After we got the attaching point at the right pull angle, we fully welded the whole mount into spot and gusseted the back of it to give it a bit more strength. We plug welded the bolt holes for the attaching point to the angle iron. It should hold rather well. We put the swing arm stop on the bumper, bolted it on and made sure it would hold the swing arm in position.
After everything was where we wanted, we cleaned it up a bit, adjusted the lever and realized we didn't get the latch at a 90 degree like we had wanted to, so the latch wouldn't lock like advertised. Realizing that it would be almost impossiable to get a direct 90 degree pull because of swing arm clearance to the latching point, we had to brainstorm for a bit. To fix this, we took some metal off the lever arm as well as some of the lever mount so that it had a full 90+ degree of latching movement. It held AWESOME after that. There was also some clearance issues with my high lift jack, so we took a bit off the length of the lever arm...issue solved.
And a shot directly from the back. You'll notice that its not mounted quite at a 45 degree angle, but more shallow, like a 30 degree so that it has more forward pull than downward, but still has a downward pull to it.
And on the way home, we stopped at AutoZone to get some paint and put a bit on in the parking lot. We're not quite done yet, but we reached a good stopping point. All that is left to do is to box in the other side on the swing arm, so that it keeps the rain and mud and stuff out, but that's gonna be done later in the week when I decide what to do, to either make it a flat angle or to slope it down to the swing arm. Mostly we were just too tired to finish.
And the finished product as of now.
Initial driving impressions were GREAT!!! No more sounds coming from the swing arm as it loosens while driving, no more tire sway, no more everything. It is 100 times easier to latch now, about a million times faster and my wife will actually open it now! It accomplished all of my desires and more. Its holding tighter than before and is much easier in operation. I still have to box in the right side of it and drill a hole for a seconday lock, like JCR has on their's. I'm probably going to use a heavier duty lock than them, but very similar. Haven't decided yet though. I'll put more pictures up when its all said and done. Hope this helps and gives a bit of insight to other guys with the same problems as me. I am going to mail Terry this link so he can see as well....maybe there will be a change in Rigid Co latch design in the future, who knows?