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Front hitch / Snow plow (good this time) install for ML350
For those of you that saw my previous thread about putting a front hitch on a snow plow (which will soon have a message saying DON'T DO THIS, with a link to come here) - know that that proposal did not work well, although it did get me through a season of plowing, maybe 15 times.
Let me just start by saying that this project is not for everyone and it was not my favorite thing to do. When it comes to working on cars I'm a very procedural, Kent-Bergsma, WiS reading dork. This will require a lot of outside-the-box thinking and a bit of improvisation at times. It is indeed fun in it's own respect, but only when it's over and you figured it out. It was very frustrating at times and you are doing a lot of non-Mercedes Benz heinous things like cutting and drilling metal which can seem like forever and educates you on drill bit management and about $100-200 of materials in that respect, less if you're smart (which I'm not.)
Also eye protection. I got two shards of metal in my eye. You would think that after the first one I would not be caught without my safety glasses, but that is why I am who I am.
Obviously there is no front hitch made for this vehicle (that I could find or am aware exists) - so after a lot of looking at hitches for other vehicles and taking measurements, products returns - I'm talking like a few weeks here - I found this:
The first thing you'll need to do is drill holes in the frame after you have settled on a good location. There really only is a few viable options, and by a few I think I really mean one. After the holes are drilled, you send fishing line on carriage bolts with a square punched bracket that will hold it up there. Check out etrailer videos on this if you don't know what I mean.
To make the holes you will want to use black oxide bits (do not waste your time and money on titanium for this.) What I was doing is drilling a pilot hole, and then incrementally going up so I didn't stress the 1/2" bit (which is the final destination to get the bolt in.) You will likely want to make this hole actually 5/8" of an inch to give you some wiggle room when you go to put the hitch on. The reason for this is it's really hard to get both perfectly parallel, so you'll want to be able to slightly shimmy it . This is where I chose to mount it. Hard to reference it any other way.
Whoever invented fishing wire deserves the Nobel Prize (if the Nobel Prize still meant anything.)
The kit comes with the line which I taped to a piece of sacrificial LAN cable. You'll want to remove this cover thing on the bumper (not sure it's name) to access the passenger side hole easier:
Then you can proceed to fish it in. This takes a bit of patience and a straightened coat hanger, a magnet pick up tool, and music that keeps you calm but concentrated (like dungeon synth!) - all really help.
On the driver's side you aren't going to get lucky with an access hole (so you don't need to remove that cover piece.) It is however possible, just a bit more difficult.
Two tips here:
1) As mentioned earlier, make the holes bigger than required
2) The square bracket / washers that come with it actually need to be cut to fit in the channel . You can pretty much take a 1/4" off each side with an angle grinder. I should have documented this but it was 8 cuts and one of the road blocks that made me forget about photos.
When you have the bolts in place with the nuts on so they don't sneak back out you can put the side brackets up and do a test fit of the hitch by sliding it one side and then into the other.
Now you might be asking, why not just put the whole thing together, and hold it up with a jack to find where it can mount, and then start all the drilling fun then.
The answer is there are things in the way. I also didn't want to commit to where I drill on the hitch to secure the frame in (the places where you customize the length.) :
At this point you should be able to determine where you can cut the piece. It is actually possible to keep it at it's full length and it won't interfere with anything. The reason i decided to cut it was just in case something happened, I wanted the length to be clear of the front tires (which it was not without cutting.)
I just used an angle grinder with a warrior / harbor freight grinding blade. (check out Project Farm's youtube vid on best blades if you are serious about it. all his videos are awesome.)
Finally you have to drill the holes that secure the hitch to the the frame pieces and that part is not fun at all.
You have to get to a final width of 5/8" and as you can see this steel is pretty thick, more than the bumper/frame steel.
I used a combination of pilot drills (black oxide) and then alternating between a DeWalt 5/8" bit and a Cobalt step bit (two, after breaking one) - the step bit is also great for the frame drilling btw. Just make sure you put the step bit in an IMPACT driver. My weak makita was perfect. For some reason they don't take as well to the higher RPM drills.
I think this was the DeWalt
I had to sharpen the drill bit several times while doing this, and for drill bit sharpening I recommend simply holding it to one of these at a thirty degree angle and moving up :
Then you test the bolts and make sure everything lines up :
Installation as stated previously is putting the side brackets in first and securing them loosely. Then sliding in the center piece to one side in the other, which will require some Coastal grease, or Alamaba Sauce of your choice to make sure it slides through. It may need some taps with a mallot, as again things are not perfectly parallel and you can tighten everything down.
110 ft lbs against the frame
210 ft lbs for the adjustment bolts (which is an insane amount of torque that I did not apply, I'll just be checking that from time to time, its not going anywhere I promise.)
And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, months of working slow and figuring this out, just in time for the rain as the snow is gone - and no drooping flaccid looking previously failed bumper hitch. As Dr. Steve Brule would say, it is a perfectly erect peness. For your health.
It is barely noticeable on the ground. I had the vehicle on ramps as I'm going to replace the transmission gasket, you can actually see it from this angle (excuse the sun.)
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