advice on mounting front receiver ?

[damon]

I just got my Draw-tite front receiver via UPS today, and will probably install it this weekend. For those of you who have done so, any tips or ideas to share ? Especially interested in those who have installed on a sport model.



TIA

 

[jcbrown]

Install...

I had to use a floor jack to force the hitch receiver tube to slightly deform the front facia. Work's so far with no modification's to facia.

 

[CUMAPART]

Just wondering how much for the Draw-tite front receiver hitch?

 

[damon]

$114 to my door from www.miley.com



It was the best price I found after quite a bit of looking, and got the tip from, of course, another TDR member

 

[GBerry]

??use

just wondering what your planing to use the front receiver for a wench maybe? or just for making driving the trailer while parking easer?

If for a wench how big a wench can be used on a front or rear receiver?

Thanks

Guy

 

[damon]

since my truck does not have hooks, recovery was the original idea. But now that I've looked around, I may use it for a winch since the receiver has a 9000# pull capacity, or a motorcycle carrier for my YZ400 dirt bike when the 5th wheel is on the back. There's also a nice fold down aluminum work platform that fits a receiver, and a few other neat things that I've seen.



I still find it insane that 7000# HD diesel 4x4 does not come with tow hooks

 

[Reddog1]

Did you ever consider that front tow hooks as stock factory equipment could be because the manufacture of the truck thinks it may need to be towed often? Is that why they are stock on the Chevvies and Phords? LOL



I am very pleased to say, with 150,000 miles on my truck, and I still don't need front tow hooks. Never been towed.



I did mount a front receiver. I do have an 8000-LB wench I made into a receiver mount. The wench will work front or back. I am pleased to say I have not yet used it. Kind of like a fire extinguisher, hope it is never needed.





Wayne

 

[JPS]

Mounting front hitch

Will the front hitch mount with the steering gear brace sold by Darin Tessier out of Saskatchwan,Canada? jps

 

[Double 6]

Will the Draw-Tite front receiver work with factory tow hooks?, I put some on and now I'm also thinking I want a front receiver also.

 

[whamby]

tow hooks for the 03's are part of the protection package option. It comes with skid plates and hooks. If you didn't get this option and want the factory hooks they are a little of $100 at the stealer. They come with some reinforcing brackets and detailed intructions and take around 2 hours to install. Could probably be done faster if you were in a hurry.

 

[stick]

Double 6:

The factory tow hooks will work with the reciever hitch, but it is close. Do what I did and sale the tow hooks in the TDR classifides, because the reciever hitch has hooks built in.



Stick

 

[Cooker]

Re: Mounting front hitch

Originally posted by JPS

Will the front hitch mount with the steering gear brace sold by Darin Tessier out of Saskatchwan,Canada? jps

I'm wondering this too.

 

[damon]

finally tried it.....

After a few weeks of the hitch taking space in the garage, I got around to attempting an install yesterday while I had a free moment.



As I found, it is going to be more work than I expected. As you can see from the picture, I used 2 bottle jacks to hold the hitch and sway bar in place, and I tried the method mentioned above to just jack the hitch and fascia up a little, but it has a long way to go. So it looks like the whole front fascia (bumper) and lower steel mounting bracket will have to come off and be cut - no small job.



Has anyone installed a front receiver on an 01-02 Sport model ?



If so, do you have pics or experience to share ? Without removing everything, I can't tell whether I need to notch the entire lower part of the fascia/bracket, or just cut a square hole in the front of the fascia/bracket.



I have included a picture of the point at which I stopped, and you can see that the receiver is pushed upward against the fascia, yet the frame mounts (above the swaybar) still have about 2" to move upward.



Better pics can be seen at:



Front hitch pics

 

[rich m]

Mine's not an 01 or an 02, but...

... my "front spoiler/airdam/piece of annoying, unnecessary ABS plastic was easily cut (square-hole) with my little pocket-knife (Old Timer lockblade model 5OT)... . used my floorjack to force into place, as the measurements were so exacting as to not account for PAINT!!!!



as for hooks, don't waste the $... just attach the cable/ strap/ chain to the pin inside of the hitch tube. No visible scratches !!



Also, does the "wench" also bring beer? Any winch on a proper mount will do... . but how about properly mounting the wench? Does the wife know about this? 'Oo. '





on edit--- yours attaches to the torsion bar? Mine just had 4-6 really big bolts for the frame itself... . no interference w/ suspension, but, conversely, only on the nose... . and didn't have builtin hooks... . neat... .

 

[damon]

hmmmm, not sure about the beer, and 'proper' mounting may be subjective



on the other topic, the hitch uses the 4 existing holes in the frame from the sway bar, plus 2 more toward the front.



I know that I saw someone that had done an install on a sport fascia like mine, but it was a year ago or more so I'm not sure that person is on TDR anymore. As I remember, the truck was even the same color as mine. Anybody know who this mystery truck belongs to ?

 

[JHansen]

Was it a silver one?

Could have been pics of my truck you saw... ... in fact they may even still be in Reader's Rigs... ...



Mine was a Hidden Hitch-I think-I've had it off now for a year. I know it wasn't a Drawtite. Possibly they are made a little differently... ... possibly not. Anyways on mine I had to notch the fascia and the metal reinforcement-you may get away with just cutting a hole in the metal part but I found it easier to notch to allow the front of the hitch to swing into place. The metal understructure can be cut with a ripper chisel on an air chisel-how's that for overengineered? I cut the fascia with a sharp knife after saying a lot of prayers and putting the install off for a month or so..... Used some chrome door-edge molding to cover the cut edge-looked OK but I would have liked to find some kind of a stainless edge instead.



I'm with you-why didn't these trucks have tow points installed from the factory like the '03s do? Guess 9 years of whining must have finally sunk in to the DC engineers!



Any other specific ?'s you have, drop me a line.....



Jason

 

[stick]

Damon:

Is there something different about the sport bumper form the rest of them?

I would consider modifing the hitch, before I went to cutting on the Dodge!



Stick

 

[damon]

stick - The sport bumper (just a big plastic fascia really) hangs down a lot lower than the non-sport models, especially on the 01-02's from what I can tell. On the non-sports, the easy fix for a front receiver is to remove or cut a small notch in the small black plastic lower fascia. On my sport, I will have to cut well into the painted fascia and the metal bracketry that is behind it - not a small or reversible change, and it has literally kept me from installing the receiver.



I had the sawzall and jigsaw out, but I just couldn't tear into her without seeing it done successfully first :{



Jason - that was your truck that I remembered, and now after looking at it, it seems to me that your hidden hitch receiver sat down a bit lower than the draw-tite that I got. Maybe I should have gone with the HH, it seems to fit the sport better.

 

[CUMINNTSTRKN]

damon



here are some pics



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the hidden hitch sits way to low for my liking. i got that one 1st and sent it back. let me know if i can be any more help. i put one of these easy steps in the hole so i could bolt my plate to it. it looks almost factory.



jim

 

[damon]

Jim -



Nice job on the install, that is exactly what I was hoping for.



Did you remove the whole fascia to do the job, or were you able to eye it well enough on the truck ?



I like the license plate/step idea and will proabably do the same.



Thanks for the info and pics - now the sawzall's coming back out !



Damon