How do you organize your towing accessories?
To start it off, here's a way that I use to handle multiple hitch sizes.
To make a short story longer, let me explain that many moons ago I pulled my first trailer which had a 1 3/4" ball. Naturally, the next trailer I got had a 2" ball and then of course I got a bigger enclosed trailer which has a 2 5/16" ball. Three hitches is a pile of metal so I kept them in the garage and just pulled out the appropriate one when needed.
Well, there are always those situations when I was out and about and a need arose to pull a trailer - but the needed hitch would be back home in the garage. Well, I started carrying the 2" with me in the truck since that was the one that was called for most often. Yep, you guessed it, Murphy's Law would kick in and the trailer to be moved would require one of the others... Urgh! A few years back my thoughtful son gave me one of those "convert-a-ball" systems which is pretty slick. Now I could carry all three sizes with me in cardboard box (later a plain wooden box) which certainly was more manageable. Now all I needed to do was dig out under and behind all of the other stuff that I carry in the truck to get to box with the convert-a-ball hitch. Not bad, but there had to be an improvement that could be made. Here's what I came up with: A trailer hitch storage caddy that is mounted on the rear of the sidewall of the pick-up bed just inside the back tailgate. It's compact, out of the way - yet very accessible and keeps things organized.
Details: The box itself is built out of some glued up and pinned small pieces of Baltic birch plywood with the interior dividers made out of various scraps that were cut, carved and glued and pinned into place. Once put together I drilled a hole through the back of the box and then stood it up against the onto the side wall of the back of the truck bed and then drilled a hole through the bed and inserted a Nutsert to which the box could then be bolted onto. If you look at the pictures above you can see that the weight of the box is resting on about a one inch high block which, not only carries the bulk of the weight, but also keeps the box off the bed in case of water intrusion. Total cost has to be about $6. I bought the draw hasps ($2.99 from Menards- less the 11% rebate) and other than digging through the wood scraps, I had to use a little glue, a few 18 gauge pins and a Nutsert out of my Nutsert kit.
Here's a better picture of the layout inside of the box.
It's now seen a few years of hard use and the box has held up well!
A few months back I made one for my son that fits in his VW Jetta wagon. You can see that it's quite a bit thinner and just lays on the bottom of the boot under the floor. A bit different in design to accommodate the smaller hitch (although it only has two balls) and to fit in a smaller space. The first pic shows the layout of the box which is just sitting on the floor. The box had to be thin enough to fit under the floor so the inside of the lid is sanded out just a bit to clear the widest part of the hitch. The second picture shows the box in the boot.
Hope this gives someone an idea.
Love to see what you've done.
To start it off, here's a way that I use to handle multiple hitch sizes.
To make a short story longer, let me explain that many moons ago I pulled my first trailer which had a 1 3/4" ball. Naturally, the next trailer I got had a 2" ball and then of course I got a bigger enclosed trailer which has a 2 5/16" ball. Three hitches is a pile of metal so I kept them in the garage and just pulled out the appropriate one when needed.
Well, there are always those situations when I was out and about and a need arose to pull a trailer - but the needed hitch would be back home in the garage. Well, I started carrying the 2" with me in the truck since that was the one that was called for most often. Yep, you guessed it, Murphy's Law would kick in and the trailer to be moved would require one of the others... Urgh! A few years back my thoughtful son gave me one of those "convert-a-ball" systems which is pretty slick. Now I could carry all three sizes with me in cardboard box (later a plain wooden box) which certainly was more manageable. Now all I needed to do was dig out under and behind all of the other stuff that I carry in the truck to get to box with the convert-a-ball hitch. Not bad, but there had to be an improvement that could be made. Here's what I came up with: A trailer hitch storage caddy that is mounted on the rear of the sidewall of the pick-up bed just inside the back tailgate. It's compact, out of the way - yet very accessible and keeps things organized.
Details: The box itself is built out of some glued up and pinned small pieces of Baltic birch plywood with the interior dividers made out of various scraps that were cut, carved and glued and pinned into place. Once put together I drilled a hole through the back of the box and then stood it up against the onto the side wall of the back of the truck bed and then drilled a hole through the bed and inserted a Nutsert to which the box could then be bolted onto. If you look at the pictures above you can see that the weight of the box is resting on about a one inch high block which, not only carries the bulk of the weight, but also keeps the box off the bed in case of water intrusion. Total cost has to be about $6. I bought the draw hasps ($2.99 from Menards- less the 11% rebate) and other than digging through the wood scraps, I had to use a little glue, a few 18 gauge pins and a Nutsert out of my Nutsert kit.
Here's a better picture of the layout inside of the box.
It's now seen a few years of hard use and the box has held up well!
A few months back I made one for my son that fits in his VW Jetta wagon. You can see that it's quite a bit thinner and just lays on the bottom of the boot under the floor. A bit different in design to accommodate the smaller hitch (although it only has two balls) and to fit in a smaller space. The first pic shows the layout of the box which is just sitting on the floor. The box had to be thin enough to fit under the floor so the inside of the lid is sanded out just a bit to clear the widest part of the hitch. The second picture shows the box in the boot.
Hope this gives someone an idea.
Love to see what you've done.
les around to require one to lock things up. Heck, three decades ago I never locked anything - car, house, nothing! Still wouldn't need to for 99% but now we have that very small group that seems to be bolder and more aggressive in thinking that what's not theirs aught to be theirs.