rigging plate

Fairfield

Fairfield

Participating member
Location
Bucks County pa USA
Just came back from the metal shop with my new rigging plate. Made it up for a firs on scene rescuer. I wanted to make it faster in some way to get to a vicitim. Im sure there other situations that it could be used for also. Anyway here it the pic of it.
 
Plate can take up to a 2 5/16 ball and the screws are made from stainless with two spare on the plate in case you drop one in snow or mud or the abyss that some guys lose things in.
 
A word of caution about using a hitch ball as an anchor.

There has been more than one hitch ball broken when it was used as an anchor for pulling a stuck vehicle. In 4WD circles no one uses the ball. A large shackle is attached to the frame.

Walk through any parking lot and look at the bumpers of the pickups/vans/SUVs. They seem barely more durable than the fenders. When I see working trucks all of them have aftermarket bumpers made from plate steel.

If I was going to be doing any rigging from a vehicle I would have at least a frame mount receiver hitch. The van I had for gear had a receiver hitch on the bow and stern. It was nice to be able to rig using the bollard that I made as well as to push the chipper or trailer around on the front.

The rigging plate is very well crafted!
 
Banjo, I dont think I would rig anything off that hitch. I was just using it to show what it would look like. plus I like my truck bumper right where it is lol.

I am in compleate agreeance with Tom. There is a deffinate caution to what kind of hitch you will use with something like this. Thanks for the possitive feed back on it guys.

I will be sending it out to a guy in Ohio for final testing. The metal guy and my self are thinking it can hold at least 13,000 lbs, although like everything eles in a anchor system, that might not be your weakest point so always know what everything in a system can hold.
 
When looking at the plate you can see there is a small bar on top that is behind the ball. Unscrew the bar and place plate onto ball, then just screw bar back on. The screws dont have a nut attached there is no need. Also the lock bar is there for the possability of slack in a line and someone knocking it off. When the plate is loaded there is no chance of the plate coming off due to the slot that it is in. I will attach a pic without the bar.
 
Lumberjack, I would venture to say the best way to answer your question is to say that rigging will always be left up to imagination ( im sure thats nothing new). Although this is not a practical plate to use for such things as lowering sections of trunks, this is usefull in my eyes for light to medium rigging. I can see the practicality of having it in a parking lot or a place where you can get a truck but dont have any anchors or useable anchors ( saying you have a property that the customer frowns on tieing off to other stuff around for some reason.

On a side note, the space between the biener holes and the back slot hole for the ball is the same. Meaning one would be able to still use this in a normal manner as well. If one chosses not to use the slot with a biener the back two biener holes are there for that reason.

My original thought of making this plate was for a first responder say pulling up to a car over an embankment or bridge, can deploye this plate fast and have a rescuer with the victim in a short amount of time ( no fussing around with tieing an anchor to anything). Also I know that once a truck is used as an anchor on a rescue scene it is not to be moved. So now because of the plate being there, there is also a place to rig a MA for hauling.
 
Actually kinda like that design. Could have used that a month ago when I was skidding out logs off a hill over just using a heavy duty steel biner. Larger surface area to spread the stress of big loads. Unlike mine where the biner compromised it's safety by warping the plate slightly.
 
Basically it works just the same as a normal rigging plate. The only diffrence is that you can mount it onto a ball hitch. I can see some unwanted stress being applied to the plate and possibly ball if you have the rope running at a high angle off of it. Although if you are looking to say lift something in the tree ( lift a tip up or having to take slack ) you are then able to use the truck as your anchor with the MA between the truck and tree.

Also if you are looking to just have a secondary anchor for pulling I can see the effectiveness when possable to move the truck in the spot you need it. be right back have a call.
 
Sorry about that. It's nice in my mind to have a rigging plate that can be on something as solid as your truck in a pinch but also still be used in a normal fashion.
 
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