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BY Frank T. Austin Ok,
here’s the picture. You have a truck and you want to go play in the
woods. So you say to yourself, “Self what kind of 'Mod’s' am I going
to need done to my truck so my tip toe thru the tulips will be more fun
and less work.” Well
let’s see, what do I have to start with? Well, my truck is a 2WD, your
basic run of the mill light pickup truck, nothing special. Well that
rules out trying to keep up with the big boys. Maybe it’s got a
limited slip in the rear, that’s a plus. If not it’s not an absolute
requirement and can be fixed later, or you can always go the lunch-box
locker route. Some more aggressively treaded tires need to be found. You
know you were looking for a good excuse to get better tires anyway; we
knew that was going to happen.
All
right so it’s not going to keep up with TRS1, and you don’t have the
time and money to put in a lift kit and lockers, yet. But you want to go
‘wheeling’. Even a one wheel driver is still a remarkably capable
vehicle, if driven prudently. It’s a lot more capable than that noisy
little rice rocket the kid down the block annoys you with. But its still
not there yet. We are going to need some basic equipment, lets see. A
full size spare tire, fortunately the factory’s haven’t seen fit to
‘bless’ us with space saver ‘donuts’ yet. Some decent tools, no
problem, you can make up a decent basic kit from your collection. Oh
yea, we’re going to need some extra fluids, gas, trans fluid, oil,
antifreeze, and something for you to drink. No problem we got all that
stuff in the garage, just need to get it together. We’re going to need a decent CB radio, wait I already have one of those installed. Tow strap, with loops, ha I got two of those around here somewhere. But there is something still missing, oh yea, tow hooks. We all know that no self respecting off roader would dare go off road without tow hooks. ‘We’ will never get stuck. But we might need them to get out that other guy who’s always getting stuck. Besides they just look cool, well don’t they? Oh,
oh, now we have a problem some moron at the factory decided that 2WD
trucks shouldn’t have tow hooks. Well you have a trailer hitch in the
back, so that end is covered. A 2” receiver hitch rated for 9,000#
should be more than adequate for that. But what about the front,
nothings there. Worse, that same moron at factory didn’t think anyone
who bought a 2WD truck should ever have use for hooks. So they
shortsightedly didn’t even make any real provision for them. There
might be mounting holes but there’s often ‘cute’ bodywork in the
way. Hmmm,
this will take some thought, how do you get hooks or rings on when the
bodywork is in the way. You can’t bolt them to the bumper, its not
nearly strong enough for that kind of nonsense. We don’t want to cut
ugly holes in that cute valance under the bumper, so how do you do it,
what’s the plan? Hold on, wait a minute, if a trailer hitch is good enough for the rear, why not the front too!
Why not indeed, if you can find one for your year truck it’s not a bad alternative to the lack of tow hooks. In fact a hitch might even be a better choice than factory installed hooks. Consider if you will the mechanics of getting unstuck. Your truck is in the mud up to the axles. You’re spinning the heck out of the tires but getting nowhere fast. Its time for a tow, or a winching. So you get out of the truck making a mess of your sneakers or boots, all the while hoping you tied them tight so the mud doesn’t suck them off on you. You get out the tow strap and toss it to your buddy who’s laughing at you the whole time, but still willing to pull you out if he can. You wade through the mud to the front and hook up your end to a hook and climb back into your truck.
Now what happens, you hit the gas and he tries to jerk you out. But how is he jerking you out? You have that strap on one of the tow hooks, right? So his truck is putting the entire force of his truck and the drag of all that mud through one frame rail. Yep all through one frame rail, we won’t mention that that macho looking tow hook is only held on by two bolts. Their good bolts but there are only two of them and they have been “jerked around” before. You wonder how much of this kind of nonsense will they take and for how long.
OK, so let’s look at the trailer hitch. It’s bolted to BOTH frame rails, it may still only have two bolts in the rail, but there are two rails, and that means four bolts. Hitches have at least four bolts holding on, and if you’re worried about it you can always add another. The mounting plate is long enough so that there’s plenty of room for at least one more per side. Now when your laughing buddy hits the gas to jerk you out of that hole he will be putting all the force through “BOTH” rails equally. So at least you won’t have to worry about everyone laughing at you as you drive home with your poor truck dog tracking down the street because one frame rail is now in front of the other by a quarter of an inch. So maybe using a receiver hitch on the front isn’t as crazy an idea as it might at first appear. As an added bonus many of the hitches come with tow rings on them right from the plant. Besides they are great for parking your boat, quad, or snowmobile trailer.
I looked around until I found a hitch, 2 actually, from Reese and Hidden Hitch that will fit my truck. The Reese model comes with the tow rings already securely welded in for you. But there is a catch. On the one they make for my truck the receiver portion of it hangs below the bumper and valance significantly affecting your approach angle. The Hidden Hitch on the other hand, while it doesn’t have the handy tow rings it doesn’t hang below the valance either. In fact it exits just below the bumper behind the plastic license mounting plate. This is a much better arrangement as it not only doesn’t impact your approach angle but it also puts a substantial chunk of steel between anything in front of the truck and the bottom of your radiator. That’s not a bad thing at all, if you ask me. For you guys in states that require a front plate there are adaptors to replace your old mount.
If sometime down the road you think you might want to upgrade to a winch there are any number of company’s that make receiver mounting plates for a winch. With another hitch in the rear and a little extra wiring, you can put the winch in front or back as needed. This can also be handy if your neighborhood isn’t one where you can trust leaving a winch on the truck. You can just park it In the garage till the next time you want to go tip toeing through the tulips. One last thought, a good receiver hitch is made of steel that’s somewhat heavier and stronger than your factory frame rails. So installing hitches both front and rear will actually increase the structural integrity and rigidity of the frame. If you think about it if you put hitches at both ends you have just added the equivalent of two new heavy duty cross members at the ends of the rails. I’m not sure just how much of an increase in over all strength they might represent. But even with just the big bolts they come with it has to be way better than nothing at all. Now, if I can just remember where the heck I put those directions to the tulip field I’ll be on my way. Oh, Oh, Honey, why is there a grocery list on my directions? Are you trying to tell me something?~ TRS
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