3rd Gen Frame

When you say draw bar I think a fixed hitch, like the old school pickup hitches or a tractor hitch which is literally a bar. My tractors have draw bars, my trucks have receivers.

Receivers hang down below the frame a little under a foot which gives them great leverage to tweak a truck frame. Being a C channel frame doesn't help much for rigidity. Some hitches mount more forward than others too which may help support the frame more in an accident too.

Crumple zones are for the front. Aside from the brackets that allow the rear bumper to crunch downward I think automakers approach to rear impacts in a truck is more or less is whatever happens happens. You are going to get pushed back into your seat, your head will hit the headrest and that is the end of it. The 5'+ bed will easily absorb a lot of impact if needs to before the passenger compartment has to worry about anything as far as crush. Crumple zones in front of the hitch is silly, nobody is going to do that at least on a c channel frame.

I am not ripping on C channel really, everything I have has them but that is just kind of the way it is. People get off about material and thickness which is only part of the story too. My '85 Ranger's frame is made from the same material and is the same thickness as an '85 F-150 frame... so some think they are the same strength. But the '150 frame is like half again bigger in both height and width.... almost like it might be a totally different design.

Fully boxed vs C-Channel, totally different worlds. 1/16 fully boxed is MUCH stronger than 1/8" channel.

 

Having been raised on a dairy farm (in Pine Bush NY) I agree those are types of drawbars, however the thingys we insert into hitch receivers are also called drawbars. The receivers are not generally readily removable...

 

So you're saying it isn't a 1 ton truck? Damn it, I want my money back!

 

Holy necropost Batman!