2x2 Hitch Receiver Tooling Adapters and Mounts for Vises, Arbor Presses, Tubing Rollers, and More: Upgrade Your Workshop and Mobile Capabilities

I've been building up my collection of hitch receiver mount tooling for awhile and thought I'd share what I've learned. Adopting this unusual use for 2x2 hitches is one of the best workshop upgrades I've done in a long time. It helps me to be adaptive in a smaller workshop by giving me multiple sturdy points to mount tools while also giving me mobility to use these tools mounted to my vehicle.

There are many ways to go about making this type of infrastructure for your shop. I used the following tools and supplies but lots of substitutions could be made, while I have a TIG welder you could do this with a stick or flux core welder, ect.

• A way to weld steel
• A way to cut steel, I used:
• A hacksaw
• A portable band saw
• An angle grinder
• Powered sander
• Files
• Layout/Center Punch/Marking Tools
• Some Old hitch ball mounts and receivers. They can easily be found on craigslist or marketplace for cheap. Otherwise raw 2x2 receiver tubing costs 25 dollars a foot here.
• Assorted nuts and bolts, I used a lot of 1/2-13 I had left over form an old project.
• A drill and drill bits
• Clamps
• Lock tight
• Steel plate, I had some 1/4 and 3/8 inch scrap laying around I used for a lot of this.
• Vises and other tools in need of a new home.

I made a youtube video you can watch while you follow along on here.

1. I welded one into the upper corner of my welding bench. It's primarily used for holding vises, the swivel, and the arbor press.
2. I welded another across the bottom of my welding bench, this usually holds my tubing roller.
3. I Installed a whole hitch I removed from an old truck into a workbench by bolting through the thick wooden top. If I need to angle grind or sand something I like to do it in a vise in this mount this one since it's outside. This keeps the dust out of the shop and my lungs.
4. I also welded a front hitch onto my Ford Ranger.
5. My truck also has one on the rear.

Threads need to be added to the receiver so we can use a bolt as a clamp to hold our tools. You could skip this step and use a traditional hitch pin but I don't recommend it for certain tools like a vise. The problem is those pins are very loose so things can rock back and forth. This can be unsafe if you are sawing/using a power tool on something in a hitch vice and it moves.

I tried two options for adding threads, both work but I trust one more. At first I drilled and tapped a 1/2-13 hole into the sidewall of the hitch receiver. While this works I was worried about the limited thread engagement stripping the sidewall over time. After some thinking I realized I could weld a nut over the large hole the hitch pin normally goes in. In order to do that I..

1. Sanded the rust and paint off near the old hitch pin hole.
2. Wore a mask and sanded the zinc plating off the nut on all sides. Please don't weld over galvanized coatings, they are very bad for you. Alternatively you could buy a weld nut which is what I am doing for the rest of my hitch receivers.
3. Clamped the nut in place over the hitch pin hole. I had a bolt threaded through the nut that I used to check the alignment with the hole.
4. Then I tack welded the nut in place.
5. Once tacked I welded most of the way around the nut, taking extra care not to melt the threads on the inside of the nut.

You can skip this step by using a just a normal bolt or by buying an adjustable Kipp style handle. I figured I had everything I needed to make this around the shop so why not send it.

1. I harvested a handle by cutting a spare wrench then sanded the end smooth.
2. I did a rough assembly composed of 3 nuts, 3 washers, a spring, some threaded rod, and wrench handle to test it out. I made sure to have enough thread sticking out from the top to go all the way through and past the nut welded on in the previous step. This is so it engages with the tools tubing, locking it in place.
3. Once it was adjusted I unscrewed each nut and put red lock tight under them before reassembling. Once cured the handle is ready. I was worried about the nut the wrench interacts with coming loose so I also used a center punch to mar the threads, further locking it in place.
4. The last two pictures show a side profile of the adjustable handle assembled and its two positions.

Seeing vises on the back of the trucks was the first time I saw a hitch mounted tool and it seems to be the most common one to find in the wild. I've made a few over the years, they all have strengths and weaknesses but gaining mobility was the goal with every iteration. Some of the benefits of hitch vises are..

1. You can remove the vise from the table in order to put a large piece on the table that overhangs and would normally hit the vise.
2. The vise can be rotated in 4 positions in the square receiver giving you more clamping positions.
3. You can get a trash can under it to catch fillings or dust from cutting stuff.
4. You can get a chair under the vise for working up close with something.
5. It can also be installed on your vehicle.

There is not much to making these mounts.

1. I used some old thick steel plate and 2x2 hitch ball mounts. My welder only has 200 amps so I preheated the parts a lot with a propane torch before welding this thick stuff.
2. I transferred the bolt pattern to the plates then drilled them out. I like to use a small pilot hole then come in with a stepped drill bit, stepped drill bits are very fast at drilling metal.

I included some pictures of the seldom used fabrication tools I put in my large vise like my sheet metal brake and mini slip roller. You could do this on a normal bench vise too, I just thought it was worth putting the ideas out there.

This swiveling positioner is my favorite hitch attachment I've come up with, an Instructable on how I made this this can be seen at this link DIY Ball Swivel for Vises and Work Holding

It uses a trailer ball pinched between two clamping jaws made out of old trailer ball mounts. There is a bolt that squeezes the jaws together and another bolt the moving jaw pivots on. This has a vise and a pair of vise grips I can swivel and flip around in no time. It's super useful for work holding parts in a funky position if you are welding, sanding, porting cylinders or grinding something. I'm sure there are other uses and attachments people from other trades would put on it.

A hitch mount is so practical for a tubing roller like this I can't recommend it enough. This roller is seldom used and needs a lot of space to be used effectively, because of that it's hard to justify having it in the shop sometimes. I'm here to enable your tool addiction by solving these problems with hitch adapted tooling. Some of the benefits are..

1. This adapter gets around low ceilings and is super sturdy.
2. It's a mobile fabrication tool. Go build some onsite greenhouses or something!
3. If you have limited shop space working with these tools outside can free up a lot space.
4. I welded a 2x2 receiver into my welding bench so I can roll smaller parts indoors if its rainy or cold. It also makes it super easy to take it off my truck and pop it on the bench if I need to make a run to the hardware store.

The last 4 images show a little seat cushion I made. It's just some foam and leather stapled to some plywood. I leave it in the tubing roller holder as a welding seat when I have the tubing roller in storage.

I made another instructable about 3D printing your own custom dies for this style of roller, it can be found here 3D Printed Dies Bending Steel Tubing

Swag offroad sells an adapter kit to replace the feed screw with a hydraulic jack. It can be easily modified at home without their kit, if you've made it this far chances are you could to that yourself.

My mini Jet arbor press is a great tool that I rarely use but when I need it its so nice. Because of this it was a good candidate for a hitch mount adapter, it's construction is very similar to how I made the vise adapters. It's so good at putting down force precisely it can replace a lot of jobs a hammer would do when it comes to punching holes, installing grommets, removing bearings, ect.

I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough and learned something along the way. Use the "I Made It!" button and share any hitch mounted tools you make! I'm curious to see what other hitch mounted tools y'all come up with. Thanks for reading and using instructables.