Go to a junk yard, pull this stuff apart in several trucks and look at it......

As for the break-in stuff, sure, that stuff had effect when these things were new... almost 40 years ago....

 

Yes, my '97 has a Curt front receiver made for '92 - '97 F-250s (not sure what other years or models that particular hitch fits). I didn't have much time before a weekend I knew I'd be pushing a travel trailer around, so I took the quick route and brought the truck to a hitch shop, bought it and had them install it.

What you're calling J-hooks are actually closed loops. I'm guessing they are intended for safety chains, but I can't see ever hooking safety chains up with a front receiver. I've never used them as an attachment point either, and would prefer they weren't there. I do what you ask about in your next post, putting a clevis mount in the receiver.

I can't visualize what you're asking at the moment. But since you have a winch bumper that's designed to take the force of a winch, I'd be tempted to just mount the receiver to the bumper. The only time a receiver will take as much load as a winch puts on is if you have a winch line connected to it. Although I do like that my Bronco has (relatively) separate clevis mounts, so if I double-line it I'm not putting both lines worth of force through the same attachment.

 

These pics may help explain what I'm talking about. Think of the big part of the framing square as the receiver. It'll be flush with the front of the bumper, or maybe recessed slightly. And it'll be welded to the crossmember in the two places indicated. The crossmember is a 3/16" thick piece that is C-shaped with a roll up on the front and back edges. So I'll just weld the receiver to it front and rear.

Then there will be two 1/4" plates welded to the top of the receiver. One will be ahead of the ridge in the bumper that the framing square is up against, and the other behind it. And they will be drilled to match the bumper and the winch will bolt through the bumper and the two plates. That will tie the bumper to the crossmember, making everything stronger.

 

I think that would be fine. Although personally I think I'd skip welding the receiver to that crossmember. Yes, it's strong in the fore-and-aft direction, but it's so thin and with such short roll-up edges (compared to it's width) that it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to buckle it. I think I'm probably being paranoid, and that it would actually handle quite a lot (and besides, the receiver bolted to the bumper won't let the crossmember move anyway). But I still think that if it was me I'd just bolt it to the bumper and make sure I was happy with the strength that way.

I'm not saying I'm right, but you did ask what I thought.

 

Bob - I appreciate your response. It would be easier to just bolt it to the bumper, but I rarely take the easy road. On the other hand, I like the extra strength welding it to the crossmember gives. So, I need to think about it a bit more.

Thanks!

 

Today's haul:

• Smittybilt X2O 12,000 lb winch with synthetic line and wireless remote control. I'd ordered the wrong one so had to re-order
• Odyssey Extreme battery: 1150 CCA
• Northern Tool 24" receiver/extension
• Smittybilt receiver hitch D-ring
• Northern Tool 1/4" ball valve to drain my compressed air drier

I think the receiver extension will be a better fit as the part that goes over the crossmember is only 2" tall as opposed to the full-length receiver that is 2 1/2" tall. So it should not only fit under the radiator support without having to lower the crossmember, but it should also solve the angle problem.

 

Got the fairlead and the winch bolted on today, and the control box sitting on it.





Then I put the receiver in place. It fits pretty well, and you can see how the smaller square tube clears the radiator support nicely when sitting on the crossmember.




However, from this shot you can see how the front of the receiver is down and the rear is up. Also seen from this shot is that it will take two 1/4" thick plates welded to the receiver - one ahead of the ridge and one behind, and they are held to the bumper and winch by the gold-colored bolts that hold the winch on.




And in this shot I've noted that the receiver is 3/16" above the rear flange of the crossmember at the rear. So, I'm going to space the crossmember down 1/2", which I think will line everything up pretty closely.

 

Got the winch installed today, although not the aux battery so, for now, it runs off the one and only battery. The instructions call for you to have at least 1000 lbs connected to it when winding on the line. But they didn't specify if you are to be rolling something weighing at least 1000 on concrete or if the pull has to be 1000 lbs. So I assumed the latter and parked the new truck at the end of the shop's driveway, set the brake, and connected to Big Blue.




