A couple of thoughts:

Why make a sleeve when you can drill a new hole in the ball mount? Just
make sure you have half an inch or so of metal between the two holes.
You can choose whether to make the new hole on the inside or the outside
of the old hole after you get it milled down to fit.

With a trailer of less than 2000 pounds, you should be OK milling it
down to 1 5/8", even in Aluminum. However, if I was going to mill it
down I would start with a solid steel hitch. You can get steel hitches
with any desired offset, even 14 inches, if you look hard enough. Make
a few phone calls.

Richard



Ed Bailen wrote:
My Ford Aerostar has a Class II Reese receiver that sits quite low.
The top of the receiver box is only 10.5" off the ground. My new
Aliner trailer has the top of the ball socket 24" off the ground when
the trailer is level. OK, there's no way I'm going to get the trailer
level while towing, but I can get it quite a bit closer than it is
now.

The problem is that the Reese hitch is an oddball, orphan unit. The
receiver box is 1-5/8" square, and the hitch pin is 9/16" in diameter.
One option would be to cut my existing ball mount and extend it up for
a 10" rise by welding on sections of heavy angle iron. This would
make for a pretty heavy ball mount.

A second option might be an Alumistinger solid aluminum ball mount.
http://www.e-ampi.com/details.php?ProductID=331. This unit is sized
for a 2" receiver, but I was thinking I could mill 3/16" off each face
to reduce it to 1-5/8" over a length sufficient to fit in the receiver
tube. A ball end mill would radius the transition from 1-5/8 to 2" to
prevent stress concentration. I would also turn an bar for a light
press fit in the 5/8" hitch pin hole and then dirll it out for the
9/16" hitch pin.

In it's unmofified shape, the Alumistinger ball mount is rated for
14,000 GVWR and 1,400 tongue weight. My trailer is rated at 1840 GVW.

Questions:

1. Is the modification of the Alumistinger likely to be safe in this
application?

2. I have a small selection of anonymous metals laying about to make
the sleeve for the hitch pin. What would be the best (generic) metal
to use (aluminum, steel, or brass)?

Regards,
Ed Bailen