A couple of months ago we had picked up a new used tow dolly to replace the homemade unit that we had for a couple of years and only used once. The homemade dolly is ok but there was definitely room for improvement. I stumbled across this dolly on FB marketplace for a reasonable enough price that I sealed the deal and we ran and got it. This tow dolly is of the type where it has fixed ramps on it and a swivel cradle to aid in making a sharper turning radius when towing a car. The dolly's ramps were pretty floppy and cockeyed due to excessive use and also because the previous owners didn't know how to use it apparently. Because it has fixed ramps, the dolly is set up where a retaining pin is pulled, allowing the whole back half of the dolly to tilt down letting the ramps touch the ground. When the car is driven or pulled up onto the cradle, the back half will tilt back into place where you can replace the retaining pin and secure the car and drive off. As a result I would have to remove the cradle and do some welding and probably some reinforcement of the sections of the ramps where they would normally be attached to the base of the dolly. But in order to do this I would have to get the cradle off. There's a huge nut that holds the cradle in place and also provides the swivel point. The nut that's holding the cradle in place is huge. Like huge enough that it requires a 1 1/8" nut. That means it required a huge ratchet as well, which luckily I have on hand. Now the fun part is because this nut was on for a long time, it wasn't coming off easily. I had to use the so-called "cheater bar" to give me the leverage to be able to turn the nut. This consisted of a length of fence pipe. With that I was able to slowly but surely work the nut off, which was still a PITA because I later found that the nut's threads were jacked up, whether from previous removal and/or cross threading or the nut was the wrong thread type for the stud on the cradle. Either way the stud's threads were intact so I would end up reusing the nut afterward. After getting the nut off we was able to remove the cradle so I can survey the scope of the damage or degradation on the dolly. What I saw was pretty much as predicted. The ramps were supposed to be welded all around the front of the ramp and along the sides of that same mounting point. Most of these welding points were either broken or very weak. There were two teflon or kevlar (who knows) plastic strips of approximately 1/2" thickness bolted to the tops of the ramps to help hold the ramps and provide for some minor flexing when in use. These plastic strips were broken at the end bolts and for all intents were pretty much useless for the job they were intended to do. Even some of the framework where the ramps were welded had been damaged some where it would all have to be straightened out and welded back up and probably reinforced. The first thing I did was obviously remove the plastic strips. Since they were damaged they would not be reused. Depending on what I have available the most likely replacement will end up being some wide flat iron stock. I had to straighten out the ramps to get them into the position where they need to be in order for me to get the frame metal straightened out as well as just having the ramps straight. In order to do this I ended up taking some measurements at the front of the ramps to get the width then cutting a piece of 2x4 to this length. I then wedged the board between the ramps at the rear of the pair to spread them out and have them in the positions where I wanted them. This helped straighten out the frame metal enough for me to do my patchwork. I started off by welding beads along the seams where you see the gaps. I only did small beads since I would end up having to reinforce this since the gaps were a little larger than what I would normally be comfortable with when it comes to welding seams. I found some good stiff flat iron scrap pieces I had that actually would serve two purposes. First because the metal was pretty stiff while having some flexibility, I was able to cut two large pieces that would replace the plastic strips that were on the ramps. The leftover metal would provide me with inch wide strips that I was able to use to cover the wide gaps and weld all around to provide a good reinforcement and patch to hold the frame together at the fronts of the ramps. I was able to finish up the remainder of the gaps where it was narrow enough to just weld into them. The next thing is the metal plates to replace the plastic strips that were damaged. While the pieces of flat stock I cut aren't as long as the plastic strips, the fact that they are made of the same rigid yet flexible metal will totally make up for it. These metal plates were lined up with the holes for the frame and the first two holes on the ramp. I installed the four bolts on each metal plate then welded a bead around the back third of each plate to further hold them in place in place of the last pair of bolts that I couldn't reach. These metal plates are overlapping the welded bars on the frame and being bolted down, everything is reinforced and able to hold on nicely. With that, I was able to remove the 2x4 from the back of the ramps and have everything be nice and straight and sturdy. I went ahead and re-installed the cradle onto its perch and went ahead and force threaded the big nut back onto the stud. Even with the damaged threads the nut didn't take as much effort to screw it into place. With that the dolly was all done and fixed up. I would've looked at installing and wiring up a fixed set of taillights but I figured I can just stick with the universal trailer lights that I have and just make it a habit of wrapping the wire bundle around the yoke on the trailer to keep the wires off the ground while sitting the fixtures on top of the fenders. The only other thing left is just acquiring a spare tire for the rig so when we do use the unit for long distance hauling. The boat trailer that we moved over to the back of the yard has a 5 lug rim that I had to see if it would match up and lo and behold the rim does fit. Only thing I have to do is take the rim to the local tire shop to replace the tire. I can toss this spare into the truck, at least until I look at building a tire mount to sit on the dolly frame. All that's left is installing the straps onto the unit so they will be ready for when I do go to use the unit. In the meantime, on to the next project.
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