Looking for high clearance Front receiver update

I've been looking for a high clearance front receiver hitch for a 2020 tacoma for a while now. I searched the forum repeatedly, but I haven't found what I'm looking for. It looks like there were a few companies, like Mobtown, that made a receiver that was tucked up, inside the stock bumper/grill, but they're no longer in business. I've seen several members on the forum with the receiver mount I'm looking for, but the links/products they are talking about are no longer available.
Is there a company out there currently making these?
I know curt makes one, but I don't want it hanging down and sticking out like that if I can avoid it.
I want the flexibility of a multi-mount winch, and when I'm towing a travel trailer, I want to put a bike rack on the front.

 

+1

I have a 3rd gen Taco, and I would love to have a stealthy install of a receiver hitch in that space occupied by the black section of the front bumper. Googling has not turned up anything. Very surprised to not see more receiver hitch winch setups here, tbh.

 

Subbed…looking for the same setup for mine instead of a dedicated winch bumper. Thanks @couriersean for posting this!

 

It would be good for more than a winch. I have learned, since moving to Minnesota this year, that one can use a high lift jack to raise from a ball hitch, just a few inches, then carefully push the jack over. Essentially moving the tires out of a snow rut. I've had to do this while "rescuing" the guy who plows the snow in the huge driveway at the place I rent from. He gets a bit too aggressive with the plow sometimes and gets himself stuck. Usually I can yank him free, but sometimes I end up digging ruts for myself... depending on the angle I have to pull from. Works great at the rear, but would like the option of moving the front as well.

 

i just ordered an SDHQ hidden winch mount.

and a few months ago, picked up a 12" long 2" receiver tube from farm and fleet, same as this one:
https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Fabrication-Parts/Gen-Y-Hitch/325-GH-003.html

my hope is that i can weld the receiver tube to the underside of the winch mounting plate to poke out just beneath the fairlead in the middle of the front plastic valance. time will tell how this idea pans out.

 

Will be waiting on pics of your results. I hadn't seen that winch mount before, and actually prefer it's looks to all the other low profile hidden winch front bumpers I've seen here.

 

My buddy did this Victory bumper https://www.victory4x4.com/product/VT3FB.html and then had a one of these https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Fabrication-Parts/Gen-Y-Hitch/325-GH-003.html welded into it. It looks original.
I have the Mobtown Recovery Bar and when I mounted a bike rack on, the bikes sit really too high and blocks vision looking through the windshield.

You want the under bumper bolt on Curt hitch to keep the bikes lower.

 

biggest advantage to the sdhq is that it adds dual recovery points that are just beneath the plastic valance.

i've got a whole list of hidden winch mounts if you need it, though there's a thread here that used to cover most of them. my 2nd pick would've been the c4fab version, but that was discontinued a year or two ago.

 

Do you want it lower than where the base of the winch would sit? I ask, because mounting it on top of the mounting plate, by first cutting a notch in the front-facing plate (to make room for the receiver hitch), would sit the receiver hitch nicely centered on the vertical part of the bumper, just like the winch 'mouth' would otherwise sit. If you're at the welding party already, you could simply weld that now-cut front-facing plate onto the receiver hitch. Also, might make sense to weld in a filler plate on the mounting plate, to give the hitch something more to weld to. Another option would be to weld the hitch onto a plate with holes drilled to attach normally (bolts/nuts?).

Come to think of it, accessing the pin on such a 'stealth' hitch would present its own set of problems, no? If I can't have my cake and eat it too, I don't want cake!

Edit: oh, I think you bought a different model than the one I was looking at. The one I was peeping doesn't have added recovery points, I don't think.

 

well, they call them 'd-ring mounts' so maybe not specifically rated recovery mounts, but part of the assembly enough for some light-duty tugging.

i believe they're the two additional pieces in this picture


all the speculation you're starting is somewhat why i'm really waiting to get everything before i come up with too much of a game plan

the idea would be for the receiver to just barely poke through the plastic valance so its not too obtrusive. i've got some concerns about the angles leading up to the fairlead mounting plate, but don't see enough good pictures to figure out if that's easily modifiable.

when i was at farm and fleet getting that 2' receiver tube, i was in the lawn and garden section looking at throttle cable/pull start cord, as well as springs and steel tubing to create a remote-actuated hitch pin. still thinking about it. i gave up for the time being, i need to see how the receiver tube mounts up underneath the fairlead first. though i'm not opposed to any cutting/reinforcing needed, i'm well off the reservation already!

i also want to create a remote free-spool using some universal joints so i don't need to pop the hood and reach all the way down to freespool the winch, but that's another project only slightly related to this one!

 

https://www.4xinnovations.com/2016--2023-Tacoma-Front-Hidden-Hitch-Receiver_p_191.html

One to consider. Found on first page on Google, so OP may have seen this already.

 

I have a Curt and you are right- after measuring the height difference between a hidden receiver and the Curt, I realized the receiver is too high for a front mounted bike rack and also didn’t like how high it would mount my tray mounted winch. The Curt works well and I keep a receiver mounted tube step in it when I’m not using it. Makes a handy step for reaching the engine, and also a lightweight skid for when you approach a dirt berm while off-roading.

 

Check these out by @WarFab Armor https://warfabarmor.com/products/sheridan-hitch-skids?_pos=1&_sid=ef88013bd&_ss=r a better skid than a step.

 

I see the rings on the SDHQ. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you'd have to cut access to those rings, though. Not sure. I'd prolly just add demon mounts and shackles at the usual spots off to the sides, but the more the merrier in them situations.... The remote pin puller seems doable. Hmmmm.... Long pin; washer welded along its length, with a spring going to a mounted tube; pin resides in the tube; then attached to a cable of some sort; going to a pulley that brings the cable higher, so as to reach from the top; attached to a pull handle that is mounted on a ring. Janky, but workable, and eliminates the need for a cotter pin. Could also eliminate the pulley system if you used a pin with a long enough 'handle', but that would add some weight (not that big of a deal, I suppose) and maybe some rattle. I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about this pin issue....

I had not seen the 4xInnovations hitch in my search. Thanks, @Chuy! You get easier access to the pin, but it rides a bit higher than I wanted. That black bumper is just begging for something useful to be installed there! Still... the pin access issue is real.

 

I have one of those on my rear receiver, they do work well as a step and the bottom of mine has been well used too!

OP would do well with the Curt and one of those on the front.