Get a Grip

I have been wanting to have a vise mounted on my truck for a while now.  The main reason for this is so I can work on messy projects in my driveway where I can cleanup with a leaf blower.  It would also let me use the axe sharpening jig from a recent post during a camping trip, or to have a vise available at the job site while assisting a Scout with his Eagle project, or a million other uses.

I already had a pintle hitch plate laying around that I wasn't using, since I no longer have a trailer that uses a pintle.  The one pictured below is not mine, but it is just like mine.  I forgot to take a picture of mine before I mounted the vise on it.  You can get one of these for $35 on Amazon.

I started this project by cutting up a pressure treated 2x6 into 5 10" pieces.  Then I drilled 4 9/16" holes in each one that line up with the holes in the pintle hitch plate.  I also bought 2 pieces of 24" x 1/2" threaded rod, cut them in half, and put a nut on one end of each.  I couldn't find bolts long enough for this project, so I made my own.  I got the vise from Harbor Freight for $40.

I welded the nuts to the threaded rod with 4 spot welds each, then cleaned it up with an angle grinder.  Some of the weld spilled over the edge of the nut, so I tested each to make sure a wrench would still fit on the nut.

I bolted everything up to the hitch plate.  This is backwards from how it is going to be bolted on the finished product, but easier to work on this way for now.

I put 2 extra nuts on one of the bolts, then cut it off flush with the angle grinder.  Then I took one of the nuts off and beveled the the end a little.  Then I took the second nut off, which cleaned up the threads.  I repeated this for all 4 bolts.

Then I took all the bolts off, painted the heads and the other cut end, and reassembled it with the bolts oriented the other way.

Now it's time to mount the vise.  First I marked where the holes will go.  The vise will be attached with 7/16" x 3" lag bolts.

I used a 1/4" spade bit to drill the holes, but first I used a piece of tape to mark the desired depth on the bit.

After I mounted the vise, I realized that I had positioned it too far back.  If I want to clamp something long in the vise in a vertical orientation, the front of the mounting surface will be in the way.

I used 5/16" oak dowel and some wood glue to fill the holes and cut the dowel off flush.

Then I realized that the heads of the bolts would also be in the way, so I drilled some 1.5" diameter x 1/2" deep holes to recess them.

Then I remounted the vice.  I clamped a pipe into it so you can see how repositioning the vise and countersinking the bolts allows more clearance for various clamping options.

You could buy a hitch receiver plate like the one below for $20 at Harbor Freight and mount it to your work bench.  Then you could share a single vise between your workbench and truck.  I didn't do this because I already have a vise on my workbench.  It is ridiculously large, so I didn't want to use that for my truck mounted vise.