I would like to know how this man has so much knowledge about all the things he does. It always amazes me when he is able to explain the things he is talking about. I hope to be as knowledgeable as he is one day.

I had one frozen on an r/v. We oiled it, beat on it, torched it, pulled on it, hooked it to a tree and tried to rip it out and NOTHING, it was in there forever!!!! About a year later I pulled the pin and it came right out!

"...the car is totaled, but we saved the cigarette lighter..." Steve Martin, 1978

I found myself 1000+ miles away from the action, sitting at my desk watching this operation when I realized I was slowly backing away from my monitor in fear the thing would bust loose and come right out of the screen at me. Suspense at it's very best. Well done!

The next best way to get it out is to hook a trailer to it and drag it down the freeway. Just as you get mid stream of a funeral precession on one side and a school bus full of old people and kids on the other, it’ll let go.

Next time try welding the hitch on - it'll come right off when you don't expect it to!

The only man I've ever known to have won the battle with a rusted in hitch. You fill my life with hopes and dreams.

And thus he was crowned king of Canada.

We must never repeat the error of forgetting this experience, until after next winter when we leave it in the reciever for another fucking go around.

It's not about success or failure. It's about reframing your goals. You almost had a mobile hydraulic cylinder test bench.

AvE is one of the only people on the planet that can make me safety squint at a computer monitor. Vids like these, the jack-all vid with the shipping container, and the milling machine coming down the flat bed with strap wrenches got me puckered long distance. Well done man.

Well, that was exciting 😁 Much more fun watching someone else's sketchy hydraulic set ups than squinting in shear terror at my own.

"Train wheels don't ever fly off" *HEAVY FORESHADOWING*

Easy way in three steps; 1 hook up the most expensive thing you have that will fit the hitch. 2 DO NOT attach safety chains. 3 tow expensive item at any speed above 20mph. Hitch is guaranteed to pop loose.

Been there and I can honestly say I'm impressed at your dedication to get the dang thing out. In the past I had access to dry ice and it worked well to remove hitches jamb enough into the center of the tube and heat the outer tube and it popped out with a few good blows from a 20 pound sledge hammer

Folks who don't live in areas that are inundated with rust will NEVER truly understand these simple joys in life. The absolute joy of a simple five minute job turning into two and a half afternoons of busted knuckles, three packs of cut-off wheels, and the most creative frothing at the mouth vocabulary that children probably shouldn't witness. Ah yes, I wouldn't trade it for anything. These times of trial and torment make us stronger men.

The most intriguing part of this whole fiasco is, how did the Depot bucket come in at the perfect height?

"Honey can you take the hitch thing off the car?" "Sure honey" 10 hours later "I sold the car"

When you apply heat, you'd want to heat the receiver around the outside, so that it expands out and away from the hitch shaft. Looked like you were applying the heat to the shaft thus making the shaft expand and tightening the grip the receiver had on it.

“Because it’s constrained within this socket- this is a trailer hitch”. Idk why you explained that to the astute among us, but there’s probably people who didn’t actually know that and that makes me happy and mad at the same time.

The creaking of the pump handle sounds exactly like danger.

As a younger man, I recall chaining the ball to a big red pine and driving away as fast as I could in 4bye as long as the chain would let me. That didn’t work either. Tried kroil every day for over a month. Put the porta power on much like your setup. Ended up putting the pin back in and using it as a permanent fixture as long as I owned the truck

What’s more impressive is the safety chain loop

I love it! AvE, you are truly fond of the "Accident waiting to happen" crowd! 😁🙃 I liked looking at all the carnage on the ground, made my day.

use pneumatic hammer hitting rusty elements with water pouring on a rusty place. works perfect in Polish coal mines. Greetings from Poland.

I would have just tied the hitch to a tree and drove towards a cliff. The hitch would immediately release to give me the best chance possible of driving off the cliff. The trick is to get close enough to the cliff to trick the hitch into letting go but not close enough to go off the actual cliff.

I love how he gets closer when it gets more dangerous. I can tell you I was using my safety squint while watching the video.

I’ve never squinted whilst watching a KZfaq video before! Thanks AvE.

