Anyone see a reason why I couldn't use my Curt front mount receiver hitch to lift the front wheels off the ground? It is bolted to the front spring hangers.

 

I would watch for flex on square tube,or you could stay to one side at a time.

 

Tongue weight on that says 500 lbs... I would say that is a good reason why not to jack the truck up by the front hitch. I thought about getting one of these to move my travel trailer around easier. Although, with a tongue weight of about 1000 lbs, I thought that would be too much stress on the hitch. I could not imagine putting the entire weight of the front end of the truck on it would be a good thing.

 

I use my front hitch as a floor jack lift point all the time, but using two (twin) floor jacks, one at each frame rail, simultaneously, so the rating at the hitch center is not an issue. Also, I use two jacks to minimize (actually eliminate altogether) any frame racking.

My front receiver hitch is mounted to the frame with 1/2" thick plate sistered to the front spring hangars themselves. In fact, I had to buy new (longer) spring eyelet bolts ($30 per bolt) in order to get the Navy recommended best practice of three threads showing on the other side of the nut (which I also had to replace, since they are prevailing torque).

Here is a photo of the sistered plates holding the front hitch:






I'm not sure how the Curt hitch mounts in relation to the Blocker Beam (which mine never came with), but if you use two floor jacks, each close to the front spring hangar at each frame rail, the rating of the receiver tube shouldn't matter.


The front hitch is the furthest possible point from the rear tires, so the unsupported bridge distance between ground support locations is much greater than using the Ford recommended lift points for the front end, which are just aft of the rear front spring shackles, around where the A Pillar or firewall are, which is where I place my jack stands for continuous support while I'm doing the work. Since I can't put the floor jacks and the jack stands in the same location, I position the floor jacks under each frame rail at the front receiver hitch (basically under the forward front spring eyelets) to raise the truck... then I immediately position the jack stands at the Ford recommended support points on the frame rail just behind the rearward front spring shackles.

It is easier to use the front receiver than it is to use the front axle, due to the driver side bias of the pumpkin (which I don't use as I don't want to damage the lip edge of the stamped differential cover). Also, the U bolt tails and drag link brackets kind of get in the way of gaining a good purchase on the front axle with the various floor jack cups that I have.

On the Ford recommended lift point aft of the front axle spring shackles, I didn't like all the weight of the engine and transmission bearing down on just 1" of jackstand across an open C frame flange, so I added some factory radius arm hangars which bolted to the vertical WEB of the frame over 9", and distribute the support load across 18 square inches of frame flange (3" x 6"). I mounted this with all Ford factory suspension bolts (property class 10.9), and pressed a hardened steel bushing (from a high pressure hydraulic ram) into a radiator hose and mounted the cross bolt through this in lieu of the radius arm. Now I can raise or lower my truck (via the front receiver hitch) to any angle, and have confident even support from the jackstand without fear of the stand slipping out from under the frame. Kind of hard to describe, so here is a photo:

 

Thanks Y2K, I did just what you suggested although I don't have the custom jack stand perches you made, nice work! Anyway it worked great. Jacking these trucks up is a chore for sure and I like your setup. I only have one decent floor jack (the other is a puny parts store one) so I used my old Walker Made in USA bottle jack on the other side.


My hitch attaches similar to yours, here's the pdf