Front hitch options?

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greiswig

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I'm tempted to get a hidden winch for the front of my LR4, but honestly when I've needed winches, a fair fraction of the time it would have been better to have one on the back. So I kind of like the idea of having a hitch-mounted winch that I can swap back and forth.

Firstly, though, I can't readily find options for installing a front receiver on the LR4. Anyone know of one?

Secondly, I'm not sure what kind of winch-like loads that OE rear receiver is actually able to take.

Has anyone here dealt with this?
 

johnny walker

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I'm thinking you'll need to fab the front hitch and the rear hitch would be rated at the minimum the towing capacity. I, being a serious risk taker would rate it at the minimum of what ever it took to winch myself out. Another option would be a gas powered winch (usually powered by a chain saw engine) that you secure to a tree and attach the tow line to your car.
 

djkaosone

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I looked into this year's ago. There was a European company that made one specifically for the LR3, before the LR4 came out. Can't seem to remember who made it.

There's others that just made their own replacing the front tow hook.

 

greiswig

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IDK…if I‘m going to do something like a chainsaw winch, I might as well adapt a 5 ton Harbor Fright chain hoist for the purpose, or just use a HiLift. Or just a second, smaller winch on a hitch tray.

That reverse winching video was great. Seems impractical for any kind of really long pull.

How are our alternators with big loads like a winch anyway? That strange PWM regulation makes me nervous.
 

djkaosone

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How are our alternators with big loads like a winch anyway? That strange PWM regulation makes me nervous.
150A alternator. I seriously hate PWM. I constantly monitor mine. I have 2 cheap usb cig plug-ins with voltage and check my iid tool when I see my starting battery dip. I read live values for battery volts, battery charge percentage, alternator load, and alternator amperage. There's more, but these 4 gives a good look into the charging system.

I typically see the voltage above 14.xV when it's below 70% charged, 13.xV when "float" charging above 70%, and 12.xV when above 75%. Not accurate, but that's what I noticed. In all charging profiles, the alternator will fluctuate with amperage and load percentage to meet the electrical needs. I've seen it do something like 80A, alt at 60% load, 12.6V, and batt at 73%.

It'll handle a 12k winch with no issues if that's what you're worried about.
 

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