This weekend’s project was a storage box for my growing collection of receiver hitches.  (I know they’re rusty, but it will be easier to keep them clean once I can store them off the garage floor!)

Receiver Hitches in Storage Box

The only thing I could find that was remotely close to what I wanted was this Ball Mount Storage Receiver Caddy that is meant to store them in the bed of your truck.  (Note to self:  buy more stainless steel accessories so the pictures look nicer in the future)

While this looks like a nice product, I was looking to store them out of the way someplace in my garage, not my truck bed.  My main issue is the fact that I have 2 large hitches.  One is an adjustable pintle hitch, the other is just an adjustable ball mount.  Both are very large and heavy, so a standard plastic storage case was out of the question.

I had some scrap wood laying around from a desk I salvaged, so I decided to use that make a box to store these in.  The desk material was 1″ actual thickness pine (5/4″ nominal).  I’m pretty sure this would work just fine if made from standard 1-by lumber that is 3/4″ thick, too, but I like using free salvaged wood for projects.

Design:
This is one of the few projects that was so simple I didn’t draw it in CAD.  I just layed the parts out on the floor, tried fitting them together a few ways, and ended up liking how they looked when layed out in a 10″ x 20″ rectangle.  I made the box 10″ high inside to accommodate the height of the 2 large hitches, and this left enough room for me to put in 2 additional standard sized drop hitches.

Prep Work:
Again, since this was a simple box, all I did was rip the boards down to width on the table saw, then crosscut to length.  Since the boards already had a finish on them, I did a quick sanding of all of the edges since I applied wood glue and wanted a good bond.

Assembly:
I want this box to be super-strong and last forever, so I chose 3 methods to join it:  18 gauge Brad nails, Wood Glue, and 2″ countersunk screws.  The brad nails don’t really add much strength, but they do make it much quicker to assemble the glued joints and make it easy to wait and screw the box together.  If you don’t have an air nailer, I can highly recommend adding it to your list of tools.  It saves soooo much time!

The final touch was to add a rope handle to each end.  I did this by drilling 1/2″ holes through the sides of the box, running the rope through, and tying knots in each end.  All that’s left to do is find some hinges and a latch to put the top on, and this box will be done!