Front hitch

[Mirror]

I'm looking at adding a front 2" receiver to the front and was wondering if the ladder frame behind the rebar is strong enough to weld it to? Later going to have a hitch mounted winch.

 

[Ziggy]

I would caution against welding in that area of the truck. The first 16.5 inches of the frame have corrugations, convolutions, and intentional holes that are designed to be crush/crumple zones in the event of an accident. GM sells a collision repair Front "half" frame replacement part to replace just the crumple zones on the frames of these trucks, and they're very specific about where to cut and weld. Basically, if you look at the frame section forward of the front engine crossmember, that is the section of frame they sell. If you weld plates and ultimately a trailer hitch in that area, it'll reinforce the designed crumple zones, and could cause significant injury in the event of an accident. If you're building a heavily trail/off-road biased rig, maybe crash-worthiness isn't of such great concern, but personally, I'd go with a plate steel type winch bumper that bolts on in place of the stock reinforcement first.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

What rebar do you refer to? I have found no rebar with my frame.

 

[Ziggy]

What rebar do you refer to? I have found no rebar with my frame.

I think he's referring to the front bumper reinforcement... I wouldn't weld to that either though.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Hell no. It has the airbag sensors.

There is a front hitch commercially available that some have ran. If not on here, look at ORTB for some info on it.

Personally if you really want to weld one up there, i would not stop you. But I run big steel bumper and crash zone and safety stuff has been relegated to me and not what GM designed.

 

[Mirror]

I had read that the metal bumper behind the cover was called the rebar. But that's not what i would weld to. I would cut a hole in the middle of that and weld to the large round bar directly behind the rebar. But only a 2" receiver bar. Not a full size towing setup. It would only be used for installing a wich with a receiver bracket.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Ok Ok....You are talking about welding to the bolted on bumper bar that is thin crap metal. Not a good idea. Even worse is cutting into the tube behind it that spans the framerails. It has the airbag sensors mounted to it.

You will hurt someone with your idea for a winch setup. Simply welding a receiver bracket without something solid spanning the frame rails is asking for disaster.

Are you trying to retain the plastic bumper cover?

 

[Mirror]

No i'm talking about welding to the tube behind the thin bolted on bumper and cutting a hole in the thin bolted on bumper for the receiver to stick out of. I no longer have the plastic cover. Ripped it off earlier this year.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

The tube is a definite don't weld to!

@Bartonmd

 

[Mirror]

Damn ok

 

[Bartonmd]

Yeah... Everything you are talking about doing is a really, really bad idea... If you want to keep the plastic bumper cover, just replace the center part of the bumper support with a small, internal bumper, and so it like that.

 

[Mirror]

Already stated i ripped the cover off and not using it.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

That really does not matter if you have the cover or not. The round tube should not be welded to and definitely will not hold up to the forces of a winch.

The simplest way to add a winch is just to bolt a plate across the frame rails and weld your hitch that with some small supports to triangulate.