A buddy and myself built a front receiver for my truck, looks and turned out awesome, now i just gotta get myself a winch and multi-mount. my friend was actually pretty impressed with the hitch, it looks perfect :)
pics!

the hitch i started with... off a mid 90's full size chevy.


brackets cut off and made to size


all welded up



bumper back on



and light bar back on





licence plate receiver mounts are also going to be made so i can take my plate off easily when i need to use it



and the rear bumper i ordered material for today to be done soon (minor changes of course; built in receiver, and tow hooks moved over attached to the mounts)
its going to fit between my bed exactly like a roll pan, just much more useful.

(braddokxlt's bumper)

 

that hitch is perfect man, good job. i like how you dont have to cut the bumper to get access to it. i give u an A+ man

 

Looks great man!

 

STILL kickin' myself for not making one! I'm jealous now. Thanks. lol. I want mine about 1-1.5" lower in the bumper hole. dangit. oh well..valence is already cut so i can lower the bumper some.

 

looks killer u should make me one...j/k

 

That looks really good!

 

thanks guys. im actually really happy with where it comes out, i cut into the cross member so i wouldn't have to hack my valance, but when i got my bumper on i was surprised to see that it stops basically perfectly flush with the bumper. Howells, it cost me $40 for the hitch, and $20 to cover hydro for my friend to weld it so maybe, but you'd have to hack your billet grille.
anyways, all in all... i love it :)

 

Looking good. I want to get one installed on my truck too. I just need to go find a good welder to help me do it!

 

Looks awesome man. Nice work. I am gonna do mine that way this summer whenever I find time to get to it.

 

Looks great. These are really catching on.

 

Very nice! I want to do that on my 98 Ranger! Its 2wd and doesnt have tow hooks

Looks very good man!

 

Looks great

 

looks really good man i have to do that with mine too, i hate not having tow hooks in front

 

looks really good i like how you didnt have to cut anything nice and clean install

 

he did cut

 

i did cut, but it was nothing important or visible haha. and plus it was just another spot to weld the hitch to for some added strength.

 

Nice job, looks great. Did you happen to note the distance between the frame rails? I thought I saw somewhere it's 26.5 inches. I'm thinking about doing the same thing on my 06, is it welded to the rails or did you fab brackets behind there to bolt it with?

 

i just welded it to the rails, i have no interest of taking it off, so brackets would have just been more work/figuring/time.
26.5 is about right, the rail back there isn't perfectly square, it indents in one part, so it might actually be a little more in some areas.

 

Looks really good man! I'm doin mine this week!

 

nice, don't forget to post up pics when your done it.

 

We post pics? That's weird... haha

 

i need to get one. i have 2wd and no tow hooks.

 

some of us do, unless we rubberize our interiors, then we just seem to disappear off the face of the planet

 

do it, its very useful, gives a tow point, plus im getting a winch so i can use that for it too