Nifty Removeable Cooler Frame

Nifty Removeable Cooler Frame Dale Freeman doesn’t believe in wasted space. When he found room under his backhoe seat for a cooler, he put it to use. As with his chainsaw holders (Vol. 50, No. 3), he used a receiver hitch mount so it’s removable. To access the cooler, he simply tips his seat forward. “I welded a 1 1/2-in. receiver hitch to the chainsaw holder on the backhoe and fabricated the cooler-holding frame with 1 1/4-in. square tubing on the underside,” says Freeman. “I just pull one clip to remove the frame and the cooler.” He was surprised when he first lifted the seat to check the available space. “I discovered an equipment manual for the backhoe in a plastic holder under the seat,” says Freeman. “I had another manual and didn’t know the plastic-covered one was there. Removing it gave me another 3 in. of space.” After selecting a cooler that would fit the space, Freeman designed the frame. He used four 3/8-in. bolts for the cooler frame’s vertical elements, double-nutted the ends, and welded them to two 1-in. wide, 1/4-in. steel flat stock pieces for the base. He then welded half-inch round stock to the top of the bolt heads to complete the frame.  He attached the frame’s flat steel stock base to the 1 1/4-in. square tubing using countersunk flat head bolts. The bolts allow the cooler to lie flat on the base. Freeman added a drawer-handle-style footman loop to the front of the cooler lid to make it easier to open. “I used a rubber rivet with a nut inside,” says Freeman. “The rivet expands as the nut is tightened, locking the loop in place. I get them from Valley Fasteners, one of the best places to get bolts and fasteners.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Freeman, Monroe, Va.

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