On my last trip I may have been a little forgetful. The leg on my tongue was left down while towing out after the first night of camping, never scraped... until I hit the speed bump leaving the state park. Doh!! Didn;t just scrape, bent it back pretty good.
Making lemons out of the situations... I was talking last year of making a new tongue anyway, use aluminum instead of steel, maybe a little longer. It's not a difficult piece, just 2" box steel, one offset. Coupler on one end and a ?" cross bolt hole on the other end at the axle. A pair of plates are welded on the sides at the offset to reinforce it.
My question is on the cutting and the re-welding. What is best way to cut for the welding? Does it really matter as the side plates are really what take the load of the tongue trying to be pulled apart? Simpliest for me is to make a pair of parallel angle cuts, then reverse the middle part and have them weld the butt end and the weld on the side plates.
Is there a better way to cut? Straights and angles? Beveled?
Making lemons out of the situations... I was talking last year of making a new tongue anyway, use aluminum instead of steel, maybe a little longer. It's not a difficult piece, just 2" box steel, one offset. Coupler on one end and a ?" cross bolt hole on the other end at the axle. A pair of plates are welded on the sides at the offset to reinforce it.
My question is on the cutting and the re-welding. What is best way to cut for the welding? Does it really matter as the side plates are really what take the load of the tongue trying to be pulled apart? Simpliest for me is to make a pair of parallel angle cuts, then reverse the middle part and have them weld the butt end and the weld on the side plates.
Is there a better way to cut? Straights and angles? Beveled?