my front crossmember/receiver hitch mod

Ok well, I wanted some tow points on the front of my XJ.. this is what I ended up doing.



So sorry for the lousy pics. Its a 5 mega pix cam, but takes pics like a camera phone sometimes.

I cut down a old receiver hitch off a truck and mod it to fit between the frame rails of the XJ and to fit behind the stock bumper.



I use 3/16" steel plate for the new mounting brackets on the reciver hitch. I bolted it on the frame rails using 1/2" bolts, also held on by the steering box 7/16" bolts and then a 3/8" bolt that the stock bumper bracket uses.



As you can see, I put 3/16" steel on both sides of each frame rails.. I did this for strength and because I thought 3/16" on the outside only would not be good enough. For the inner bracket, I cut a square hole and glided the receiver hitch though it, and welded it up that way. Remember that ford truck commercial where they hung the truck by the receiver hitch.. will this pass that test ?



I cut off most of the stock front cross member to make room for this receiver hitch, and so I could put plate on the inside of the frame rails. I may add some bandiron on the bottom of the frame rail and weld it to the outside plate. I dont know if I need it.



Stock bumper here.. it is kind of rough.. but If I find a nice one, I could cut a neater hole in the middle and mount it.

I dont have any future plans to make a custom bumper.. I also am thinking a receiver hitch mounted winch would work good here. If I ever get a winch.

For now.. where can I get a good stinger ? Or.. how can I make a good stinger ? Solid stinger or tube stinger ?

Looks great! Nice fab work. Although, the hardware looks a little small.

Tube stinger. . . solid stock would be incredibly heavy.
I really like what you did, looks great, seems like it would be plenty strong, and I'm all about building vs. buying. The only thing I'd worry about now, would be the shear strength of the receiver pin. Also, you could always get that plastic molding to cover the cut edge of your bumper to help clean it up.
You could mount your stinger right to the receiver frame.

Thanks,

For the hardware.. I used 5 - 1/2"(3/4" head) bolts on the right side.. is that not enough ?

I thought about the shear strength of the stinger pin.. What can I do about that ? How about drilling it out and using a big bolt ? Or perhaps use 2 pins or bolts ?

dan89XJ said:

Thanks,

For the hardware.. I used 5 - 1/2"(3/4" head) bolts on the right side.. is that not enough ?

I thought about the shear strength of the stinger pin.. What can I do about that ? How about drilling it out and using a big bolt ? Or perhaps use 2 pins or bolts ?

Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have read through the writeup more closely. Those bolts should be fine, especially since they are grade 8. I'm not following what you are trying to do. The previous poster mentioned shear strength of the receiver pin. You then called it the 'stinger pin'. I guess you could make a receiver mounted stinger. If you did that, I think it would be better if if had a receiver at each edge and pinned the stinger on each side. With regard to strength, it couldn't be any worse than having no stinger at all (assuming you only had it installed while offroading.

For general recovery, you shouldn't have any problems with a hitch pin. Some people stick the end of the strap right into the receiver then put the hitch pin on. Obviously that's not the best approach, but the point is that the pin more than adequate for recovery.

I have this. I'd imagine that Warn did some testing before producing this product.