Posted by neiool on October 19, 2001 at 02:49:46:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: FRONT CLASS III RECEIVER HITCH AS WINCH MOUNT?? posted by MrG on October 18, 2001 at 17:05:53:

There is a designed front towbar that is able to be bolted on, available in Australia, using the original tie down points and steering box holes. They are often used on vehicles that travel in remote areas, for towing out of hard to recover places, like sand dunes.
A small tow rod (2 metres) hitch is made with couplings on each end so that the disabled vehicle can be towed without the bounce of the slack, in a rope tow, from the front. Another bar can also be fitted between the rear of the disabled vehicle and the front of a back pushing vehicle, it looks like a "train" of vehicles. The one at the front pulling and the one at the back pushing. This makes an extremely effective way of recovering dead 4WDs in the desert country.
I have used this many times in recovery and as long as the front tow bar is constructed of similar material (thickness) to the rear tow bar, the rover box chassis can withstand these towing forces.
One point to remember, if you have a towbar on the front of the vehicle is that it will lower the approach angle, if you wish to keep the tow bar on all the time, you need to have a bash plate that will fit into the square end of the actual tow bar so that the bash plate can deflect the hit and you slide over an object instead of coming to a sudden stop as the bar hits a rock, stump etc. This is probably more damaging than the towing, winching from these points.