Adapting AT35 coupling to Reese # 67509

Anthony, Thanks for doing all of the leg work. What is required to make the 67509 fit with a Gen 4 BTi special? Thanks, tgintl/jay

Anthony Thanks for the info and your trouble running around today. As mentioned in the other thread I did bring home the R67509 last friday and I have the Gen 3-AT35 and yes it definitely won't fit without a lot of machineing and as you said 'you alter it you own it' but I was tempted. It's not a lot of work. But naturally one would probably change the mechanics of the product and should an accident occur naturally the insurance company would find a reason to drop u. So in the arvo i did take it back and exchange for the HR WDH. It fits fine and the van and LC sit great. I would be interested in your accessment though which would be the better WDH. I feel one would have better ground clearance with the R67509 and I do like the locking mechanism of the bars to the hitch. Welcome your further comments David

Anthony Saw the bunch of photos under 'Pictures'. I must buy a dig camera. Did you have any feed back from Vehicle Components re adapting the AT35 to the Reese 67509?

For all interested .... Pic AT3501 : This shows the 4 generations of footprint of the AT35. Gen 4 is the current one used by BTi. Pic AT3502 : Shows the Reese head with its adapter collar. The American ball threads are larger than ours so a collar is needed to take up the gap. Pic AT3503 : Shows a spacer sample I made in timber to adapt the Gen 3 to the Reese. The pins on the ears of this model still stop the coupling rotating. The problem here is that once the coupling is spaced up to clear the top lip of the Reese there is not enough thread left on the AT35 3/4 stud to attach nut and lock washer. According to VC the stud cant be lengthened. Pic AT3504 : Shows my original AT35 Gen 1 and is an easy fix to attach to the Reese. The 10mm hole you see in the coupling base is there to hold the coupling from rotating under load. This area of the coupling base can be machined off (about 12mm) and the coupling base will then slip down onto machined area of Reese head. The AT35 is then against the head lip so it will not rotate under load. No weld has been touched and the Reese has not been altered. A 3mm spacer is required between AT35 and Reese's head to lift AT35 above machining edge. This spacer still leaves enough thread to attach AT35 with lock washer and still have a few threads past nut. AT3505 : Is a side view of above and you can see how little is needed to be taken off for AT35 to slip down onto Reese head. AT3506 : Is the Gen 4 (BTi model). You could also machine off the end of this version and it would slip down onto Reese head with minimal material removal. It has the hole for the anti-rotate bolt and this would be removed but as it would sit against the shoulder of the Reese head this would stop it rotating. A 3mm spacer would still be required to keep AT35 above machining edge ... there is enough thread for nut and lock washer to go on. AT3507 : This is a top view of above (Gen 4 BTi model) to see how little material has to be removed to fit it down past shoulder. AT3508 : This shows the Reese head where the AT35's sit. Another possibility is to machine off 10-12 mm of the lip above the mounting surface allowing the full length of the AT35 to go on. This only removes a small amount of material from the Reese head in an area that is above the machined mounting surface. In my opinion this would be ok but I'm no engineer. This mod is the only way to get all Generations of the AT35 to fit on with a slight mod to the Gen 3 to remove anti-rotating pins to enable it to sit flat against machined surface. A 3mm spacer is still required to keep AT35 above machined lip. It is possible to fit an AT35 to the Reese head without any machining or alteration of either AT35 or Reese head. The only way is to use a Gen 2 that had a bolt and nut that attached it to the heads not a welded in stud. This would allow a spacer to be made like in Pic AT3503. The lack of thread to put nut on would be overcome by obtaining a longer bolt and doing it up from underneath. The nut would be in the AT35 coupling and the bolt would be "thread up" position not thread down. If it was me I'd be removing material from around the anti-rotating bolt hole as this small amount of material removal does not affect the strength of the AT35 especially as it does not touch a weld. The anti-rotating properties of the coupling are still retained by butting against the head edge. The reason why the AT35 base is so long, is to drill and fit the anti-rotating bolt (In Gen 3 its done by ears and fitted pins) if it does not rotate because it butts against a shoulder this material should be able to be removed. Obviously check with vehicle components. They have offered to make any sort of spacer/collar to adapt the AT35's to the Reese head. If I submit drawings they will machine it up. I not sure if any Reese agent or Vehicle Components would say to machine off any material from either units "officially" so the brick wall remains "officially". I'm going back into vehicle components to discuss it Thursday or Friday. Just as a side note ..... the fitment of the Reese head to my F250 ran into problems. If I had the AT35 on top of the a-frame plate the bars would still hit and when putting the head in the lowest hole, clearing the bars, the BT was in too far of a downward angled position. When the AT35 was underneath the plate and the head in the bottom hole the BT chassis was 40mm up from parallel in the front. So back to my double head Hayman Reese and just remove it when going in the rough. Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker