Glad it was of some assistance to you, HC.
I bought a whole swag of goodies at the last Repco sale. For a bit over $600, I got a load of stuff that normally costs well over $900. That ain't chicken feed savings in my books!
Also good to hear that the cutting out of the switch mounting frame went well for you.
You now know first hand what I have been stressing about how fragile the frame becomes as you remove more and more material. At the start, it seems very rigid and quite strong.
I don't know, and didn't want to find out the hard way, just how much force would be required to break it towards the end of the process.
I have been out on another buying spree today myself. Mostly at Bunnings, but bought a lockable ball for the hitch at SCA. Not the clamp type, but one that fits into the hitch ball socket, is expanded using a Allen key, then a lock is inserted into the access hole for the Allen key and locked in place. The lock does nothing except prevent access to the Allen key.
Simple, and more effective than the clamp type IMHO. It cannot be cut, forced or destroyed without also destroying the hitch ball socket!
Its one weakness is that it requires some care in fitting. I expect to get used to that as I use it more.
When attached to the car, I use the last link of the safety chains to lock the trailer onto the tow bar (not the ball tongue).
Nothing will prevent a determined thief, but one can make things as difficult as possible for the casual thief ... :iconwink:.
The main expense at Bunnings was buying a big 600 mm Kinchrome swaging tool for making security cables ($85). I have made a couple already. No way am I strong enough to have made them using the much smaller and cheaper tool. IIRC, it had 300 mm handles, so about 1/4 the leverage. The tool also has side cutters specially designed to cut braided steel cables, so can cut the roll of 4 mm plastic covered cable I bought to whatever length I need.
All the pre-made cables had locks (nothing keyed alike ... ), were too long (i.e. a bloody nuisance in use) and were made of that pre-coiled cable that is like trying to prise off a Boa Constrictor in use.
Also picked up a set of Kinchrome trim levers for about $19.
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:iconwink:.
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