Thread: drawbar coupling

Piece of 12mm plate, cut to right size predrill holes and tip the trailer upside down. Clamp plate on in right place, with the trailer upside down you can get to it as a horizontal weld so no bullshit positional galv contaminated chicken turds... Pretty simple blaze job to be fair, then zinc it the hell outta dodge and go from there.

I would keep the existing coupler and just add a second safety chain. I have one of those couplers on a trailer I use on the 4 wheeler for feeding out etc, never had a problem and the great thing is that they are fast to use with no bits to loose

Who says that the box section here is 4mm 223?? where did you get that figure from because I cant see it anywhere on the original post.

In any case, welding 12 mm to 3 mm with a weld length of say 150 mm is not going to crack, as long as you are :

1) A competent welder, and understand the need for penetration and the avoidance of undercut.
2) You do the prep on the galv box section properly before you weld it

Ive done this heaps of times and never ever had one come back cracked. Remember its only towing 900 kg.

Not having a go at you, just saying

Was merely making an observation based on what I’ve seen as a past WOF issuer. And as you say weld strength is dependent on preparation and welding skills, speaking as someone who has worked on such projects as a certified welder. To get thread back on track I have used and seen many of these couplings on trailers over the years an never seen one give trouble when used within specs.

Originally Posted by woods223

Was merely making an observation based on what I’ve seen as a past WOF issuer. And as you say weld strength is dependent on preparation and welding skills, speaking as someone who has worked on such projects as a certified welder. To get thread back on track I have used and seen many of these couplings on trailers over the years an never seen one give trouble when used within specs.

Half of that is using a budget mig to do the job so the weld is barely lukewarm, without cleaning the metal and getting rid of the paint galv and crap, doing the job outside and in the overhead position... The other half is probably amateur hour weld as you learn techniques which is fine except when its a reasonably stressed weld that if it lets go is likely to result in some extreme stress at the very least!