Here's what I made for just about anything. My truck sits so high I was scared a small car would slide under my truck during the winter so I made the pipe 22" off the ground. It's a step a tow point a seat and a bumper.

 

I got a military grade clevis (1.5" thick) bolted and welded to a 2x4 3/8" box tubing which is bolted an welded to the frame for my mud truck but when it gets stuck its pulled backwards only.

For my hunting truck i hook to the reese or factory front tow hooks

 

This isn't a great setup. Giving the recovery point so much leverage is pretty far from ideal. You've got it gussetted, so it'll take quite a bit, but at a lot of organized events they don't allow welded recovery points, and this is welded with bad geometry making the forces on the welds pretty high. You'd be safer (and put lower forces on the receiver and frame as well) getting the clevis up directly in-line with the receiver.

 

That's all true and I won't argue. It's gussetted with 5/8" steel and mostly intended as a bumper. If something on that or the truck gives like the hitch or frame I figure I would have had bigger problems if it wasn't there. I can always replace the truck

 

It sounds as if you factored in the leverage issue pretty well, and compensated by using the heaviest steel you could find...........With what Nothing Special said, have you considered adding a couple pieces of steel plate on either side of the horizontal bar, drilled out to accept a 1" Clevis pin, then remove the shackle.....You would then have a larger open step plate, and a wider stepping point on the horizontal upper member as well, and of course a truly straight line pulling point...........I bet the look on a Prius drivers face as he's about to hit this chunk of steel is priceless....

 

While i like the idea of your hitch/step i have to agree that it puts a lot more stress on the frame.. instead of 4" of leaverage on it you've now got 12" now bolt that clevis up top an it be perfect. Until someone rearends you hard but atleast then there buying you a new truck then

 

A prius owner I'm not sure about.... Yet. A civic owner on the other hand... Well... I could paint you a picture of that face lmao.... He was mad to say the least

 

I mostly wanted to get a warning out there for anyone looking to copy your setup. It's easy to do something like that wrong (not that you did) so anyone looking to copy ought to think about it a little.

 

I may just change it myself for piece of mind. Thanks for the input

 

Thanks

I'm going to pick up a straight hitch (no drop) and a heavy clevis and I should be good to go.

 

No problem

 

If you're going to buy something to use as a clevis mount that goes in your receiver hitch you're better off buying something that was specifically intended to be a clevis mount that goes in your receiver hitch. Something like this:
Warn Industries - Rigging Accessories for Jeep, Truck & SUV Winches: Shackle Bracket

A hitch mount, even with no drop, is still welded. Clevis mounts are just a single piece of steel. Again, at a lot of organized events you aren't allowed to use welded recovery points. They really prefer solid mounts bolted to the frame (I don't know why they are usually OK with attaching to a receiver hitch when the receiver is welded, but that seems to usually be an exception).

And it's not that welds are too weak, it's that they MIGHT be too weak. At organized events when they have a lot of people getting pulled out and not a lot of time for tech inspection they find it easier / safer to determine if solid material and bolts are strong enough than to determine if welds were done properly.

 

that hitch with the bar on bottom would do more damage in a rear end collision that you would get with nothing at all.
with the amount of drop on it, the mechanical leverage it will provide to the receiver and truck frame is going to be very extreme, and the receiver will be ripped off the frame and most likely there will be frame damage in a rear end collision.
i had a simple 4 inch drop hitch on the back of my 02 when i got hit by a jeep doing 60 mph.

the hitch hit the engine block pushing it and the trans out of the frame under the seats.
it destroyed my hitch, twisted the receiver and bent the frame on the truck.
nothing severe, but enough we had to straighten it before bolting the new receiver on.

 

When you totally think about it, it makes sense........Mechanical Leverage is an amazing thing! Really, really good when it works for YOU, not so good when it works against you. Thanks for pointing out something we overlooked!

 

well Iggy, you do not get to be an old fart without learnin a few things.