is aluminum strong enough?

[Wizard765]

So I want to make a small carrier for the back of the bike to put into the receiver hitch (thank you Carbon One for an excellent product0 Anyhow I was hoping the make the whole think out of aluminum. 1 1/4" square aluminum tubing strong enough? For the shaft that goes into the receiver? I'm guessing the max weight I would ever put on it is 50 lbs.

[Carbon_One]

Two things come to mind on whether it'll be strong enough.

One is the thickness of the tubing being used in the receiver, and its length.

Two would be the overall size of the carrier itself and the size of the material being used.

At 50 lbs max weight I don't really see any problems.

Larry

[ditchdoctor]

Something like this

[Oldseadog]

1 1/4" aluminum will be strong enough especially if you use T6 aluminum. T6 is tempered and quite a bit tougher than regular 3000 or 5000 series aluminum. T6 is a bit harder to work with but not too bad, you just need to be careful if you are bending it. If you are not hot enough the aluminum will break instead of bending. It is easy enough to weld, and of course you can drill and bolt it easily as well. I've seen carriers on the back of SUVs holding up to 500 lbs, made out of aluminum. I hope this helps.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

They use it in airplanes and cars and trucks...I'm guessing it will be.

 

 

In fact, I made one out of aluminum many years ago. Using the right square tubing it will support more than you will need.

 

[Wizard765]

Thanks guys this is great.. one more thing then.. can I mix T6 with another type of aluminum? can they be welded? Like use the T6 for the stinger and regular aluminum for the angle frame and expanded mesh for the floor and weld it all together?

[Flyinfool]

The first thing that come to mind is that for the part that goes into the receiver the square aluminum will not fit.

If the receiver is made out of steel tubing, it will have rounded corners, the aluminum tubing will have sharp square corners. By the time you round off the corners of the aluminum to fit into the receiver the wall thickness will be to thin for safety.

On the one that I am making I will be using all aluminum except that the part that goes into the receiver will be steel tube bolted to the rest of the frame.

 

Yes you can weld different alloys of aluminum together, just make sure that all of the alloys you are using are weldable, some do not weld well.

Ideally you will want to get the aluminum anodized after all welding and drilling is done, using different alloys can give weird results when anodizing. Anodizing adds a lot of corrosion protection, can be done in clear or almost any colors, wears well, or is a great base to paint over.

 

I am using all 6061-T6 and 6063-T6 aluminum to build my frame. These two are very similar in strength and weldability and anodize well.

 

The strength is more in the design than the material used.

[speakerfritz]

So I want to make a small carrier for the back of the bike to put into the receiver hitch (thank you Carbon One for an excellent product0 Anyhow I was hoping the make the whole think out of aluminum. 1 1/4" square aluminum tubing strong enough? For the shaft that goes into the receiver? I'm guessing the max weight I would ever put on it is 50 lbs.

 

 

I was going to make on from scratch. then I thought of cutting done a car one. then I thought modify a large hitch step. then I said just buy one from someone whos been making them for a while, provides plate and tail light relocation and other goodies.

 

bougth it from mchitch