Rigid hitch for portable?

[guppie]

Have any of you guys made a hitch for your portable fish house or did you buy one from somewhere? If you made one, how did you do it? I want to pull it with my wheeler. Thanks in advance

[Jeremy airjer W]

What kind of portable do you have?

[harvey lee]

I made one for my Voyager and it worked fairly well. For the price of a custom made one, I will continue to purchase them.

If you are to make it spring loaded like some companies do, for the time spent and the material costs, I do believe they are priced fairly.

[hotrod1]

How about rope through a piece of pvc pipe?

[panski master]

I made three of them last year for the trap pros and I am making 2 more for friends trap pros this year. They have a pivot where you attach to the ATV and also have a compression spring. They are really easy for the fish trap models if you know how to weld or now somesome that welds. Price wise I have about $12.00 into each one minus my time and they have performed very well. For the pros I put 3/4 inch eyelet bolts where the rope is tide on. Now for the hitch. 3/4 round tubing welded to a 1 inch suare forming a T. The round part inserts into the eyelets and is held there by two codder pins. I then took a piece of flat iron and bent it into a U shape with holes drilled for the hitch pin and one hole drilled in the rounded part of the U for the compression spring. The 4 inch bolt is slid through the U hole followed by a washer that is a little bigger than the square tubing, then a smaller washer that fits in the tubing, the spring, another small washer and a nut. Tack weld the nut on. That whole assembly will slide into the 1 inch suare tubing except for the the big washer. Weld that washer to the square tubing and you have a pivot hitch, Paint it blue and your ready to go. I also added a eyelet to the back of my pro so I can connect another trap to mine and pull two. I have pulled three pros at one time and they followed like train cars on a train. Depending on the size of fish trap you have will depend on what gauge tubing you use and how much weight is in the house when pulling it.

Keith

[Gissert]

Ive gone the rope/pvc pipe route, except I used chain. It worked fine, but I much prefer my commercial hitch now.

[Kylersk]

A friend made mine out of Conduit, for an otter, I then added the compression spring to it..

[toughguy]

I did the PVC pip thru a light chain on a few last year. It worked pretty good for short trips.

[DEADhead]

I purchased the OEM tow bar for my yukon, but the hookup didn't fit the the pintle hitch on my sled. I modified the the hitch using a small 3/8" clevis hook and connected a better quality hitch pin through the clevis at the end of the tow bar.

the clevis slips over the pintle hitch, and allows for 180 degree pivoting of the sled behind it. The tow bar works way better now, and still has the feature of the hitch pin acting as a shear bolt.

[guppie]

Thanks guys for the good ideas! I will be able to come up with my own version now, I think?

[LOGBUILDER]

Hi Guppie

I think I have the best hitch out there .I took 1"by1\4 flat iron cut it in 2 pieces about 2 feet drilled holes throughone end on each peice then bent them matching them the same about 120 degress .this I did about 4 inches from the ends with holes .I then matched the width to my frabil sled .I then took 2 pieces of the same metal about 6 iches long drilled 3\8" holes about 1\2"from the end then i bent that end at 90* to make the hinges .I hope I have not lost you yet.Drill and attach the hingesto your sled .then bolt the 90*peices to the hingeswith 3\8 bolt and locking nut.Next comes the cool part,take the other ends of the then hitch and either weld a piece of v steel or bolt them to a 1 7\8 ball reciever hitch .If you have ball on your atv you will love this it is very strong and very easy to take off and on .I had mine for about 8 years and everybody that see it complements on it .I hope this helps .If I get time I will post some pictures .

[S.D. Ice Angular]

I went the same route as DEADhead,

I have a Clam Voyager and I purchased a hitch from a small bait shop in South Dakota (don’t know the name brand). I would say it is just a generic type hitch. The tongue end is exactly like DEADhead shows with the exception mine is made to hook to my 4 Wheeler. The springs that work in both directions are a major plus. The end that attaches to the sled pivots up and down and is simply attached with 2 pins. This makes it very easy to just pop it off and throw in the sled so it is out the way when transporting it. It may have taken 15 minutes to install (4 holes & bolts on each side where the brackets mount to the sled. I think I have just over $45.00 in it and it looks as professional as anything I have ever seen.

