Winches

[Overland Commander]

Im planning to mount a winch to a front receiver hitch platform. Anyone have experience with a winch mounted that way? What are your thoughts?

 

[smritte]

Ive seen a number of people do it. Never saw anyone actually use the winch from that position. Im sure it would be OK if you pulled straight. Side pulling may be an issue though. Looks like you have a heavy rig, that means heavy winch. Nice thing is, you could run a power feed to the back also and switch it if you need. A couple of Anderson plugs and off you go.
I haven't looked under the front of a Sequoia but, most of the Toyota's have a bit of room behind the bumper. You may be able to hide one back there. Then run a removable or folding front license plate.

Scott

 

[ArkansasDon]

I have a disperse camper friend that has his big Ford 250 4x4 winch set up with front receiver hitch w\ Anderson quick disconnects. His set up sits pretty low to the ground, but he only mounts it when he's in need for it, the rest of the time it sits in under the rear seat of his truck winch\cradle. The weight of the winch & cradle would be something to think about as you installing & removing. Another is in muddy conditions you have to kneel down or on your back to slide the hitch pin in the hitch receiver & make your power connection. Another serious issue I could see with this is the cradle holding up to angular pulls. We can never make our recovery present us how we would like them to be.
I ended up purchasing a Warn Trans4mer winch mount\brush guard & I'm extremely happy. Con on this was the cost 1,000. plus w\o the winch. I can see the cost savings of a front receiver hitch & cradle under 300.00 w\o winch or connection. I can think of better options as of hidden winch mounting plate if that is something you would consider. I know some do not like a exposed winch on the vehicle & I can see how the hidden winch mounting plate would shine in this situation.

 

[Boort]

Im planning to mount a winch to a front receiver hitch platform. Anyone have experience with a winch mounted that way? What are your thoughts?

I've seen front receiver used for launching boats but not in a recovery. I considered one for my Tacoma so I could put up goal posts in the front and back receivers to carry my Canoe. When I was considering the Sequoia I found that the folks over at A.X.E ( https://www.axeoffroad.com/toyota-sequoia/ ) were making some mounts for the early Sequoias. I'd also seen some really nice DIY mounts over on the Sequoia forums and Exp. Portal ( https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/sequoia-stealth-winch.197925/ ). While talking about Exp. Portal There was a good discussion with poster, "HenryJ" providing examples of the good and bad in an offroad/recovery use case. https://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/front-receiver-for-winch-mount.197955/

Boort

 

[Overland Commander]

Good information. Thanks!

 

[Jrahn0822]

Beings that you have a Sequoia I am almost willing to bet some different Tundra undercover/hidden winch mounts would work for you. I think that would be a much better method than to run the receiver mount. Got to remember your winch would be limited by not only it's ability or your mounting bolts, but the ultimate limiting factor would be the hitch pin used to hold the mount in.

 

[Lindenwood]

It would be at best unpleasant, and more likely very unsafe, to try heaving a big, awkward, 120lb hunk of steel around through this.

*edit*

Just saw I wrote "steal" instead of "steel" :P

 

[Horse Soldier]

If your vehicle is wired to use the winch on the back as well as the front it would prove to be very useful. Had a service truck setup that way.