changing drawbar on timber bogey

[Stephen Blair]

I have an old Mowi timber bogie that has a conventional tractor drawbar, but i have a unimog with out a pick up hitch.

Rather than spend a few grand on a pick up hitch i thought about building up the drawbar with some lumps of steel and then just using the rockinger.

The bogey will never see the main rd its just for pottering around woodland and farmland.

Any advice welcome or even better some pics of others botch ups, oops i mean fabrications:biggrin:

[Chris Sheppard]

Get stan to email the pics of his pattruna that Alex converted - it looks like it rolled out the factory set up for a rockinger

 

If nowt else it gives you somethign to work from

[john p]

would be a lot of leverage on it i reckon,but whats the worst that could happen??

[Stephen Blair]

Cheers Chris, my thoughts are either build it up from the hook end or chop it and have the drawbar high from the header board bit.

it's going to be sturdy, that's for sure

[Chris Sheppard]

I'd get some box section the same as the current drawbar, cut the hook off and then stack the bits of box up, staggering it a bit and then if you felt it needed it, plate down the sides.

 

Doing the work at the hook end should (I think) be stronger than doing it just near the haedboard too

 

Just need to make sure you leave enough clearance for when you do some sharp turns/climbs decensts

 

Are you able to pull the axle forward a bit to take a bit of nose weight off the drawbar too?

[Stephen Blair]

Never thought of it catching the back when turning:(

Wasnt going to bother moving axle, the bogey is pretty much goosed tbh, the crane is perfect though.

ideally 1 day I will put the crane on a muller trailer, but for now it's botchitty botch

[woodmad]

cowboy

[Brushcutter]

Would it be possible to have the hitch mounted on a plate than spins. So when you have the trailer over it wont have the mog over too.

 

As Chris says cut the hitch off and build up hight with Box section.

[garth mc garth]

Can you not just have a fixed clevis hitch made for the mog and use the lift arms and a short chain for hitching up? At least then you would be able to tow most trailers then.

[woodmad]

Well on a more serious note.. the forces on the drawbar at the point where you are raising it are considerable. As Chris says you will need to plate it if just stacking box up. Alex made a 'swan' neck, but at a price... i will get a photo...

Dont make the hitch swivel as the rockinger is designed to do that. I got a trailer done years ago for a rockinger and the hitch swivelled as well, got interesting at a round about as both had moved and it was in effect a solid piece..

Good luck