Hitch winch mounts for HD trucks

[Thewheelman]

So I have a 2013 F250 6.2L gas truck and it came with a huge ranch hand front bumper that has a built in receiver. I want to swap the bumper to something more offroad/trail oriented but that'll be later down the road. In the meantime I'm thinking I could use a hitch mounted winch since there is no winch plate on that bumper.

The problem is all the ones I've found from reputable manufacturers, like smittybilt and warn, are only rated to 12K LBS. I figure the truck fully loaded should be around 7.5K-8K LB and a 12K LB winch is the minimum for an 8K LB truck from what my research is telling me. I'd rather have a 15K LB winch so I have some more wiggle room and its not so stressed. Does anyone know of a solid receiver winch mount that'll hold a 15K LB winch?

All that being said, I'm relatively new to the winch game and its possible I'm just going more extreme than necessary. Any and all help is much appreciated.

Edit= what about a high lift? Given the description of the vehicle, is there a high lift that'll suit my recovery needs?

 

[M Rose]

So I have a 2013 F250 6.2L gas truck and it came with a huge ranch hand front bumper that has a built in receiver. I want to swap the bumper to something more offroad/trail oriented but that'll be later down the road. In the meantime I'm thinking I could use a hitch mounted winch since there is no winch plate on that bumper.

The problem is all the ones I've found from reputable manufacturers, like smittybilt and warn, are only rated to 12K LBS. I figure the truck fully loaded should be around 7.5K-8K LB and a 12K LB winch is the minimum for an 8K LB truck from what my research is telling me. I'd rather have a 15K LB winch so I have some more wiggle room and its not so stressed. Does anyone know of a solid receiver winch mount that'll hold a 15K LB winch?

All that being said, I'm relatively new to the winch game and its possible I'm just going more extreme than necessary. Any and all help is much appreciated.

Edit= what about a high lift? Given the description of the vehicle, is there a high lift that'll suit my recovery needs?

Yes you can run a cradle winch on your truck. Mile Marker makes a Winch Plate that will accept their heavy duty line of winches.

 

[MidOH]

Leverage, how does it work?

That cradle, combined with that giant bumper, is a pretty long distance. I really like the Warn Ascent bumpers for those trucks.

 

[M Rose]

Edit= what about a high lift? Given the description of the vehicle, is there a high lift that'll suit my recovery needs?

I would think any 84” HIghlift would work

 

[MidOH]

I use mine for winching mostly. Snow belt ain't so nice to electric winches.

 

[Thewheelman]

Edit= what about a high lift? Given the description of the vehicle, is there a high lift that'll suit my recovery needs?

I would think any 84” HIghlift would work

Would you happen to have a link for a good 84" high lift? Google isn't showing anything bigger than a 60".

 

[M Rose]

Would you happen to have a link for a good 84" high lift? Google isn't showing anything bigger than a 60".

You have to go to a brick and mortar farm store... my local one carries them, but they don’t have a web site.

 

[Thewheelman]

Would you happen to have a link for a good 84" high lift? Google isn't showing anything bigger than a 60".

You have to go to a brick and mortar farm store... my local one carries them, but they don’t have a web site.

Ok, the area I live in is huge in farming/ranching so I'm somebody sells them in my home town. Do you have a preferred brand/model?

 

[Desert Runner]

A few things to keep in mind:

You could get that 12k winch, and with a 'snatch block', it would be capable of some really hard pulls. The single line rating would probably cover 85%+ of any winching you would do. The snatch block would double your pulling power (24k), but would slow the cable speed to 1/2. Another, very important consideration, is to check how many bumper to frame bolts it is tied in to. 4 bolts are not enough, 6 is minimum (grade 8). I have read and seen a 4 bolt attachment FAIL on extreme winching....aka...tearing off from shearing.

Ranch hand makes stout equipment. Do a little research and see if a cradle winch can be optimized in that temporary configuration. A front receiver can also be utilized for a recovery stinger, if you need to. That receiver plate probably is not rated above a 9 or 10 k winch, but being a ranch hand, it might be able to handle a 12k winch. If you can find the model number, a call to them could get you a definite answer.

