Has anyone installed or got any pics of a front receiver hitch mounted on a new F150? I have a Thule receiver hitch bike carrier and want to be able to carry our bikes on the front end so I can still pull a trailer and load the bed with camping gear.
Thanks.

 

I'd love to find the answer to this also. I just hope it doesn't involve removing the front tow hooks. Although mine is for an alternate idea on how to mount a winch to my truck.

 

That was my concern, the front hitch is only about $100. Look for the drawtite front receiver, I really though about this but eventually came to the conclusion I like my tow hooks. To combat this I thought of buying a 2nd receiver hitch shackle and throwing that on the front but that means I'll have to buy another locking hitch pin for theft reasons, and I don't want to buy all that.

 

Tow hooks stay in place with the Draw-Tite front receiver, and the receiver itself has two recovery loops on it. It's rated for 500 lb carry weight and 9,000 lbs winch pull (within 15 degrees up or down and 45 degrees to either side). It bolts on with 4 bolts through the frame, with no holes to drill. I did have to take one fog light out of place to get one bolt through, but it was no big deal and might have been just production tolerance on my truck.

I put a cargo carrier on the front of my truck and carry three bikes on it. Works great. Then I can pull my pop-up.

I'd post pictures but I don't know how - and it says I can't post attachments.

 

use this website to post pictures.
http://imageshack.us/

 

u have to have them hosted on the internet somewhere like cardomain for example, and click on the "insert image" button at the top and then paste the link to the pic in there.

 

on Draw Tights website it says it only fits up to 2005, will they fit my 2006?

 

I have the Draw-Tite unit also on a 2004. Easy to install, no cutting or drilling required. Tow hooks are not affected.

 

Any pics of these front recievers?? I have a hitch off of my old '01 F150 and was thinking of retrofitting it for the front of my '05 F150. I have a wide boat that is a pain to back up to its storage location w/ my truck but is easy to back up w/ my dad's work van on the front hitch.

 

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/9812/hitch11de.jpg

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/4149/hitch39tq.jpg

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/5869/hitch40ep.jpg



http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/9938/hitch61bt.jpg

I bought mine from these folks - great to deal with:

http://www.drawtite.com/

 

how much did that setup run you?

 

Thanks for the pics "Lee F.", the one's I had seen stuck out of the gap grille. I'd never seen one that dropped down below the bumper.

Thanks again.

 

It's a good thing that Drawtite model pictured above doesn't mess with the factory tow hooks. By the looks of it you'd rip the bumper cover off the truck if you hooked a tow rope up to the ones on the receiver

I'm too lazy to run down to my truck to look, but do our bumper covers bow up in the middle as pictures above? Or is that from the hitch installation??

 

That bow up on the lip of the air deflector IS from the receiver. I decided not to trim it, since it wasn't hurting anything. It's maybe 1/4" to 1/2" of interference. The hitch mounts at either of two levels - I chose the higher ground clearance setting. The lower setting would have cleared it.

I forget what I paid, I want to say ~$175.00 - $200.00 for the hitch, the steel Draw-Tite plug, and the J-pin, but I'm not sure. The J-pin tightens thru an extra side hole in the hitch and takes the slack out of the connection, locking whatever is in there TIGHT - my cargo carrier doesn't rock at all. Plus the J-pin has a lock on it - don't want anyone stealing that steel plug, it wasn't cheap! I went with the steel plug for two reasons. One is it just looks cool, but the other is that it gives a little bit of a skid-plate effect for an assembly that hangs lower than the bumper.

By the way, that's the part number sticker on the side in the one picture . . . mine's an '04.

 

http://www.reeseprod.net/pdf/N65043.pdf

Draw-Tite, Hidden Hitch, and Reese are all owned by the same manufacturer, but I like dealing with the folks at Plattsburgh Spring (www.drawtite.com)