Bottom Line: Just go buy one you won’t regret it…

[pulsar_nx]

Here is what I did.

Materials

2x4, coupler for a ball hitch, small hitch pin, I bolts, fender washers and some nuts.

Procedure

Chop saw the 2x4 small enough to bolt the coupler to it. Install the I bolts with fender washers so that they fit inside the board or on the outsides on the house (I did mine on the inside so I needed to make a few cuts for the I bolts to fit in the board). Drill holes for the bolts on the coupler and install. Drill a hole for the hitch pin to go through the I bolts.

Just make sure you have enough clearance with the I bolts so that the board can pivot up and down, and enough length on the board to make it to the ball on the fourwheeler without lifting the house up in the front.

[guppie]

I have a fish trap. Does anybody have a design that allows you to take it off the house easily?, so when I'm hole hopping I dont have a heavy piece of steel or wood to grab on to. I just need it to attach to a four wheeler for going across the lake, then I do alot of walking around hole hopping. Thanks again guys, sorry to be so picky!

[pulsar_nx]

I'd say some of the others are similar, but mine only has one hitch pin to remove and its off of the house.

[munchy71]

Here's what I went with....

-Munchy

[PerchJerker]

A few years make a buddy and I made our own for our small fish traps. I also have a larger Otter and purchased the Otter hitch for it. Our homemade ones work fine for small light houses but definately not as good as the Otter Hitch. We pulled ours with atvs.

Here's what we did:

1. Get a 10 ft piece of metal conduit. Right now I don't remember the exact kind, it's steel I think but soft enough to work with. Home Depot carries it and it's only a couple bucks for a 10 feet piece.

2. Cut the 10 feet piece in half. Flatten the ends (4 ends on 2 5-foot pieces) in a vice.

3. Drill a hole through each of the 4 ends.

4. Put a couple eye bolts in the house to attach to - drill a couple holes in the house, put in a couple eye bolts, with fender washers inside and out.

5. To attach to the house. Get 2 small caribiner clips (couple bucks each) that fit in the holes in the ends of the 2 pieces of conduit. Leave the caribiner clips in the condiut. Snap them on and off the house as needed.

6. To attach to the atv - Put the other ends of each piece of conduit together so the holes you drilled line up (one on top of the other). Put a snap hook in between them. Use washers or bushings as necessary. Run a long bolt through the hole in 1 conduit, through the snap hook, and through the hole in the other conduit. Put on a nylock nut. Leave it loose enough that there's that hook can rotate.

7. On the back of the wheeler, we put on loop shaped hitches. I don't remember the name but they're only a couple bucks. They are shaped like a 'U' and a pin holds them in the hitch hole on the back of the atv. The snap hook on the conduit clips on and off the 'U' as needed.

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing. I've been using my hitch for years (6 or 7) and it's held up great on my small, light, 1-man trap. Less than $15 in parts and less than 30 minutes to make it. Goes on and off the house in seconds. Good luck.

[BIG DS]

Whatever you decide to do, remember that if your pulling your portable with a ATV state law requires a rigid metalic hitch. Wood, rope, chain, plactic, etc will not due. Get the wrong DNR guy and it can be kinda spendy too.

[guppie]

Big DS, I agree, isn't this the only way to pull passengers across the lake, if they were sitting on the portable that is being towed? correct me if I'm wrong.

munchy, I like your bracket idea, I was thinking of something real similar to that. thanks for the pics.

[TimR]

Is that an ATV specific reg? I don't see it in the Snowmobile reg book - just want to avoid trouble if it is all-inclusive.

Tim

Quote:

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Whatever you decide to do, remember that if your pulling your portable with a ATV state law requires a rigid metalic hitch. Wood, rope, chain, plactic, etc will not due. Get the wrong DNR guy and it can be kinda spendy too.

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