Receiver winch vs front mount

[Mdyk]

Hello Everyone,

I'm looking into winch options and started thinking about just adding a high clearance 2" receiver to the front of my 2016 taco. I plan on getting a receiver mounted winch that I could switch from front to back as needed or remove the winch entirely when using the truck as my daily driver. Does any one have experience with receiver mounted winches. Any drawbacks to this plan I might be overlooking?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[94Cruiser]

I have often thought of the same thing

 

[Overlandllama]

I have one set up. Mine's a bit of a hack... I drag an auxiliary battery with 8 feet of cable around with me, storing it all in the bed. It's just when I go off-roading though. Plus, my winch is about 20 years old and is really for a car hauler I used to have. It's not ideal but paired with a pulley block it'll work ok. I considered putting a front hitch receiver on mine but I'll just make it work with one of the front tow-hooks. Best of luck!

 

[4S50]

I originally planned to go the receiver mount route with my Jeep, but found that storing the winch when not in use was a problem with the limited space available. The other issue was the weight of the winch. I wound up with a Warn HS9500 which was too big and heavy to really pack around, so it is permanently mounted. I use a Warn Short Drum 6000 lbs. receiver mount winch on my Ram 2500, and it works great for light duty pulls.

 

[chrispartida]

On my 02 Taco, I added front and rear Curt receiver hitches, and bought a Ramsey cradle winch.

I feel fairly confident in its abilities to get me unstuck, but have yet to employ it. I'll dig for an hour and get out my MaxTrax before even thinking about using my winch.

I will say, find a cradle that fits snugly into both your receivers. That and use quality hardware in all mounting.


-CP TACO

OB #2376

 

[Daryl 32]

Personally I just would not feel safe using a winch stuck to the front or back of a vehicle with a single 2" "floppy" fitting receiver arrangement. I would work on a double insert pair of receiver mounts, the thought of pulling at an angle on a single receiver mounted winch plate/mount just makes me cringe.

Just me.

 

[Corbet]

Compare the "tow" rating to the standard class three receiver and the pull rating of the winch you think you need. Then think about the different angles of force that winch may apply to the receiver verses towing.

Personally I say hard mount a winch or consider other recovery tools like a set of Maxtrax.

 

[vegasjeepguy]

I'm with the guys that say hard mount the winch. In the (very) few situations you would have to have a rear mounted winch for recovery, hopefully you are out with a buddy with a winch or recovery straps. I just don't see that you really gain much by not hard mounting and all the advantages are with hard mounting.