I decided a front hitch on the View RV might be a worthwhile addition. You can carry a bike rack up there, or a smallish cargo tray or cargo box. Most of them required drilling of the frame though, and were pretty light duty to boot (200 pounds vertical load or so).
The upper rad unit is the AC condenser. The lower rad unit is the turbo intercooler. The single silver pipe going across and back, is the power steering fluid cooler. There is a large, 13-quart oil pan covered with deep fins for cooling. The transmission fluid cooler is integrated into the radiator.
I then found this beefy front hitch from Van Compass. It’s rated as a heavy Class III / light Class IV hitch, up to 8000 pounds pulling load and 800 pounds vertical load (tongue weight). Their website shows a Sprinter van being lifted by a forklift just by their hitch.
You can also see here some of the roughly 150 pounds of sound deadening I have added to the View, on the underside of the hood. Most of it is on the underside, which is comprised of aluminum plates the width of the RV box, sitting across the frame rails. It all made a huge difference going down the road. At interstate speeds, my wife can sit beside me in the cab and we can speak in a normal volume.
Unlike the lighter duty front hitches that mount under the factory bumper, this monster replaces the whole factory bumper, seen below as the white metal piece.
Removing the grille and painted plastic bumper were pretty easy. The Van Compass instructions were super clear, and they have a video on their website as well.
I actually had all the tools I needed. You do need an assortment of Torx drivers, so I had to double check on that. You need to grind off a metal corner of the frame rail, so I bought a fresh metal grinding/cutting wheel for my angle grinder.
The black plastic tank below the passenger side headlight is the Diesel Exhaust Fluid tank, which has a filling neck in the engine bay.
The factory bumper is attached with 9 13mm bolts, and then you need to whack it with a sledgehammer from the backside to break it free from the factory paint and undercoating.
So unlike the lighter duty hitches that require drilling new holes, this hitch mounts using the same nine factory bolts, no drilling needed.
And yes, I actually got it all back together with no problems! You do need to cut a hole in the painted plastic bumper cover, and I was happy enough with how that went. You can barely make out the new front receiver tube here. The opening I cut is underneath the bumper to the casual observer, so a perfect cut is not absolutely required.
Just after getting the View put back together, we made a last minute appearance with the Jag at the high school homecoming parade. The Queen’s borrowed convertible arrangement fell through at the last minute, so we got a call from a friend of a friend and rushed down!
Hope everyone is having a great Fall so far!
This front hitch reminds me of my late best friend and his parents in Dallas, Texas.
During the 1980s and 1990s, his parents loved travelling around the United States by their own Airstream Travel Trailer every year. I couldn’t recall the exact length, but it was probably between 23-30 feet in length. They had a seventh-generation Suburban with diesel engine for towing their Airstream.
His father wanted Airstream’s towing hitch to face the alley for easier towing out when parked in the back of the house. To compound the difficulties, the alley was narrow with lot of trees, electric line poles, and high fences so he had to move in a very gingerly way. That also required several people, including me, to help him. Not to mention the spectacle of neighbours watching and wondering whether he would succeed or not each time without damaging their fences. It also took more than 15 minutes to move the trailer into the designated parking space. One teeny-weeny miscalculation required the “reset”.
The Eureka! moment came to him when attending the Airstream owners meet-up. He noticed several trucks and SUVs with curious hitch mount on the front bumpers. The owners demonstrated how to use the front hitch mounts and vehicle’s steering system to push the trailers into tight space. Ah!
His father installed the hitch mount on the left side between the left edge and number plate in line with the steering column. During the first attempts, my friend used the chalks to mark the curve from the alley to the parking space for the future reference. Once they got the whole towing hands down, they covered the chalk marks with permanent paint.
His father towed the Airstream to the certain mark on the alley then disconnected the hitch. He turned Suburban around and connected the Airstream to the front hitch. He steered the front wheels in certain directions while pushing the Airstream into the parking space and following the painted curve on the pavement. Using the front hitch, the entire manouvre took less than a few minutes to the elation of his neighbours.
I installed a Curt front hitch on my ‘15 RAM 2500 so I can drive a hay rack into a customers barn when I make a delivery. Much easier than trying to back a loaded hay rack, with its extra articulation joint (I can back one about 40’ before I ball everything up completely!). The hitch is heavy duty and required no cutting or drilling as it uses existing mount points.
Nice job! Is the airflow ok through the grille/radiator?
So far as I can tell, the airflow is unaffected. The new hitch occupies the same real estate behind the plastic painted bumper as the original, though it extends lower into the “belly” of the plastic painted bumper. So the air openings are not blocked by the new installation in any way.
This is an impressive installation. Sort of the reverse of the normal rule, which is the heavier the duty, the harder the installation. Going Big really made the job easier, from the sounds of it.
