The only F150 model I know of with rear tow hooks is the Raptor. Why wouldn't they put these on all trucks or at least made them an option? I found a set on ebay that someone pulled off the front, I'm going to mount them on the rear, not sure if I'll weld them on or bolt em on.

I was going to mount mine just a bit inboard of where they mounted them on the Raptor, since mine have the brackets I cant mount them like these.

Thoughts?

Below shows how they mount on the Raptor.

 

Prob cause most buyers have no use for them.

 

Use the hitch ?

 

I could see as an option maybe, but honestly the average truck buyer is never going to use them. Most people will just hook straight up to the receiver or the safety chain loops if they need recovery via the rear. Serious off roaders would likely fab up something of their own any way.

The real question though is can they support the truck in a centrifuge.

 

I agree that most have no use for them, neither front or rear. Yeah I could and have used the trailer hitch as well. I have only really used the hitch a few times but I guess I like the symmetry of having them in the rear as well as front, just sort of makes sense to me.

 

If i need it, I use the hitch as well.

Depending on your strap size you can probably feed it in the hole in it to keep no open ends between the 2 vehicles when pulling.

They'd be nice to have, but i'm not going to go out and add them when their are other ways to easily hook up a strap if needed

 

I just keep a 10,000lb receiver tow hook in the truck, that and a heavy duty clevis and tow strap.

 

Just weld them to your cross bar on your hitch and call it good..

That's all it looks like they did in the pic.. Could do the same thing with some 5/8" round bar too..

I just use my hitch for the rear 'tow hook' as needed.. (pulling stumps or other stuck trucks) I've never used my front ones...

Mitch

 

Thats what the hitch is for, anything where I expect to need a rear tow hook ahead of time (off-roading/blizzard) Ive got a 20 ton pintle hook that attaches to the hitch to make attaching a tow strap quicker.

 

I see no need for those rings they have on the back of the Raptor even tho it has a receiver hitch? Just use what you use for your trailer hooks. They should hold up just fine.

 

I actually used my front rings for the first time - to move a fallen tree -thanks to Sandy !

 

I didn't buy a hook for the receiver because I didn't want to carry something more in my tool box. I'll just put the new hooks on the hitch bar.

 

I wish I had a dollar for every time I used the hitch ball to attach a tow rope/strap/chain. It's still not often enough to justify the extra expense and weight of tow hooks on the rear.

 

The issue is when the tow ball snaps off is it's a heavy *** projective flying at what ever your pulling. If it's a tree, no big deal. If some one is next to that tree, or you are pulling another vehicle it's not a risk i'm willing to take.

If you are willing to carry a strap, a d-ring or other piece of recovery equipment is not a big deal in the scheme of things.

 

The question of "Why doesn't my truck or car have this feature or that feature?" is answered inside car companies by another question:

"What are you willing to pay for it?"

I worked in product planning for a major automaker....and every...I mean EVERY feature had been studied endlessly to determine what consumers were willing to pay for that feature.

Very detailed databases outlined the value placed on hundreds of features to help the planning and marketing teams decide how to configure and price vehicles.

So....somewhere in Ford's database is the cost of adding rear tow hooks...and the research that says what buyers are willing to pay for rear tow hooks.

And....some features add more than cost...they also add weight....which affects fuel mileage and CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy).

My team was tasked one time to explore cost cutting options on one of our cars....and, among other things, items with a cost of less than TEN CENTS were considered to be cut.

What costs less than ten cents on a car, you might ask?

At that time, cars came with cigarette lighters. The little dab of white paint that filled in the image of a smoking cigarette on the top of the lighter cost less than ten cents....we eliminated that cost and combined with a lot of other things reached our cost cutting goal.

Over thousands...or hundreds of thousands of vehicles....it all adds up.

If the research shows consumers are willing to pay for specific features, they can and do get added.

My team was able to show that customers for one of our sporty models would pay for Goodyear Eagle tires over a brand with a poor performance image. The difference in cost for the tires (at the massive volume we were buying them) was......ONE DOLLAR added to the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) on the window sticker.

We got the Goodyears, the bean counters got the extra dollar...and consumers paid a little more at retail...but got something they believed was worth it.

Northlight