Example
D-Ring recovery 'Stinger' below:

 

[Boostpowered]

Pretty much all the cradle winch mounts are rated at 10k no matter what they say. Heck pretty much any winch bumper will be rated at 10k. All of the 10k up to 15k winches have the same frame, motor and gearing the difference is the spool size and the line rating it comes with, some 9k fall into this also. If you want to keep from ripping the mount stick with 10k or under the line will pop first if you overload, well actually your gears would probably chew themselves up first and cease to turn the spool. Also depending on if we're talking about front mount or rear mounted, front reciever hitches are usually weaker than rear tow hitches not to mention the front of your vehicle is heavier than the rear so factor that in also.

Having said all that I ran a front cradle mount on a front hitch reciever with a 13k winch with 25k rope for a little over a year and didn't have problems breaking anything while I waited for my bumper. The major downfall I encountered is you are gonna loose roughly 3 inches off the approach or departure angle depending on front or rear mount and you will stub that thing in the ground a few times

 

[Thewheelman]

A few things to keep in mind:

You could get that 12k winch, and with a 'snatch block', it would be capable of some really hard pulls. The single line rating would probably cover 85%+ of any winching you would do. The snatch block would double your pulling power (24k), but would slow the cable speed to 1/2. Another, very important consideration, is to check how many bumper to frame bolts it is tied in to. 4 bolts are not enough, 6 is minimum (grade 8). I have read and seen a 4 bolt attachment FAIL on extreme winching....aka...tearing off from shearing.

Ranch hand makes stout equipment. Do a little research and see if a cradle winch can be optimized in that temporary configuration. A front receiver can also be utilized for a recovery stinger, if you need to. That reciever plate probably is not rated above a 9 or 10 k winch, but being a ranch hand, it might be able to handle a 12k winch. If you can find the model number, a call to them could get you a definite answer.

I will absolutely do that, thank you for the advice.

 

[Thewheelman]

Pretty much all the cradle winch mounts are rated at 10k no matter what they say. Heck pretty much any winch bumper will be rated at 10k. All of the 10k up to 15k winches have the same frame, motor and gearing the difference is the spool size and the line rating it comes with, some 9k fall into this also. If you want to keep from ripping the mount stick with 10k or under the line will pop first if you overload, well actually your gears would probably chew themselves up first and cease to turn the spool. Also depending on if we're talking about front mount or rear mounted, front reciever hitches are usually weaker than rear tow hitches not to mention the front of your vehicle is heavier than the rear so factor that in also.

Having said all that I ran a front cradle mount on a front hitch reciever with a 13k winch with 25k rope for a little over a year and didn't have problems breaking anything while I waited for my bumper. The major downfall I encountered is you are gonna loose roughly 3 inches off the approach or departure angle depending on front or rear mount and you will stub that thing in the ground a few times

Thank you for the insight. Knowing next to nothing about winches makes it somewhat complicated to ask the right questions.

I am worried about stubing that thing in the ground and wrecking it. With that in mind I'm thinking I'll probably just take it off and leave in the bed drawer or something until I need it, which also makes me wonder if I'll end up stuck in a weird way and unable to attach it. *sigh*, 6 of one and half a dozen of the other ‍♂.

 

[bgenlvtex]

Purely opinion with no substance to support it, but I would expect a receiver mount(ed) winch plate to fail pretty quickly on heavy off angle pulls. Bigger winches and heavier trucks exacerbating those expectations.

I would be concerned with how the bumper is mounted to the frame as well.

This whole arrangement has always looked like a crescent wrench / draino type of solution.

 

[Thewheelman]

Purely opinion with no substance to support it, but I would expect a receiver mount(ed) winch plate to fail pretty quickly on heavy off angle pulls. Bigger winches and heavier trucks exacerbating those expectations.

I would be concerned with how the bumper is mounted to the frame as well.

This whole arrangement has always looked like a crescent wrench / draino type of solution.

Fair enough and dully noted

 

[Boostpowered]

Thank you for the insight. Knowing next to nothing about winches makes it somewhat complicated to ask the right questions.