I once looked at a 66 Chrysler New Yorker sedan that was for sale by the daughter of the original owner. It was nice, but not as nice as she thought it was based on what she was asking. The thing I remember was the ball hitch bolted into the center of the front bumper. The owner told me that her father kept a boat in a garage with an unusual configuration and there was something about it that made the long rear overhang of the Chrysler a problem in getting the boat in and out. His solution was that front bumper hitch. Crude, but effective.
My 1961 Commer Walk Tru has a front bumper mounted tow ball. Not sure what it was used for. It served as a tools / hoses fire fighters vehicle for a nearby community before I pulled it away from the scrapyard where it just had been delivered to.
Do you use it for bikes or for the scooter? It’s a powerful motivator to not tailgate the car in front of you when loaded up, I’ll bet 🙂
Slightly unrelated, how does the bug guard/deflector work in practice? Do bugs actually end up flying over the rig rather than hitting the windshield? I used to see a lot of these around but not so many in the last decade or so.
Well, I had it in mind as a possible scooter attachment point. I don’t think it will work for that, but I’m working up a bigger post about the scooter in general, and carrying it in particular.
I knew the scooter on the front would mean I would need to rig up “snow plow” headlights, but it was just too big up there on it’s carrying tray. Blocked your view too much.
But one reason to try it was that I have weight carrying capacity to spare on the front axle. The scooter is 575 pounds wet and the carrier tray is another 90. I have 1800 pounds of unused capacity on the front axle. Like most Class C RV’s, the rear axle is about maxed out as built, even before you add your water, fuel, etc. And, the rear hitch is only rated at 5000 pounds trailer weight/500 pounds vertical load.
Plan B is I’m adding some suspension enhancements, and having the rear hitch beefed up or replaced with a Class IV hitch, so I’ll have to write about that.
I do have a bike rack and a cargo box that we would use up front, with having the scooter or a car on the back hitch.
My tow plate arrived for the Suburban, so it can be flat towed behind an RV. I’ll install it next (similar process as this write-up) and then show-n-tell.
Interesting and you brought up another question… 🙂 I get the front axle weight thing but when it’s extended forward to the hitch and then even more forward onto the tray, does the cantilever effect increase the actual weight by some percentage or calculatable effect? I presume not when static but imagine going over a big bump or a dip that compresses the whole front end, does that 665 pounds then have the effect of a much larger weight?
I think I insinuated sometime in the past that your RV wasn’t big enough, you need one with its own (two car) garage in the back. 🙂
I forgot to address the bug deflector: yes it really works! Huge difference. Thinking about one for the Suburban, though I am not trying for too much of a “truck” look there.
The welding/hitch person I am working with does that type of work for a commercial truck body builder here locally, so I think he knows his stuff. He does hitches and fabricating for people like me on the side. He said the general rule of thumb for recreational towing is to multiply the vertical load x 1.5 to account for real world stress on the hitch and axle. So my 675 pounds of scooter and carrier is more like 1000 pounds or more vertical load, crashing over bumps and that type thing.
He’s going to study my RV in a couple of weeks and see if we can a. reinforce what is there on the rear hitch or 2. remove the Winnebago hitch and weld on a new Class IV “service body” hitch, which is a heavy duty thing meant to need some fabrication as opposed to coming ready for a specific make and model.
Winnebago extends the Mercedes Sprinter chassis rails to add on a longer “house”. So we need to see what infrastructure we have to work with.
Thanks! That’s interesting and exactly what I was wondering about (both for bugs and weight factor). Good to see someone is actually doing some real thinking as well instead of just going ahead with a welder and collecting a check.
Front hitches seemed to be (relatively) popular in the 1970’s and maybe early 1980’s. At least based on my childhood observations in Michigan. As previously mentioned, they were useful for backing trailers into tight confines. My dad put a hitch on the front on his 1972(?) F-250, primarily used with an 11′ side-in camper, and later, a 1977 Coachmen Leprechaun motorhome. We had a 1976 Apollo jet boat that we towed to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, usually twice a summer. Some of the boat launches were a bit primitive, and backing a boat in with a 23′ long truck (either one) was tedious, at best.
Picture of the Coachmen and boat.
Not sure why the picture is not loading. I have been able to post pics in the past.
Try reducing the image size. When I post pictures, I usually reduce the size to no more than 1,200 pixels in the largest dimensions. That seems to work.
The Jaguar looks great as a parade vehicle!
Earlier this year, I noticed that my City posted old videos of their annual July 4th parades. In one parade from the early 1980s, the commentator said they had trouble locating enough convertible owners to use as vehicles for the dignitaries (mayor, city council members, state representatives, etc.). Something tells me they don’t have that problem any longer.
While most of the front receiver hitches in my area are used for bike racks, I’ve seen some pickups with removable winches, and also occasional recovery points with a large shackle on a receiver insert. The removable winch is very practical since it can rear mounted for self recovery, carried in the bed for better weight distribution, and left at home for better gas mileage on the road.