I am in the process of adding front recovery points to my '96 F-150, since these trucks never had them stock. I have a ways to go yet but wanted to post a few pictures of my progress so far.

This project was inspired by this post at FSB. I am using a couple of pieces of bar stock bolted to the bottom inside corners of the frame horns and sticking out through the bumper; they will have holes in the end to attach a screw-pin clevis. The stock I am using came off an old John Deere cultivator; it is 1" thick by 1-3/4" wide steel. The original pieces were each about 2' long with various holes already drilled; I only need them to be about 7" long and I wanted to drill my own holes, so I cut out the longest section without holes from each piece.

I pulled the bumper off and drilled holes in the frame horns; I just eyeballed where to put the holes and the drill bit did walk around a little, so each bar has to be marked and drilled to match.

At this point, I decided to get the left side finished before I go any further on the right side. I clamped the bar to the inside of the frame rail, center punched one of the holes, then pulled it out and drilled it. Once I had one hole drilled, I bolted it in place, marked the other hole, then pulled the bar back out and drilled it.

Before I pulled the bumper, I marked the approximate location of the frame horn on the back side of the bumper with a Sharpie. The tractor shop we were working at has a plasma cutter; we used it to cut a hole in the bumper in the approximate location of the bar, then enlarged it using trial and error until the bumper would slide over the bar and fit onto the mounting brackets. I figured out where I wanted the hole for the clevis pin, marked it, and pulled the bar back off. I still need to drill the hole, cut it to length, round off the end, and paint it a color other than green. I also need to file down the edges of the hole in the bumper - I may or may not use edge molding, depending on what it looks like once I smooth it out.

These are pictures from my cell phone camera, so they are not the greatest, but you can at least see what I am talking about.

The bar bolted in place - looking at the driver's side frame rail:



Looking inside the frame rail (I will use lock washers on the bolts when I assemble the finished product):



Test-fitting the bumper over the bar:



My buddy that works at the tractor shop is building a new bumper for his truck at the same time. Phase two will include a grill guard and winch, but this is the beginning of phase one:



I will post more pictures as I continue to make progress. No picking on my fabrication skills - I'm not trying to build a show piece, just something to yank my truck out of the snow.

 

im no expert but those bolts look more cute then they do sturdy. your truck probly weighs around 5k i think that bumper might go for a ride if you try to get pulled out with it like that. just saying i wouldnt trust it

 

My concern is that the frame rails are relatively weak there. One good pull and the "accordion" section of the rail can stretch. What bolts are you using? It would be worthwhile to look up the safe working load that they'll accept in single shear.

 

The pictures aren't very clear, but those are 1/2" grade 8 bolts; they are attached to the frame horns, not the bumper mount brackets. The bumper attaches with 4 small (8mm?) bolts so it is obviously not a good pull point, but these bolts directly to the frame should be fine I think.

I've done quite a bit of research on the accordion frame section; none of it scientific, but I've read everything I could find about putting front tow points on '92-up Broncos and F-150's. The only cases I have ever read about someone tweaking the accordion frame by yanking on it were cases where the frame had already been weakened there by a previous collision. I realize the risk is present, but it is one I am willing to accept.

The bolts are 1/2" grade 8, which have a minimum tensile strength of 150,000psi. If shear strength is assumed to be 60% of tensile strength, it would be equal to 90,000psi; in a 1/2" fastener with the shear load in the un-threaded portion of the bolt, shear strength can be approximated as (90000psi * Pi * (.5 / 2) in ^2)= 17,671 lbs. I am fairly comfortable with this number; would you be?

My friend suggested welding the bar to the side of the frame rail, but I prefer the known quantity of grade 8 bolts over welding on the frame; also, this way I am not stiffening the accordion frame section, so that it will still perform as designed in the event of a front end collision.

 

Yes, as long as both bolt holes are relatively tight to the bolts, that will give you a shear strength of ~35K lbs. at each recovery point. Other things will break long before that kind of stress is reached. Glad to see someone doing a little research rather than just sticking a pair of tow hooks on the bumper and calling it good. Tow hooks make dangerous missiles.

 

Two grade 8 1/2" bolts...your good. I do like the simplicity of your setup, nice work!

I also added recovery points to my 96' f150, but its more weld strength dependent, (which is fine for a larger welder used by a decent operator). Its a 4" peice of C-channel with 3/8" plate welded on each end, this fits between the frame rails with two 1/2" grade 8 bolts on each side going through the plate and into the frame. Then, in line with the wide openings on the bumper (no holes in the bumper required for this setup) there are two 5/16" peices of plate welded in the C-channel (2 per side, one pair per clevis) in a vertical orientation, with a 3/4" hole punched through so a U shaped clevis (10,000pnd WLL) fits in and it is removeable. There is one clevis on each side of the license plate. I liked this idea because it tied the frame rails together and you wouldn't know it was there if the clevis's are removed. One downfall is that at any extreme angle of pull (up or down) the clevis will hit the bumper, and given enough force & angle, will bend the bumper. But, I've never encountered such extreme angles. Oh, and this actually makes for a great lift point using a 4' HighLift jack, the jack foot just slides into the bumper opening, but rests on the c-channel. Used it for that a few times.

I know the bumper has the factory cut outs for cooling (the C-channel pretty much blocks off these openings in the bumper), but the max temp where I live hits about 90*F for maybe a couple weeks a summer. I have had no issues with this setup. Never been stuck myself, but have pulled pretty damn hard on this (a Mustang skid steer and a 3/4ton 4door cummins pickup up hill, shock loading at about 10mph (not the 1st cummins dodge I've pulled from doom)). Both of those situations were not ideal, I rarely yank on things in reverse.
Wish my personal comp wasn't dead, I'd post up some pics.