I've battled this before at work, I've found that hitting it in deeper first to break the rusty bond a little and start the crust to powder reaction can really aid. Once it moves a little the wrong way it'll move a little the right way, works for bolts too. Sometimes you gotta tighten a little to loosen a lot. I know it sounds very counterintuitive but trust me it does work some of the time. A big pneumatic hammer with the force of a gun shot 1800 times a minute really aids in getting rust to pass back into the earth from whence it came. Turns out Copco makes something good besides that strap, 7X and up air rivet hammer guns. You want the .498 shank stuff, it'll turn steel into playdough, ears into mush, and fingers...lets not talk about that. Honest, it grew back just fine!

Managed an RV Park for a time. Bought and sold several RV's and it seems to be standard to have a rust frozen hitch. After many variations to remove the hitch I fell on the formula of lots of oil and a pneumatic needle gun for removing paint from metal. Never took more than 30 minutes after stumbling on that. As far as I can figure the hundreds of rapid hits from the needle gun pulverized the rust and let's the oil penetrate with the aid of an air nozzle to blow the oil into the hitch Cheers!

Half the time I’m not even sure what you’re saying but the way you talk/think rarely fails to make me smile

All my limited experience with rust and stuck things is that driving it both ways, whether in-out or forward-reverse, and some hefty percussive vibration is an immense help. Aside from the standard cocktail of heat, penetrating oil, and a prayer to Saint Eligius.

I'm mostly impressed with those little chain hookup ears on the receiver not bending all that much under so much load!

been there... my method was very similar, however, I didn't have hydraulics to bring into it, so I put the truck on a steep down slope in neutral with a tow strap around a tree to stop it rolling more than 3 feet, and used another tow strap on the ball to put it under tension and just wailed on it with a 10 lbs sledge till it popped out, it took an entire afternoon.

You know it’s sketchy as frig when you’re drawing away from your phone so you don’t get hurt when it finally gives.

Your an inspiration to one handed men everywhere 😊.

I had my safety squints on the entire duration of that film

All you need to do is put something of great value hooked on to it and drive a few miles. Works every time.

I've been watching this guy for years and every video I watch never ceases to amaze me, you are my hero.... DAD

What would also work is grab a sawzall, cut the square tube an inch from the end of the receiver - then insert the blade straight in and make linear cuts on the top and bottom. The kerf opens up room for the tube to move once you pound in a chisel and the 1” tongue you left gives something to grab onto. Worst case 4 cuts will do it - so have some spare blades on hand…

Holy crap, there's a lesson in there, but I'm darned if I know what it is.

I dub thee King Arthur

I can hear the encouragement "you have a youtube show showing off all your skills and tools and you cant take the hitch off my car" the wife can talk us into anything!

Whoever did the welding on those safety chain anchors is the real hero of this story!

Watching this video was like watching the movie “The Wages of Fear” where every little bump and sound increases the suspense, knowing that this thing could blow any second. I halfway wondered if you were even pumping, or just playing the sound over and over to to tighten thousands of sphincters across youtube-dom….

Been in this situation myself once. Tied to tree and yank, come along, heat and beat all for nothing. 15 years of Florida sun and salt had done me in. That’s when pops said go get me some chain. Had about 12’ of heavy chain from the farm. Wrapped it around the draw bar and ball a couple times. Dad said put some slack in the chain and give it a good flip. Did this twice and darn thing just popped right out like nothing was wrong. The kinetic energy of 12’ of chain being flipped or flicked or whatever you want to call it is unbelievable. Dad said he saw a guy yank the rear end out of old car doing this trick. Definitely one for the ol mental tool box. Giver a shot. You may be surprised!!

The more ridged your setup got the more I found myself backing away from the screen! Entertaining as always.

Brings back memories. I learned from that event not to leave the hitch in the receiver. Had to remove entire assembly and replace.

Timing is great. Just yesterday I took a couple rags soaked in Evap-o-Rust, wrapped them around a similar (but more delicate) kind of winter seize-up, and then used a generous amount of Saranwrap to isolate the science experiment from the rest of the world. After seeing this effort by you, I think I will wait an extra day before I peel back all my wishful thinking.

5 mins with the sawzall, cut it flush then cut down the length inside the socket, split it in two

“Do some of my best work single handed” Ok you earned your like for this video

This happened to me once. I tried everything I could think of to get it out. I got desperate and chained it to a tree. As soon as the chain lifted off the ground the damn thing fell out. I spent all day trying to get it out and it just fell out without a fight. I didnt know if I should of been pissed or relieved.

I don't know, I'm a little disappointed you didn't skip strait to the backhoe after a few taps.

