Bullnose front Recovery Hooks?

It's now been a year since the 4wd conversion and it looks like my truck will be losing it's pavement queen status. Some friends and family are also catching the bug for mild off-roading so I'm starting to think about extras that would give some extra piece of mind if getting stuck.

My biggest concern right now is lack of front recovery hooks on the truck

The bullnose front leaf spring setup really doesn't leave any room for much hardware. I don't want to put a full winch bumper on (at least not yet), but I'm curious what others have come up with. I looked online at some snowplow examples and it looks like the front bumper for 1980-1991 trucks is either removed, or offset by the plow bracket. 1992 and up (bullnose) has a longer frame horn that makes it easier to mount extras. I'm also considering a front hitch receiver even if I have to make it myself. That way I could have a winch on either end of the truck, without having to mount anything permanently.

And yes, you see that right...snow in June. I got fed up with waiting for the shady parts of the road to finally melt, so I rammed my way through. Worth it.

defiantly interested in this topic i had to get towed by a strap when my fuel pump and hardline cracked and what ever we hooked onto not really sure but it broke and bend the bumper when we lost tension and accelerated

If I wanted to mount recovery points to a bullnose, I would use the bumper mount bolts, but I believe that would cost you your bumper horns or whatever they're called and you probably don't want to take that route? My first thought was some shackle tabs that bolt on right where the bumper bolts go through.

Other than that you'd probably have to make some kind of bracket to go inside the frame and catch the bumper bolts and a couple bolts on the side of the frame, then mount a piece of tube between them. That would give you a place for a front hitch too.

I don't think I'd be able to cut up a clean stock bumper, but it'd probably be perfect if you could do it all behind the bumper and do a couple recessed tow hooks or shackle mounts just between the bumper horns and hide a receiver hitch behind a flip up license plate bracket.

I've always loved your truck!

The only good way I have thought about is through the bumper. Cut holes in the bumper and fabricate a mount directly to the inside of the c channel. Otherwise there is little there to work with. Thats why so many Brick and OBS trucks have tweaked front bumpers from being pulled.

Shadetreemechanic said:

Thats why so many Brick and OBS trucks have tweaked front bumpers from being pulled.

Click to expand...

I can't help but laugh at this because the bumper on my F350 is still tweaked from the last time I had to pull it to pop start it

What we did was nice... but not something that just anyone could have easily done.... (well now almost 40 years later, maybe it would be....)

Dad was able to make a pattern that matched the contour of the inside of the front bumper, and then had a large hole in it that protruded down and even with the bumper.... The piece kind of looked like a deformed capital letter B....

It was cut from 1/2 inch scrap plate on a commercial/factory style "burn table"...... It was probably close to a foot tall, because it filled then entire height of the bumper, and then stuck down 4-6 inches below the bumper... and the widest as 8-10 inches deep. It was bolted to the frame behind the bumper with either 4 or 6 decent sized bolts, plus was up against the back of the bumper. We had on on the outside of the frame rail on each side. They dissapeared nicely under there, because they were a dark color and kinda blended in with the shadows under the truck

My guess is.... if you had hooked to both and gave it a good pull, it would have pulled the frame out from under the body before they would give way.......

Snicklas, did it look something like this?

Orange marks what might be possible, if the front rad support mount is removed and the plate sandwiched between the mount an the frame. That would give 6 attaching bolts per side. The square at the bottom 'horn' marks where a square tube for a front hitch receiver could be located. It may have to bend outward slightly below the frame to avoid interference with the shackle...but it might just work.

Looks to me like you would have to add an extra 1/2" or thicker shim plate in this area. To get it out away from that shackle. And be careful of bolting through anywhere that might interfere with the motion of that shackle. (You are welcome, from Captain Obvious. )


Get longer bolts for all those bolts, and just run them all the way through, and you should be good to go.

If you feel the need for more than that red part, leave the rad support alone. Just cut the larger plate like the red and yellow together, and weld an angle to the back of the yellow part, to be picked up by the remaining two bolts.


Do it this way, and you could make a "kit" to sell to others who could just bolt it right on. Include the bolts, and they'd have everything they need.

I would move the square hole forward a bit, to keep it well away from the shackle travel. (goes farther than you might think. Especially off road.) Leave twice the 'beef' you think you need, in the case of only using it as a recovery point. But having the square hole means exactly as you have pointed out, you could use it to mount a receiver.

Or you could just use hooks like the ones Matt is showing off in this video, (@ ~ 8 minutes.), and bolt those to the bottom of the frame. It's what I was thinking of doing.

I was already thinking along those lines (yellow area) since those two bolts have matching holes on the opposite frame rail. A set of spacers would be needed to clear the shackle, or bend the plate outward. It really starts to look like a hidden hitch at that point. Love Matt’s ORR channel. But I have some catching up to do! I thought the morrvair was cool, but now he’s going next level.

Selahdoor said:

If you feel the need for more than that red part, leave the rad support alone. Just cut the larger plate like the red and yellow together, and weld an angle to the back of the yellow part, to be picked up by the remaining two bolts.

You must be registered for see images attach

Do it this way, and you could make a "kit" to sell to others who could just bolt it right on. Include the bolts, and they'd have everything they need.

I would move the square hole forward a bit, to keep it well away from the shackle travel. (goes farther than you might think. Especially off road.) Leave twice the 'beef' you think you need, in the case of only using it as a recovery point. But having the square hole means exactly as you have pointed out, you could use it to mount a receiver.

Click to expand...

Be a good excuse to do a shackle reversal/front receiver combo. I've been dragging parts around to do it, but now kits are available.

Or....... get an old plow mount use the bottom half of course, clean it up and maybe fancy it up a bit, and Bobs you're uncle..
Just a thought.
It worked nice on my 87, it was hidden pretty well considering I reworked the hook points.



Rock

Ours was shaped more like just the red outline.

If I ever do a shackle reversal, I’ll be making it up from scratch, or using parts from a 70s truck. The reversal kits seem to add several inches of lift, which I don’t want.

A fixed spring mount in the front would make things much simpler, since I could simply bolt under the front spring mount and then cut across to build a cross member (hitch). Would have to close in notch in the frame first but not a big deal.

I’ve been looking at image search trying to find an old snow plow example but not finding much.