Sasha and I have been traveling full-time for almost two years now. We added a front hitch rack about a year ago. And in the last several months we received a ton of questions about it. In this article, we’ll share with you the full setup and explain how we use it. Let’s get started!
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How we use our front hitch rack
Alright, it’s not the prettiest setup, but it served us well for the last year or so. Here are 5 ways of using our front hitch rack:
- Our number one usage is to run our generator on the rack. It keeps our Honda generator nice and clean, off the ground, and away from mud and dirt.
- We stack our firewood on the rack whenever we find a good deal on it.
- Whenever I am working on a project, I tend to use a front rack as a workbench. It’s a great place to keep my tools off the ground and it’s a great platform for doing all of my drilling and cutting.
- After we got our cool Crazy Creek seats, I realized that I could use our front rack as a place to sit. It’s almost like having a little front hammock!
- One of the other potential uses is to haul our bikes in front of the truck. After taking some measurements and weighing it out, it blocks too much of my vision and the headlights. So for now, bikes are staying on the back and the cargo rack is staying in the front. We wrote an article about our bike rack setup, you can read about it here.
Front Rack Setup
I always leave the rack locked, using this locking hitch pin. As for the rack itself, it’s nothing special, I got it off of Facebook Marketplace for about $25. It needed a little bit of work though. I had to replace some of the pins and tighten up the bolts. Considering the price, this rack held up very well. It’s definitely a low-quality rack, but it serves our purposes. The only thing I really did to it, was these reflective strips and electrical conduit that I use as a corner marker. As we’re driving down the road it looks like we have little ant antennae poking out. We’re definitely on the hunt for a folding rack, because we don’t use it very often. And while it’s not in use, I’d love to be able to fold it up and out of the way.
We have a Draw-Tite Hitch 65063 Front Mount Receiver with a 2″ Square Receiver opening. We chose this particular brand and model because of the way it fits into the bumper itself. The fact that it reuses the existing bolts in the front and maintains the use of the tow hooks makes the installation much easier. However, the bolts that they supply rusted over very quickly, but they still do the job.
Front Rack. Installation and Problems
Now we’re going to take the rack off and talk about the hitch itself. I’m not going to go over the installation process, but I will share some of the problems that I ran into during the install. Overall the installation is super clean and precise. It has a 500 lb cargo capacity and a 9,000 lb pulling capacity, which is plenty for what we’re doing with it.
- I started the installation of the front hitch rack by taping around the bumper and adding some foam to protect it from any scratches.
- The next step was to remove the tow hooks. That was pretty simple, except there are some clearance issues in the back that make it hard to access the nuts. I chose regular manual wrenches and was able to get them off.
- Next, I sorted all of the fasteners and put the hitch in place.
- Then I placed the tow hooks back in place and started to bolt them on. This is where I started to run into some issues. There is very little clearance behind the bumper which makes it hard to get your hands in place to hold and maneuver the nuts. On top of that, you need to have one hand holding the nuts behind the bumper, and another hand to start the bolts on the front of the bumper. I enlisted Sasha’s help to get this started, so having a helper is key for this project. Next, trying to hold wrenches on both sides and apply any kind of force seemed to be nearly impossible. Doing this while laying on the ground just doesn’t put you in a great position to apply the force needed to torque the bolts and hold the wrench in the rear.
- Since Sasha was already helping, I showed her what I needed her to do, and she helped me finish the project. Sasha and I worked together to finish torquing the bolts to spec. Dealing with the limited space behind the bumper was the hardest part of the project. While it might have been possible alone, having a wrench buddy is the way to go! It’ll save you a few bloody knuckles and a lot of aggravation.
Our Final Thoughts
We don’t use our front hitch rack that much, but we love having it for the flexibility that it provides. In the future, I can see myself getting a winch to mount up here. But for now, I’m happy to use our front rack to hold cargo and to use it as a workbench. It’s probably not the most critical update that we’ve done to the truck, but we’re happy that we did. Sasha and I are hoping that this article was helpful. We also made a video about our front hitch rack, you can watch it below. Please contact us if you have any questions and we will be sure to respond.