There's few things more exhilarating than the potential for catastrophic failure. 😳

I don't know how or even why this landed on my front page, but I enjoyed watching this.

The heat you put into it with the welding is what helped release it the most 🙌

Had one stuck like this on one of those OSHA approved forklift contraptions that lets you legally tow something with a forklift. The guys were banging on it with a sledge and even tried pushing it out from the backside with a 20-ton bottle jack and a piece of pipe that slid into the back of the reciever. It wouldn't move and just snapped the 4x6 that we were using to push against. As almost an afterthought I tried my IR 119 max with the bottle jack pushing on it and that got her out in less than 2 minutes. Rust is one hell of a drug but vibration is its kryptonite. Works on semi truck brake drums too. Use a porta power to the frame to apply some pressure to the side of the stuck drum and then start banging on the outside with the air hammer and she'll pop off in no time.

Auto mechanic here. Those hitches are indeed held on with usually 4-6 bolts through the frame. Some of them are a bitch to put on, for the engineers (specifically the GM ones) legitimately seem to hate us technicians.

I find that just heating a nice cherry line across the receiver tube works good. That technique works really good with any type of socket. Especially when dealing with alot of steel and don't want the heat to spread. The line allows even expansion across the length of the tube

Had the same problem a month ago. I spent two weeks soaking it with pb blaster morning, lunch break, after work. Used my biggest come-along and sledgehammer,... tied to a tree, and was able to finally pull it out. Those suckers weld fast.

This will be my example from here on out when anyone questions why I keep my hitch under the back seat of my truck when it is not in use.

Had the same welded hitch, but on an old 3/4 ton. Chained the hitch to a tree, and did the o' back and forth. Didn't lose my back window, but I did ruin the bolts holding the bed on, and ended up having to weld that back on afterwards.

We in Texas would welcome you and your family, wholeheartedly, whenever you escape Canada. Nevertheless, thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world. Godspeed, sir.

I assembled train wheels to axles for quite a few years. Heat em to 750 degrees before dropping the axle. When the white collars forget their place and want to watch you at work, slip a cat turd from the oil dry bin on the wheel before dousing with 10 gallons of water. Its a steam you will never forget. Cleared the shop many times that way.

Once again you've done it Chris ! Bumble fixed And broke the glue toob Algo ?😲 As I type the vijaeo has 792 views And .. 2600 likes . 🤔👍. You Sir have boggled my mind.

I've been right there. Not having hydraulic jacks in my repertoire, I cut off the offending protrusion close to the receiver. Then used a reciprocating saw to make a relief cut inside the tube. It only took one and I was able to pry it out

Thanks for showing both what worked and what didn't work this time. Another entry for the "Everyone who isn't a fucking danger to themself should learn to weld. Badly."

Last week we had some trouble onsite with a drain grate rusted on all four sides. Gatic lifters didn't work. The small cracker helped until it reached the end of its travel. We ended up ratchet strapping my come along to the back of the service truck and putting a bottle jack under the tow hitch to stop the suspension compressing. Up she came and after a de-scale and some grease, she went back in like butter.

I had the same problem, ended up cutting it off flush with a sawsall equipped with a carbide blade, then a couple diagonal cuts on the inside to remove the remaining parts. It wasn't coming out any other way.

I’m from Mn the only time those bastards come out is at a boat landing even when installed by backing into a tree, I tell you it’s magic.

Ave is so used to shaking hands with danger, he just fist bumps now.

I had a similar situation where a freshly installed wheel hub on my bmw had made an almost unbreakable connection to the steel rim. Applied heat, cold, all sorts of shmoo and raw force. I even drove the car without any bolts on that particular wheel doing sharp turns and it refused to let go still. At the end of the day the rim was completely fubar'd so i was down 1 rim and since then bought a new set of alloy wheels because they wouldn't stick that hard under any circumstances. It turned out that the center of the hub was absolutely bone dry. no fluid had any chance to pass inside. It was truly welded together. Lessons learned: 1) Never swap a wheel hub before winter and if necessary cut down the hub a few mils 2) you can safely drive around without bolts if properly rust-welded. saves weight! 3) just drive alloys. duh. 4) german engineering and the obsession with tight tolerances isn't always great...

Christ on a bike, midway through the video I started thinking maybe Dewclaw welded it as a joke

I had to deal with that once. Spent hours toiling away with a torch and hammer. I eventually drilled a hole that allowed me to get a pry bar behind it. Ridiculous amount of work for so little reward.

