Quote:
Originally Posted by HiLife
Mounting a front hitch can be done without mangling the front bumper too much. Some trimming of the frame endcaps and plastic parts of the front bumper will need to be done. Seems like your very capable of doing.
I've been eyeing how
@ JZiggy
did his on here.
Very clean and stealthy.
There are others on here that did something like this. Problem is I don't know if the hitch is available now as these truck ages and demand for the hitch drops.
With your skills I pretty much sure you could fab one up and post a pic of it.
Maybe make more of there and sell them to other members on here.
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It is interesting that JZiggy fit an OEM '96-98 bumper into his rig. I like that look better than the fat lip.
The other option is to merely push a hitch receiver through the plastic grille like the high clearance hitch linked by cl4Rk above, with all the hardware behind the grille. That option is not as good looking, but it is a lot simpler.
Was crawling around under mine yesterday and discovered a couple useful things. First, there are two pairs of big thru-holes back on the main frame. The top of that frame is just above the level of the front skid plate. It would be trivial to bolt a couple bars to the top of that to get some serious load capacity, and run them forward towards the grille.
Second, there are a couple places just behind the grille on either side where a cross beam could be attached.
Thus it is just a matter of welding a receiver hitch to a cross beam, then supporting the cross beam from the sides and from the bars coming from the frame. A 3X3 hole thru the grille would accommodate the hitch, and hard points for the winch hook could be welded to the cross beam on either side, protruding between holes in the grill. It is difficult to describe, maybe will sketch something up and post it later.