Front hitch, need info

Well I did my research on front tow hooks vs. front hitch, and decided on the front hitch. This website was great... http://www.hrja.org/towpoints.htm , does anyone have more pics of an XJ with a front hitch? Also which company makes the one that tucks up nicely, and dosent hang way down?

And the other thing... I want a winch because I have a tendancy to get stuck (go figure). But I dont want to spend the money for a nice front bumper, and I'm trying to keep the Jeep as stock looking as possile (dont want it to look like a trail rig when its time to sell it). I have access to a machine shop/ welders at work and saw once a thing that pluged into the front hitch, and stuck out and had a big flat plate to mount a winch to. Has anyone made something similar or have any advice on making this? What are the pro's and cons? I've never wired a winch up but is there a way to make it a quick disconnect?

Can anyone hook me up with a link to a pre-made winch hitch adapter. Thanks

I'm very happy with my Draw tite hitch. I've had it for several years and it has worked out very well (Ahem!)

I built my own winch tray, and the winch sits as close to the bumper as possible, but warn sells this one that you can use.

Your my hero, thats exactly what I was looking for. Do you have any more pics of the tray you made? Thanks

X2 on the Draw-Tite hitch. do not waste your $$ on the HiddenHitch that is available thru Quadratec. i've had both and the drawTite is by far the better of the 2. the draw-tite mounts between the frame and the swaybar bushings and uses existing bolt locations except the very front where you need to drill 1 on each side. get ahold of your local truck accesory/snow plow shop. they will likley carry the Draw-tite products. i paid about $130 fo rmine a year ago.

an interesting side-note on this is that at the time (a lil over a year ago) the shop owner told me that draw-tite and HiddenHitch had both been bought by a larger company. i had wondered if they would continue both complete product lines or consolidate them where "duplication" was un-nessecary. i figured we'd see one of the designs go away. hope if they do that they chose the stronger of the 2 rather than just look at production costs.

here's the draw-tite. it looks like it hangs way down, but only because i removed the whole air dam from beneath the bumper. i've done some heavy pulling with this, and it has done just fine. paid $110 shipped from etrailers.com

I used the following for my winch cradle.

1/4" x 2" box
2" x 1/4" angle
3" x 1/4" angle
1/4" x 6 x 2" flat stock (gussets and tie ins)




I used "greylocks" as quick disconnects. They can be found in any towing/ RV place.
Hindsight being 20/20, I'd splurge for the Warn disco's

Hope this helps.

John

Anderson battery connectors





Grainger Electric

Thanks a lot guys, thats what I was looking for!

I just ordered my Draw-tite from etrailer.com. I'll update this with some pics and install details when it gets here, $130 shipped

And just to make you feel even better about yer purchase, I too have the drawtite on Thumpers front end, with stellar results. VEERRY handy indeed, that...

the pic is kinda dark but my DrawTite hides nicely behind the airdam. just notch the air dam and its a tight fit, and with a rubber "plug" in the receiver it is essentially invisible. the HiddenHitch will sit just below the airdam so no trimming is needed. 2 totally different designs.

http://detoursusa.com/xjbackbone.php

How about this? Looks pretty nice if you want to keep it looking as stock as possible.

K

corbinafly said:

http://detoursusa.com/xjbackbone.php

How about this? Looks pretty nice if you want to keep it looking as stock as possible.

K

Click to expand...

once again Mark has come out with a real nice and very well-thought-out XJ product. i saw it on his rig when he was still doing R&D and almost cried because it is alot like something i was "designing" in my own head.

UPDATE: So the instructions say "estimated instal time-45 minutes", and it took me almost 5 hours. The flat plates that go inside the frame rails were too big, so I had to grind them down fit. And I have tiny hands, and even I couldnt get my hands into the rails to drop in the bolts. I gave up and just took off the front bumper for better access. All in all is sucked and I dont ever want to have to do it again. Here are a few pics... I screwed up my airdam so I'll be making a trip to the junkyard tomorrow for a new one.