That was the most suspenseful, nail-biting AvE vijayo I've watched in quite a while.

Been there, done that. I chained my truck to a tree and then used one of those tie down chain ratchets to make the chain TIGHT. Then, I wacked the hitch with a sledge until it made an awful SNAP and then the hitch finally came out of the receiver. Funny thing is, I hit that hitch with a grinder until it slid in an out of the receiver with no problem, but It STILL got stuck being in there only for a few months. Just the curse of rusty New York.

I was pretty sure we were going to see the remnants of the hitch-pin you forgot to remove... Lolz!

I find that by heating the outer part, then I sprayed the contact area with liquid ranch, heat up the outside again, then using liquid CO2 by inverting the bottle on the inside part, then pull it apart. Method also has worked well for me with galled stainless steel threads

Stoked to see the atlas copco strap! A staple and lifesaver in underground mining

All I can say is you def earned that win

I was watching this with safety squint engaged, waiting for something to go plop really fast into an unknown direction. Probably a shin, the camera or the baby maker. If you’re lucky, all three in rapid succession. Happy that that did not happen. Well done with sticking to it Uncle B o7

If this were in a real manufacturing environment there would be at least 10 guys behind you telling you what you are doing is not going to work, and at least one of them is on the phone with the trailer hitch OEM to send out a technician in 5-10 business days.

A lot of those receiver hitches have a keeper bolt on the underside so once the towball part is fitted it can be tightened to stop it rattling , check for that bolt first if the insert doesn't want to come out easily , might save a lot of grief .

I’ve said it before, but this man is a Canadian national treasure.

Far be it from me to judge a Canadian in his natural habitat, but it seems with the torch, it might have been more effective to apply it to the outer sleeve since the heat should expand fitting. That said, your best bet was to get someone else to do it.

I used a pressure washer once. Goddamned thing just smoothed out like an eel in snot. Now my first go to when rusty things are stuck in rusty things. We pray to Lord PSI.

We had an old Chevy pickup that had a hitch receiver that basically lived in it. For some reason, we decided to take it out. We bashed on it, drug a Jeep with all 4 wheels locked up, and even tied it to a motorhome and dragged the pickup with the motorhome, but it was in there for good! If I remember, it was sold with the hitch still in there.

.....my neighbor had the same issue, after an hour or so of battle he realized the hitch pin was still installed. He's always fun to watch....

I remember reading about a ww2 trick on field changing spark plugs: get the engine nice and warm, then funnel the carbon snow from a co2 fire extinguisher into a makeshift cone over the plugs, and then they twist out without too much resistance...

Reminds me when my detachable towing hook used to be detachable

Anti Seize goes a loooong way in damp climates, we dont get the weather in WI like you do but we deal with tons of rust all the same. When I work on anything on my pickup, anything threaded, it gets a dab of AS. They say not to use it on your lug nuts but Ive always put a dab on them too, but slathering that male and female part of the hitch makes them oh so happy.

The pucker factor in the video was most excellent 👌

The last stuck one I tried to remove I finally ended up cutting off. Once it was sawed off, I saw that the receiver bar was down to maybe 1/16" wall at the bottom and the hitch wasn't far behind it. So after many, many, days hammering and various oils and probably $20 of MAP gas, none of it was safe to use anyhow. The next stuck one I encounter is going to get a new hitch. Faster and cheaper. I suspect that receiver bar was inserted when the vehicle was new, in 1997, and never removed until 2021 when I cut it off.

Dude, I can't believe you didn't deform that outside steel tube... this whole time I was like what in hell are you pushing against.

One of the funniest things I have seen in a while. Thank you @AvE!!!

Shins around your local area will thank your for your service

At 4:25 the rams actually push the vehicle forward whilst the hitch stays stationary!

What he didn’t show us was that the hitch pin was in for the first 3/4 of the video

This is by far some of the most successful sketchiest shit ive seen in a long time. Ingenuity at its finest.👍

Sometimes all it takes is a bit of time and patience. Struggled one afternoon pulling a alternator flywheel off the end of a motorcycle crankshaft. Finally decided to go have dinner, but left the three jaw puller in place and in tension when I went to eat. Came back well over an hour later and the flywheel had "popped" off the shaft. Even though the thing ain't moving, stuff is still happing that we can't see. Give it some time.