Towing?

[me0418840987]

Over last winter, I went thru the brakes, and they are all great. I was wondering, What will my 31 actually tow SAFELY? I want to pull my logsplitter to the gentlemans house who gave my father the truck. He has wood that needs to be split, and would get a real kick out of it. My splitter weighs 3,100 lbs, yes it does. Anyone make a hitch for these trucks? Occasionally you see a picture of a rather large trailer behind these when they were used daily, how did they do it?

[Reds34]

How far are you going to be traveling? How fast are you planning on going? You would have to make your own hitch I'm sure, and what kind of log splitter do you have?

Red

[me0418840987]

I would be running a 60 mile round trip. Travel as fast as feels safe. I have a homebuilt logsplitter, see this for details.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/hydr ... itter.html

It has pictures and a good explanation of how I built it. I am just about done, I am going to pick up a hood tomorrow.

[giffs30]

look at the hitch on the truck jim travis has posted, it might work and he might be able to send more pictures. the truck is under look what fallowed newbie home.

[JimTravis]

look at the hitch on the truck jim travis has posted, it might work and he might be able to send more pictures. the truck is under look what fallowed newbie home.

This has not yet been tried by myself but it looks quite substantual and
will made. I plan to leave it on as installed.
JimTravis

[spectria]

Check out the hitch that was on my Mail Truck, I still have it, but it weighs 200 pounds or so off the truck.

31 AA Hitch CIMG1933.JPG (375.55 KiB) Viewed 6910 times

31 AA Hitch CIMG1933.JPG (375.55 KiB) Viewed 6910 times

31 AA Hitch CIMG1934.JPG (376.05 KiB) Viewed 6910 times

[Brady]

Nice photos Dave: That looks hearty enough to be from a mail train...

[Bill James]

Hey Dave, was that mail truck the home made logging donkey?

[spectria]

Hey Dave, was that mail truck the home made logging donkey?

Yes!

[spectria]

Nice photos Dave: That looks hearty enough to be from a mail train...

LOL, In Know, Huh!

[manyolkars]

"What will my 31 actually tow SAFELY? "

These trucks were designed to pull and Stop a load.
seems to me they can still do it.
I have used my 39 ford pickup everyday for 17 years pulling many loaded trailers thru 4 states

[me0418840987]

Manyolkars, That's what I mean. Everyone looks at me weird, or has something to say when I actually USE my truck. Needless to say, I do not want to wreck my truck, but I want to use it whenever I can, because that is what Henery had in mind. They were never ment to be meseuem pieces. What year was the ball hitch introduced? Was there one made at the time of production, that I can copy? A Ridgid, Hidden, Reese, etc. Is going to look way too out of place. I may have to design a way to easily remove and install the whole unit.

[rsierk]

There are about as many ways that hitches have been installed as there were weldors over the years. Here are some I have collected.