Front Bumper with Hitch

I'm playing with bumper and winch ideas. I like the idea of having portable winch than I can move from front to back and leave in the garage when not in use. I would also like to have a full front bumper.

I know winch bumpers can be bought and I know front hitches can be bought, but I do not see any front bumpers with hitches or hitch-bumper combinations that would allow the hitch to be mounted in place of the winch.

Has anyone done something like this or have thought about it?

 

I like this idea too. Best of both worlds. Following...

 

Also following, because I've been looking for one for months.

At this point I'm looking at buying a DIY kit and modifying it to fit a front hitch that I can weld into the frame attachment points of the bumper. I don't need a winch often enough to justify permanently carrying up front, and a hitch mount allows you to install it in the rear if needed.

Alternately, if I could get CAD files for a bumper, I could modify and cut it myself on our plasma cutter table at work.

 

Following

 

I wanted a front hitch that wasn’t low, had to make one. Already have a winch on a receiver

 

I’d love to see a commercially available front bumper that had an integrated winch cradle that could be removed and swapped to the back when necessary. Seems like a feature that could set one of these fab companies’ bumpers apart from the dozens of similar products. Ideally it would also be crash/airbag compatible.

 

At this point I plan on getting a DIY weld kit, likely from Northwest Innovations, and modifying it by cutting a hole in the front beneath the winch plate and welding a 2" hitch into the structure of the bumper.

I also plan on emailing them and see if they cab add a hole to the plate, should be easy enough since they are cutting the plates out on laser cutting table or similar.

 

I really liked the look of the SSO bumper, but also wanted a front receiver. Got the bumper thru a group buy here on TW. Found a local welder that did a great job of merging the receiver to it. He added some gusseting too.






The receiver sits below the winch mounting plate.

 

I have built a few over the years Not all that hard .

Everyone has a different idea How they want the design Might be why no Aftermarket are built.

Build it yourself you get just what you want.

 

I have been looking for a front hitch as well. The Curt version is too low. 4xinnovations has a nice one, https://www.4xinnovations.com/2016--2022-Tacoma-Front-Hidden-Hitch-Receiver_p_191.html , but seems too high. Goldilocks problem. I see two great custom options here. Thanks.

 

It all depends just what your using a Front hitch for.

Build it yourself or draw the design and have it built.

 

I bought a raw steel aftermarket bumper and had a fabricator cut out a slot where the winch would been and welded on a 2” receiver. Then he got it powder coated. $600 added to the bumper cost but I also saved on the powder coat. Did this 5 years ago never looked back. Now I’m looking to shed some weight and do it again, bumper needs to be 50 lbs lighter, which won’t be hard as it’s 225 lbs on the front of my truck.