I started welding the motorcycle carrier together yesterday. Since everything was already cut to length and had the weld bevels ground, it didn't take too long. The photo above is the part that goes into the receiver hitch and the end pieces of the frame with the 3/8" nuts welded to the inside.
Detail view of one of the welds on the hitch. I'm TIG welding everything primarily because TIG welding doesn't produce a bunch of sparks making it less likely that I'll burn the shop down. Also, I'm in no particular hurry and I'll have less grinding to do when I'm finished. I put a root pass around all sides of the hitch part. After I get everything else tacked on I'll put the whole thing up on some horses and finish weld it. I'm also planning on welding on some fish plates or gussets over the weld joints.
Looks pretty good hanging off the back of the truck. All my measurements came out like I figured as far as the height and the distance sticking out from the truck. The bike is pretty narrow but with the bags and the wide bars, I need about 18" to the center of the carrier. Measured from the hitch I'm right on 18". The tailgate sets back a couple of inches from the hitch so I should have plenty of clearance for the handlebars. The square tube is rather a loose fit in the receiver so the carrier does rock a lot more than I'd feel comfortable with, so the braces to the underside of the bumper are going to be a must.
I worked on a couple of things for work while I was out in the shop. I think I've got one of the prototype parts I've been working on ready for "production". I don't know how many of these are going to be needed in the future but they'll be fairly easy to make and the same goes for the installation by the technicians in the field.
Been a productive couple of days. A couple more like that and I'll have the bike carrier ready for paint.
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