I work in the building manitainence profession. I do all the maintenance on 9 group homes and a commercial building, and I carry a great deal of tools and supplies on my truck to minimize need to drive to suppliers and such. I use a pack rat in bed slide out drawer unit to hold a lot of tools. During non winter months it's on obviously a non issue gaining access to it. However in the winter when I run a hitch mount western salt spreader I have to remove the whole spreader (pain in the *** awkward and heavy) anytime I need access to the slide out.

Well after a little browsing snowplow forums forums I found a neat idea for a swing away mount. I took the idea and changed a few things and tailored it to my specs and took the truck and drawing to a fabrication and welding place we use and came up with this:

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The main change I made in design from the guy I got the idea from is that it slides on and off the truck via the hitch, and a additional saddle arm that saddles the outter end o the hitch to give it side to side bracing to prevent wobble. With the one western hitchmount the spreader wobbled like crazy and drove me nuts. Even with ratchet straps. Only thing I need to change is add a stop at 90* so it doesn't swing into the side of my truck if parked on an angle
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I like it!

 

Very clever. I have a truck just dedicated for my tailgate spreader,really a waste. Feel free to make another