bkibler
New member
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I'm new to the forum: longtime reader, first post! I've just installed the 2.5 inch hitch from Federal Military Parts (via Amazon) on my 1994 M1083 A0 MTV, and thought I'd post my experience here, maybe get some suggestions/feedback.
Overall, the hitch looks to be excellent quality, very well brazed, nice welds, and when drilling (more on that below) it appeared to be good quality steel. I think it will be plenty strong for pulling my 6T excavator down logging roads on my property.
The first issue I encountered is that the pre-drilled pintle bolt holes were about 1/2 in too low. Not sure if my truck is "typical", but it's possible I have an extra 1/2 in. plate on the bottom that braces the pintle plate. (I forgot to take a photo, but this horizontal plate was attached via huck nuts that required grinding off)
A quick run through a Bridgeport to elongate the holes allowed the pintle bolts to be inserted:
With the new bolts installed, now the pintle won't fully oscillate: at about 25 degrees rotation, it hits the heads of the bolts which now extend 1/2 inch further to the rear. The original bolts (which are too short now) did have smaller heads, so perhaps I should go back and see if the original bolt heads would clear with the new plate? My local hardware store only had this style head for M16 or 5/8 inch bolts, but I may be able to find other head styles online.
In any case, this is only a theoretical/future problem:
Overall, the hitch looks to be excellent quality, very well brazed, nice welds, and when drilling (more on that below) it appeared to be good quality steel. I think it will be plenty strong for pulling my 6T excavator down logging roads on my property.
The first issue I encountered is that the pre-drilled pintle bolt holes were about 1/2 in too low. Not sure if my truck is "typical", but it's possible I have an extra 1/2 in. plate on the bottom that braces the pintle plate. (I forgot to take a photo, but this horizontal plate was attached via huck nuts that required grinding off)
A quick run through a Bridgeport to elongate the holes allowed the pintle bolts to be inserted:
With the new bolts installed, now the pintle won't fully oscillate: at about 25 degrees rotation, it hits the heads of the bolts which now extend 1/2 inch further to the rear. The original bolts (which are too short now) did have smaller heads, so perhaps I should go back and see if the original bolt heads would clear with the new plate? My local hardware store only had this style head for M16 or 5/8 inch bolts, but I may be able to find other head styles online.
In any case, this is only a theoretical/future problem:
1) 25 degrees is still a decent amount of oscillation, even offroad.
2) All of my current trailers (non-military, up to 20k gvwr) require the lower drop hitch anyhow
Did others run into a similar problem, or am I overthinking it?
