front hitch and cooling

[nicculi]

I'm thinking about installing a front mount hitch for use with a winch. I'm a bit worried about the reduction in approach angle, and cradle attachment in adverse situations. I'm thinking about building one that exits behind the front plate area, my only concern is that my cross tube, will block airflow through the bumper and thus reduce my cooling efficiency. Anyone know what kind of trouble I might get into with cooling issues?
thx

[funfinder4]

A front hitch wont take anything away from your approach angles by itself (when nothings inserted into it). Mines tucked up right under the front plastic bumper and is about an inch to a half inch shorter that what the front plastic bumper sticks out. I can't picture the hitch hitting or dragging along anything. If it was you're going to have other body damage to worry about and will probably need a new plastic bumper at the least.

I've thought about making a custom winch mount if/when I get a winch that comes out of the hitch opening only enough to clear the front bumper then makes a 90 degree turn up to at least the licence plate height then attach the winch platform at that height.

[nicculi]

I don't think that i would ever foresee an issue w/ a premade hitch, and clearance, but I have the means to make one that exits the bumper behind the plate area, and I figure the higher the better for all access, especially snow situations. I appreciate the feedback

[jim65wagon]

This is how tightly the Hidden Hitch tucks up. The receiver alone does very little to your approach angle.



With a winch attached it's a slightly different story. This is a Superwinch EPi9.0 on a Curt Winch plate.



As you see the winch and fairlead do not hang down much, but they do stick out from the bumper far enough to affect your approach angle. I've buried it three times now: in a hillside doing a 37 point U-turn on a narrow trail; coming down off a runoff swale on a forest road at a fair rate of speed; and going through a mudhole in Monongahela NF.

In all fairness, none of these damaged anything, or affected the use of the winch. All that was required was some washing for the dirt crusties. I would like to see the winch higher, but at this point I'm not willing to plunk down the cash for a new bumper...

[TundraBay]

I have the Curt front receiver, and it does hang a bit low in front. I've been on back trails though and have never hit anything. I really want to take it off, and put on the Warn Trans4mer brush bar with a receiver integrated but it's pretty expensive.

Anyway, that is my ideal solution.

[nicculi]

You have stated my reasons for wanting a front hitch higher, I also would prefer a transformer system, or a full bumper, although these solutions are expensive. I feel it would be cheaper and just as effective to fab a hitch above the frame rails that exit's directly from the air gap in the factory bumper behind the license plate. Any cooling issues to that?

[TundraBay]

I can't answer, the gen2 Tundra is set up differently in the front, with the cooling area higher up. I considered your idea, but it would have required cutting the bumper, etc., so I went with the simple & easy at least for now.

[Herbicidal]

Originally Posted by nicculi

I'm thinking about installing a front mount hitch for use with a winch. I'm a bit worried about the reduction in approach angle, and cradle attachment in adverse situations. I'm thinking about building one that exits behind the front plate area, my only concern is that my cross tube, will block airflow through the bumper and thus reduce my cooling efficiency. Anyone know what kind of trouble I might get into with cooling issues?
thx

I would suspect, but can't prove, that it won't reduce cooling by all that much, if at all. The bumper opening on the 1st gen Tundra's just isn't that big. I have the Warn Trans4mer system with a non-removable winch up font (see my photo album) and I've very happy with this setup. The winch and mounting plate pretty much bocks off the bumper opening, however, six inches of lift and 35's keeps it up and out of the way of trail obstacles. In all my times out wheelin I have never had the engine temp gauge move off dead center. The ONLY time I've had the temp gauge move even a little bit was pulling our 26' Outback TT (scaled weight of 5,600 lbs) south bound on I-5 here in California up the "Grapevine". This is a very steep climb before getting to southern CA. I got stuck behind a big rig on this grade and I could not safely pull out and pass him. So I had to sit behind him for about 15 minutes doing appro. 25 mph to the top. That was a rather extreme situation, so I don't believe that blocking the bumper opening is going to cause you any concern in day to day driving out on the trails. So in my opinion - go for it!

[nicculi]

that was the answer I was hoping for, thanks.
I was thinking about blocking the area off for a few weeks with some cardboard just to see what happened.

I'll Post some progress pics when i start.