Thanksgiving Dinner and Attaching the Tow Bar on the New Bumper.

Thanksgiving Dinner.

Thursday around 2:00 I started fixing the Nopalitos (pork and cactus stew). Once that was done Patti made up a batch of Mexican Rice to go with the Nopalitos.

At 3:30 we went to Cheryl and Dennis’s. Just two doors down the street from us.
Becky and Dennis were already there.
We sat around and visited for a while then around 4:30 we sat down for our Southwestern Thanks giving Dinner. It turned out great and for dessert Cheryl made some individual Chocolate Lava Cakes . . . yummm.

After supper we played cards until around 9:30. Around 10:00 we went home full and happy.

Friday.

Attaching the Tow Bar.

Yesterday I decided to see what I had to do to attach the tow bar to the new bumper.

The tow bar is just about one and a quarter inches too narrow to match up with the D-ring bosses that are on the bumper.
I studied the situation for a while and decided to use several large washers to make up the difference in width.
The hole in the boss is 1” the pins for the tow bar are 5/8” so I have to try to come up with something to act as a reducer bushing.

I went to Herb’s Hardware and got ten 5/8” fender washers and two 1”X3/4” Galvanized reducer bushing.

When I got back home I tried to attach the tow bar.
The reducer bushing was to large to go through the hole in the boss by just the depth of the threads. I tried to file down the threads but my file is old and kind of dull. I decided to see if Dennis had a bench grinder that I could use to grind the threads down. As it turned out he only had an angle grinder. I clamped the grinder in the vice and proceeded to grind the threads off the bushings.

It took a couple of tries but eventually I got the bushing to fit the hole in the boss.

Here you can see the connection.

I attached the tow bar to the bumper but it wiggled a lot since the hole in the bushing is 3/4” and the pins that attach the tow bar to the bumper are 5/8”.
Some of the wiggle was because the washers were sliding against each other.
I went back to Herb’s and got some JB Weld quick set epoxy.
When I got home I epoxied the loose washers together so they would be one piece. That helped some but the pin is still a little sloppy.

I decided that I would have to think about how to proceed from here.
If I was home I could turn out the parts that I need on my lathe but down here I don’t have anything to work with except some hand tools.

I’ll have to sleep on it maybe in the morning I will have a solution.

Saturday Morning.

When I woke up this morning, I decided that what I needed to do was to replace the pins with 5/8 x 4” Grade 8 bolts and lock nuts. That way I can take up the slack and the tow bar should be a lot more stabile. 
I went to Herb’s this morning and got the bolts and nuts. I put the bolt through the holes and tightened the nuts up just tight enough to hold everything together.
That took care of the wiggle. The tow bare is good and stable now.

Here is how the connection looks now.

Here is the whole thing.

When I get home this spring, I’ll do a better job but this should work to get the jeep home.

Now all I will have to do is put the bumper on the jeep.

A Crescent Moon.

Patti got this cool picture of the moon last evening.