I am worried about stubing that thing in the ground and wrecking it. With that in mind I'm thinking I'll probably just take it off and leave in the bed drawer or something until I need it, which also makes me wonder if I'll end up stuck in a weird way and unable to attach it. *sigh*, 6 of one and half a dozen of the other ‍♂.

Your worried about the right things those are some of the pitfalls of a reciever mounted winch although removing it is nice for mpg and such and parking in spaces in the city but it can be a pain to get it back on in certain situations, carrying it back and forth gets about as annoying as hi lift or come along winching though it will wear you out quick.

I only had one cuz I couldn't live without a winch for the time it took my bumper if worried about pulling thing apart you could always use some good chain to make it a little more secure, it wouldn't help with stubbing but would raise the weight rating for pulling some

Another issue I had with that setup is that with the reciever and winch cradle plus winch weigh about 100lb more than the steel bumper I replaced them with plus the winch. Your mileage may vary as they say so you may find it is perfect fit for what you do and how you wheel for me and my colorado it didn't fit what I wanted. Also if you get all the stuff and decide later you want a winch bumper then you've spent a few hundred extra bucks for something you likely won't use anymore.

 

[B-R]

So I have a 2013 F250 6.2L gas truck and it came with a huge ranch hand front bumper that has a built in receiver. I want to swap the bumper to something more offroad/trail oriented but that'll be later down the road. In the meantime I'm thinking I could use a hitch mounted winch since there is no winch plate on that bumper.

The problem is all the ones I've found from reputable manufacturers, like smittybilt and warn, are only rated to 12K LBS. I figure the truck fully loaded should be around 7.5K-8K LB and a 12K LB winch is the minimum for an 8K LB truck from what my research is telling me. I'd rather have a 15K LB winch so I have some more wiggle room and its not so stressed. Does anyone know of a solid receiver winch mount that'll hold a 15K LB winch?

All that being said, I'm relatively new to the winch game and its possible I'm just going more extreme than necessary. Any and all help is much appreciated.

Edit= what about a high lift? Given the description of the vehicle, is there a high lift that'll suit my recovery needs?

When those of us that run HD trucks are looking and considering a winch setup for our rigs we have to remember that said winch is only as good as its anchor point. We can not get by anchoring to the same things the Jeeps and Yotas do Unless just a light tug or bump is needed Best advice I can give is when you have other HD rigs around is when you learn the limits of your rig and respect those limits when exploring alone but yes we all learn the hard way at times and still call it fun

 

[M Rose]

Ok, the area I live in is huge in farming/ranching so I'm somebody sells them in my home town. Do you have a preferred brand/model?

I don’t... I use a real “Handy-Man” farm jack... but Handyman has been out of business for decades...

 

[Thewheelman]

So I have a 2013 F250 6.2L gas truck and it came with a huge ranch hand front bumper that has a built in receiver. I want to swap the bumper to something more offroad/trail oriented but that'll be later down the road. In the meantime I'm thinking I could use a hitch mounted winch since there is no winch plate on that bumper.

The problem is all the ones I've found from reputable manufacturers, like smittybilt and warn, are only rated to 12K LBS. I figure the truck fully loaded should be around 7.5K-8K LB and a 12K LB winch is the minimum for an 8K LB truck from what my research is telling me. I'd rather have a 15K LB winch so I have some more wiggle room and its not so stressed. Does anyone know of a solid receiver winch mount that'll hold a 15K LB winch?

All that being said, I'm relatively new to the winch game and its possible I'm just going more extreme than necessary. Any and all help is much appreciated.

Edit= what about a high lift? Given the description of the vehicle, is there a high lift that'll suit my recovery needs?

When those of us that run HD trucks are looking and considering a winch setup for our rigs we have to remember that said winch is only as good as its anchor point. We can not get by anchoring to the same things the Jeeps and Yotas do Unless just a light tug or bump is needed Best advice I can give is when you have other HD rigs around is when you learn the limits of your rig and respect those limits when exploring alone but yes we all learn the hard way at times and still call it fun

Thats true, the winch rating doesn't matter if you don't have something solid to winch to. I'm definitely going to have to be as careful as possible to not get stuck any more than necessary.