XJ - gas tank skid/receiver hitch combo

I pulled this green gas tank skid from a wrecked Jeep in a salvage yard in Chicago 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I've never installed it on my Jeep! As you can see, the mounting flanges for my trailer hitch and the skid are in conflict. This green skid plate has taken up far too much space in our apartment or in the back of the jeep for over 5 years - for far too long! Yesterday, I took the first steps towards doing something about it.

The problem was, I couldn't pull a trailer if I had the skid installed - and I couldn't have the skid installed if I had the hitch installed... ....so for a long time one or the other or both took up space in the living room of our 1 bedroom apartment. Yikes.

Taking up space in the living room:

When I ordered my tire carrier, it also conflicted with the same mounting locations as the skid and hitch! Now I had a real problem on my hands - I could only mount 1 of 3 very important accessories. And, all the space I freed up by getting my spare tire out of the back was immediately taken up by both the hitch and the skid!

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As you can see, the skid couldn't be mounted over the top of the hitch because doing such flared the flanges upwards and outwards due to the shared dimensions of the two accessories. This was one problem which prevented the bolts from lining up through both mounting flanges.

Another problem was that the center of the hitch conflicted with the skid, preventing the skid from laying completely flat against the frame rails.

So, I cut the mounting flanges off the skid! This was the first step in my plan is to weld the skid to the more durable hitch mounting system. It should work like a charm!

I spent some time taking measurements and carefully cutting to fabricate this nice and snug slot which allows the hitch the clearance it needs and enables the skid to lay flat. I will also weld along this slot to increase rigidity in the center of the skid. It should end up stronger than it was in it's stock configuration!

Before:

After:

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BEFORE: Conflicting mounting flanges had prevented me from installing both accessories.

AFTER: The skid's mounting flanges removed and a central hitch clearance notch has been created.

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I'll clean up the mounting surfaces with a wire wheel and my electric drill and angle grinder this week. Then, next weekend, I hope to get this project welded up, painted, and installed on the Jeep once and for all!

So, what took so long? Why didn't I get to this sooner? Well, until recently, I haven't had access to a welder, which is the critical part of this fabrication project - and now I do! My friend Carl Jarrett is helping me learn how to weld, and now I'm getting to these projects which have been lingering for years. It's a great feeling to learn something new. Carl is a wonderful teacher, and I told him that welding felt like performance art! It's all about the coincidence of perfection spanning a diverse array of techniques, movements, on-the-fly adjustments, heat, material thicknesses, speeds, angles, and even sounds! It is incredibly rewarding to truly learn something new - and something so fundamentally physical and scientific in nature - the bonding of steel! I'm very thankful for friends like Carl, who expose me to opportunity for exploration of my own curiosities, as well as furthered education and experience in exciting realms. 

Carl's Personal Website: 
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjarrettracing.ca%2F&ei=hIydT63yMsemiQKai4mJAQ&usg=AFQjCNGUmCOG8Ziy4fXdZUgf6gWMMPQLtw&sig2=NEh8YfbQ8nHZ5ualebH50A

Carl's Fabrication Website:
http://www.lucky-10.com/