Initially I tried the first notch of the park brake thinking that might give just enough friction, but even on the first notch the LR tire slid, but the winch didn't care.





So I sat in the cab, with the engine running to charge the battery and ensure I had brakes, and feathered the brakes to keep some tension. That seemed to work fine, but at one point I gave it too much brake and the new truck, which was parked on the grass, started sliding to me.

One thing I noticed is that with the wireless remote if the battery powering the winch gets below about 12v the receiver turns the winch off. It happens only for a split-second and apparently the voltage comes up enough to bring the winch back online. At that point I started the truck and that seemed to fix that problem.

However, this thing begs for a 3G. 1G's don't put out much, and especially at idle, so I did try to keep it spinning at 1000 RPM. I wonder if one of the throttle-kickers would be a good addition?

 

Grind/cut the rib (the high spot) out then the receiver will sit flush and you can weld around the cut out section for additional support.

 

Mike - I'd rather not cut on the bumper. What I really want to do is to have the two plates that bolt to the winch/bumper combo and have that line up nicely with the crossmember in some fashion.

But, the "fashion" is the real question. And I think I've come to the conclusion that what I need to do is to mock it up by placing two straps on the receiver and c-clamp the receiver to to bumper, but with the receiver stuck out in front of the truck far enough that the rear end of it just misses the crossmember. That way I'll know how far off I am.

Then, if it looks like dropping the crossmember 1/4 - 1/2" will make it line up I might do that. But, if it is going to take more than that I might want to go in a different direction. And one approach would be to cut the bottom half of the receiver off where it hits the crossmember. That would let me trim it so it just fits, and I'd rather trim the receiver than the bumper since I can buy another of them for $40.

 

Hey Gary what if you welded a u channel piece of steel to that plate with the gold bolts and the same to the rear (cross member) with a hole in both u channel bits and put a hitch pin (removable type )That way it could always be remove if wanted and you could get it straight/ level as well.

 

If I understand what you are saying, it would take a big piece of channel to get the edges ("W" in the drawing below) to be deep enough to allow the hole for the hitch pin to be fully in the metal of the edge. For instance, 3" channel, which would be just about right to take the 2 1/2" receiver, only has edges that are 1.24" tall from the bottom of the web. And 4" channel has edges that are 1.4" from the bottom of the web. But the hole for the receiver should be centered at 1.25", so there wouldn't be enough meat to hold. But, did I misunderstand?




However, using your idea, I could use angle instead of channel, with a piece on either side of the receiver. Angle comes in a wider variety of sizes, and you don't have to subtract the thickness of the metal from the working dimension. So, I could do that on the crossmember, which would allow it to be removed easily. But I will still plan to use plates up front that would be welded to the receiver and bolted to the bumper with the winch bolts.

Anyway, I still need to determine how the receiver aligns with the rear crossmember, so will slip the straps between the bumper and the receiver and see how it fits. Maybe tomorrow, as Big Blue is getting an outing today to help friends load up some heavy stuff.

 

Yes Gary you do understand me right I it doesn't work that's fine. The only reason I said to see if this could work is because I'm not a fan of welding any extra bits and pieces to a car/truck. I like the idea of the front hitch but I would like it to able to be removed when I like . So it looks like you still have some thinking to do?

 

Yes, I still have thinking to do. And fitting. Hopefully tomorrow I can test-fit the receiver with spacer plates to see how it hits the crossmember.

And, I'm looking for a non-permanent solution. But, a solid solution as well. Bolt holes in the crossmember weaken it, so I'd rather not just drill holes in it. However, if an insert were welded in it that provided additional strength then holes could be drilled in that to bolt the receiver to the crossmember.

 

I wish I could find one of the classic bumpers like that around here