,
I was apprehensive of the holding power of the u-bolt to prevent jig rotation, I decided to brace it with a piece of timber.
Zeroed my Wixey level on my sloping concrete floor, set the jig to the “0°”
and measured and cut a piece of timber to support it,
There was a 16mm hole in the “tow bar” to anchor the timber in with a 16mm dowel inserted into the end of the timber.
Rather than screwing around with a vertical DP setup, I used my Woodpecker Drill Guide to drill a “freehand” vertical 16mm hole in the end of the board,
While the bottom was held in place with the 16mm dowel, a bolt through a threaded insert held the top in place,
Unfortunately without SketchUp, the best laid plans go two toes up… I forgot to allow for the 9mm thickness of the bottom of the u-bolt which resulted in a short post and a slight lean of the jig. A quick remedy of a 3mm and 6mm MDF foot made up the difference,
Then it was time to tighten up the nuts on the ride-on’s u-bolts,
and the mulcher,
turn off the lights and let them couple,
under the supervision of a wingnut.
The following pictures were taken before the foot adjustment was made… and rather than waste them,
It was time to take it “upstairs” and prepare for the formal presentation with a spin around the block… THEN IT DAWNED ON ME… faeces… I buggered up the “tow bar” and with that support in place, I could no longer hitch up my trailer,
without removing the jig.
Deferred the new cask-o-vino and hit the workshop for some additional metallurgy
self tapped to the tow bar and after removing the 6mm MDF fix (remember the previous stuff up
), which now replaced by the new “towball”, the jig was refitted,
and I could now tow again.
The spin around the blocks was only deferred till the next day as I didn’t want to get nabbed for DUI… it happened!
This was a case of, I wish I could have bought something rather than fabricate it… all that vino time sacrificed.
------------------------------------- ooooOOOOO The End OOOOOooooo -----------------------------------------
Don’t be crafty Craftisians,... SHARE your craft!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I was thinking the same, but then LBD had to add that laser cut spacer. Of course I see he whacked it off a little later. Personally I'd have been expecting him to cut from the other end, it is his signature mantra!
Thanks Girls (and Boys), appreciate the look (and comments) and condolences to those that foolishly got to the bottom. Unfortunately my medical cover is only for immediate family and I have my legal team ready to handle any litigation due to mental/visual stress.
I was thinking the same, but then LBD had to add that laser cut spacer. Of course I see he whacked it off a little later. Personally I'd have been expecting him to cut from the other end, it is his signature mantra!
ght ("half" right) Splinter, did try to cut from the longer end, but realised I had that bloody threaded insert there... kinda made minced meat out of my Kakuri blade,
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
