Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Landry
How about some photos?
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well, since everything is back together and the front welded back on, no pictures, but here is a description of what I did.
First:
What you need
1) two pieces of flat mild steel flat stock, roughly 1/8" x 4" x 12"
2) 4 grade 8 bolts same size/thread as is on the bracket now
3) 4 square nuts for the bolts above. (square bolts are easier to weld) preferably w/o any coating. If cad or other coated you will need to grind off the coating prior to welding
4) lock washers and flat washers for #2
5) a 12-18" piece of 1/4" or so threaded rod
6) two nuts for the above (5)
how to install.
remove the existing cam arm brackets
clamp the flat stock on the inside of the cam arm brackets. make sure it is spaced far enough above the bottom to clear the inside bottom of the A frame tube.
Drill clearance holes, same size as the existing clearance holes in the cam brackets. Now you have a flat stock that should have the holes perfectly lined up with the existing cam arm bracket.
using the new bolts and square nuts, install the bolts and tighten down on the nuts through the cam arm bracket and new plate. Try to end up with clearance around the bolt through the clearance hole.
tack weld the square nuts to the plate.
remove the plate with the tack welded nuts and complete welding the nuts to the flat plate.
verify the fit when your done.
to make it possible to install the flat plate, thread a nut on the threaded rod and tack weld the nut to the flat plate with the square nuts. nut on the same surface as the square nuts.
remove the threaded rod and complete welding the nut.
repeat for cam arm #2
Now you can thread the rod onto the nut and have a way to position the flat plate inside the A frame.
If the A frame has a plate welded onto the end near the ball, remove the plate. In my case it had 4 spot welds and I could slide a sawsall blade inside the joint and cut the joint.
Now, you will need to ream out the existing holes for the cam arm bracket in the A frame to allow clearance for the bolts. A unibit works well.
clamp the cam arm bracket aligned to the existing holes to the A frame. if needed ream out the holes for clearance.
slide the plate you made into position with the threaded rod and align with the cam arm holes.
thread the new grade 8 bolts through the cam arm bracket into the square nuts and torque down. with this configuration you can REALLY torque the bolts if you want to. the plate will distribute forces and you will end up with high clamping forces.
remove the threaded rod, repeat on side two and replace the cover on the a frame if you want to.
I've seen other ideas using spacers, going through both sides of the tubing on the a frame etc. but wasn't comfortable with them. For me, my approach seems to pass the "smell" test and I expect it to hold up under any expected use conditions.
BTW I run almost 1500lb tongue weight on my trailer. Although the design of the cam arm brackets in reality put very little force on the attaching bracket. there is for aft force as the bars ride in the cam, but very little vertical force on the bracket. the snap up bracket is what sees the vertical force.
Not as good as pictures, but hope it helps understand what I did.