Hitch rack

I was perusing through the GL1800 parts on Ebay one day when I was working on the ambulance. One of the items I noticed was a hitch rack. It was around $80. I got to thinking I could probably make something like that. We had a weekend bike ride coming up that next weekend and my girlfriend said she would go. I needed some more 'carrying space' on the bike for her stuff so I decided to try my hand at building a hitch rack.

I did some internet research and found that people who had exhaust extensions (like mine) had trouble getting the pre-made hitch racks for a vertical hitches (like mine) to fit. They either had to lengthen the mounting arm or return them. Another reason for me to build my own hitch. I could custom fit it for my application.


I went to Lowe's to pick up the 1 1/4" square tubing and 1" angle iron. I wanted some of the mesh for the tray part but they didn't have any. While going down an aisle they had barbeque grille grates on clearance. Hmmmmmm...that'll work, and the grating will give me lots of tiedown points.


I cut the grating down to ~18" wide and 14" deep. I would have preferred to have made it a little less than 14" deep but the way the grating is made I didn't want to cut away the larger supports. I used a chop saw with a metal cutting blade.


I cut the angle iron to fit the grating, squared it all up, then...


...welded it all together.


I cut a section out of the tubing, folded it over to make the 90* bend, then welded it. I trial-fitted it in my Bushtec hitch and found the hitch is slightly smaller than its 1 1/4" advertised size. I couldn't make it fit no matter what I tried. I found some square tubing in my junk box that did fit so I welded in place of the other. With that problem solved I welded the tubing to the rack.


Here is the finished product.


Here's the rack on the bike. I'm testing it for awhile to see how it works. I decided to triangulate some of the angles for strength.



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