aerolite hitch lock and chassis

Hi Meercat.
Re Hitch lock.
It may give you a sense of security but, in reality, who would nick a 22 year old Viscount aerolite when there are plenty of newer vans just sitting there waiting for a free tow.
FWIW I too have a Viscount, but mine is a '82 mod Grand Tourer poptop in top condition, and all I do is lock the door and hope for the best.

Without appearing to be facetious, the cost of repair/ reconstruction may well exceed the value of the van and then it becomes a decision of ; Do I get it repaired or do I sell it and replace with something better. Only you can answer that.

Any competent engineering business should be able to weld up the cracks to make it safe but perhaps not up to corrugated gravel road standards.

The Aerolite was never really intended for anything more than blacktop use and gravel/corrugations are most likely to add to your woes with the chassis cracking.
If you were to limit use to blacktop and keep a close watch on the cracks you should be able to get a good few more trips before it is really serious.

Good Luck with your decisions

Cheers

Disco

If you have the Koeber coupling on the Aero Lite which you should have there is a lock on the park-brake. You pull the parkbrake and push the lock in.....make sure you got the key for it before you do that :-)
Otherwise you can get a lock that looks like a towball. That would fit and it locks into the space where the towball goes and it looks like one.

Reiner

I can't help with the lock but it's worth shopping around for the chassis welding... Find the cracks, photograph them with dimensions, get a quote from Hardings then proceed to enquire at a couple of engineering places. The actual plating and welding isn't the issue for a ticketed welder, it's the time spent preparing the job to minimise future problems and finishing it off properly which encounters the highest cost, it is after all labour. Ask if there is anything you may be able to do yourself to reduce the time required and hence the cost.