I have a hitch lock that corroded over the winter and on my first attempt to unlock it, I broke the lock. It's one of those dog bone ones and the barrel key just spins around and around. I'm looking for the easiest and best way to get this thing off. A friend of mine has a SawsAll (it's a big Dremmel tool), but we are not sure how it will work on this hardened steel. Has anyone had to remove one of these things? Without doing any collateral damage to the rest of the truck?

Thanks......MN2001F-150

 

Get out the grinder

 

You would probably be better off with a die grinder or some sort of cut-off tool than the sawzall - simply because it usually requires less clearance and you will be working in some fairly tight space to keep fron dinging anything else up.

Good luck - and keep a steady hand!

 

Cutting torch! Just watch where the sparks go.

 

I went through the same problem about 1 month ago. I used the cut off wheel/grinder. Worked well
Good Luck

 

I have had two of them freeze on me... the first one was hacked off with a die grinder/cutoff wheel. The second one was only about a month old, so the truck shop I bought it from cut it off (the same way)... that one appeared that one of the tumblers in the lockset had turned sideways, not allowing the key to go in. I bought a new stainless steel one with brass guts in it from Master and so far it seems to be holding up pretty well.

-Joe