i had an old cross-bed pickup truck storage box sitting by the side of my house wasting space, so i decided to build a frame to allow me to mount it in the trailer hitch. I found an ebay seller that sells basically scraps of metal for $3-4 (shipping's the big cost here, but it's still cheaper than if I was to buy locally), but that's all i needed for my little project. I used 2" square, 1/8" wall tubing throughout.

McMaster-Carr has some rubber strips to isolate the box from the frame, as well as 4-conductor cable and assorted hardware that I used.

No picures of the project in progress, but there wasn't much to it- weld the metal into a "T" shape, drill holes, bolt the box to the frame, run some wiring, and mount stop/turn/tail lamps. The trailer pigtail was under the rear seat of the Jeep when I bought it- lucky me :)

I also had a Maglite mount installed, so it's getting used again, and I also mounted a gooseneck lamp to make it easier to find stuff inside the box in the dark.

I intend to use this box to transport camping gear- throw the tent, sleeping bags, etc in the box and mount it up, then when I get to the campsite, pull the hitch pin and drop the box wherever I'm stopped :)

On to pics of the completed project!

blingin' with the clear LED tails.
http://home.earthlink.net/~cbremer/box1.jpg

view underneath
http://home.earthlink.net/~cbremer/box2.jpg

slightly different angle
http://home.earthlink.net/~cbremer/box3.jpg

inside the box- note the gooseneck and not-quite-complete wire routing :P :
http://home.earthlink.net/~cbremer/box4.jpg

detail of taillamp installation (grommet mounted, but I'm going to run a bead of sealant just to be sure):
http://home.earthlink.net/~cbremer/box5.jpg

STOP! :D :
http://home.earthlink.net/~cbremer/box6.jpg


when empty, the whole thing is light enough that I can mount it by myself- of course, it's a little easier with another pair of hands. all wiring is/will be held in place by Goop adhesive. a couple more things I may add is one or two back-up lights on a relay (the trailer pigtail is 7-wire, meaning there is a back-up light lead that can energize the relay) and some tie-down loops so I can lash small, light items to the "roof" of the box.

The only downside is that, when the box is mounted, I can't open the tailgate :(

holy smokes dude! you ready to run that on the rubicon? :D :)
looks great!

Chuck man, thats really cool! I'd like to do something like that for my TJ. You could probably lower the whole assy. alittle to gain access to the tailgate. In all, looks good mang!!:D

Be careful coming out of driveways, you will drag your butt. I have something similiar but with a rack instead of a box. Mine has a 7" rise to keep it from dragging.

thats pretty sweet! nice fab work! how did you find the scrap metal on ebay?

Chuck that's great.

I would like to add though that IMS (Industrial Metal Supply) in Sun Valley has every type if metal you could need.

A 2" x 10' x .12 (11gauge) is only around $8.00.

They also sell remnants, which is great for those kind of projects you just did. Remnants are $0.47/pound for tubing and around $0.39/pound for structural (channel, t's, angle) They also sell precut gussets and weld on tabs and yadda yadda - more shit than you can even think of uses for.