Front hitch carrier for spare tire

[5percent]

Hi,

We are adding a second fuel tank so the spare needs to move to the front. Some time ago, I read a short thread about the front mounted hitches folks liked best. I can't find it now. Can anyone help with finding it or with suggestions for suitable products - front hitch mount, tire mount and cover. Is anything else necessary? Truck is an f350 DRW. Thank you!

[5percent]

Thanks for all the good advice. I ended up with a Curt front receiver and a custom made tire mount. The mount that I ordered from Curt had the tire sticking out at a 45 degree angle so the installer offered to make a mount. Turned out he could have made the receiver too. Wish I had known. However, the tire is now on the front of the truck clearing the way for a second fuel tank.

5percent

[cleary]

Hi 5Percent,

When not pulling a trailer I put our extra spare here. You could also carry extra gas/diesel on the hitch haul. I've also carried our bicycles on it although I now carry them on the ladder using fork vices.

Chuck

[BigToe]

Ah yes, Buzzcart... I was thinking of you when I saw this thread, and remember when you posted about installing the Curt, but I had forgotten the brand of hitch that you installed. Glad you posted the reminder.

If front approach angle and ground clearance is a concern, I think that Curt hangs 2" lower than the Warn, as the Curt receiver is welded below the cross tube, and the Warn receiver is welded into the cross tube, which is a larger dimensioned tube in the pulling direction at 3" x 2.5".

On the other hand, the Curt appears to have more throat depth front to back in the receiver, so depending on the spare tire carrier you choose (or make), that might be useful as it sticks out further.

[Buzzcut1]

Curt also makes a hitch that doesn't require you to remove the fog lights. I installed it on my F350

[BigToe]

For the Ford F-350 Super Duty that the OP has, I second the comment about considering the Warn Front Receiver hitch.

The front receiver hitches for this application from Cequent (Reese, Drawtite, Hidden Hitch... they're all the same design for the front) not only require the removal of the factory foglights... they also only mount to the break-away tabs that are intended to fold away easily in a frontal impact.

That is the reason why Warn designed their own front receiver, because Warn's intent is to sell winches, and the other hitch designs do not inspire confidence pulling 1.5 times the weight of the truck... due to the fact that the other designs are mounted where Ford mounts the front bumper, which again, is engineered to be weaker than the frame, as it is a crumple zone.

Here is a pic of a Warn Front receiver hitch. This truck doesn't happen to have fog lights, but that has nothing to do with the front hitch. This truck also happens to have a Warn light bar, but not lights. And it didn't really need the front hitch for a winch either, because it has a Warn hidden winch installed also.

But at least it offers a good picture of how stealthy a front hitch install can be.

ON EDIT... for whatever reason, the image below comes up blank. It works fine when I initially post it, but when I refresh the page, it disappears. Not sure why, but maybe a moderator can send me a private message explaining it?

[wintersun]

If you stay 100% on major interstate highways then 30 gallons is enough. With my diesel truck when hauling or towing I get at best 13.5 MPG and with strong winds that drops to 9-10 MPG. My 36 gallon tank provides me with 300 miles of range in those conditions. My trip in June will have two legs where I need to go 265 miles between towns with a gas station that sells diesel.

With greater range I can make more side trips without worrying about running out of fuel, and with diesel repriming is not a fun task and not something I want to be doing on the side of the highway.

There are more fuel tanks made and larger capacity tanks available for longbed trucks. If fuel capacity is important a shortbed truck should be avoided.

[5percent]

Thank you! I now have several brands to check out and some to avoid if I don't want to cut/remove parts of the truck. As always, this group is awesome!

5percent

[joe_b_]

I installed a Hidden Hitch on the front of our last pickup, a 2002 Dodge Cummins. Bought the spare tire carrier and bike rack for it. Both worked fine.
With my current Chevy, I can see that part of the plastic, on the front bumper will have to be cut away for the hitch to be accessible. That may be one of my next projects.

Sure do wish I had an auxiliary tank for my truck. I can see where it is a real personal matter, for those that just drive a short distance and camp for a week or two, probably don't need one. But for those of us that use our TCs for long distance travel, it would sure be handy. On our trips to western Colorado and to Alaska on alternating years, we normally fuel up twice a day, some days only once if I don't mind running the tank lower than I prefer to do. Especially on the Alaska trips, as the OP points out, it isn't just the availability of fuel but the price. With more fuel capacity, I could just fill up in the larger population centers and save some bucks.

Even with the TC, especially when we are towing our Jeep, getting into and out of, many stations can be a challenge. If I only towed our 5th wheel trailer, I would put a larger in bed tank, in permanently, but with the TC, that won't work so the larger underneath tank is about the only option, IMHO.

While there may be a small reduction in fuel mileage, when running heavier, once out on the prairie flat lands and up to speed, I doubt it is much of a loss. If it were a direct relationship, the rail trains couldn't haul the vast amount of freight they do, on very little fuel per ton of freight. From a standing start, I can see the loss would be more but once up to speed, on flat ground, don't think so. I ran a couple of recent round trips to Alaska, with the former Dodge I owned, but with two different TCs. One of the TCs was considerable heavier but the round trip fuel mileage was about the same, close to 15mpg. I suspect the speed driven and the frontal area of the TC and wind resistance to that, is more of a factor than the actual weight. I figure it costs me about 1/2 to 3/4 mile per gallon towing our Jeep Wrangler, behind the TC, which the Jeep Unlimited weighs close to 4,000 loaded and ready to go.

I found the front hitch very handy at times to launch my boat when I had the TC loaded. Put that boat up in front of you and you can thread a needle with it. Sure is easier when you can see what you are backing.

[Tamnative]

There are many front hitches available for the 03-07 F-250/350 but most will not allow you to leave your fog lamps or the tow hooks,one or the other must be removed. I got a WARN front hitch for my 05 and did not have to remove either you may want to check them out. http://www.warn.com/truck/mounting-systems/multi_mount.shtml
I checked my records and I got a Warn 70480, very easy install.

[sleepy]

BTW... I have a drawtite from etrailer. Been using it for 10 years... no cutting required... 30 minutes to install.

[Raften]

Man, I carry biodiesel on the front rack which is not too smart but a gas can, unless it was empty, never.

[Wheelholder]

Bought our front hitch from e-trailer. It is a drwa-tite. Took about 30 min to install. Unbolted the tow rings and had to cut the facia to install. Works well. carried our hitch haul on the front this past weekend with generator and gas can on it

[5percent]

Thank you all for the comments and links. I had searched both here ( couldn't find the thread I remembered) and Google (too much I didn't know about the items in question) so turned to the forum members and have gotten some good advice. Thank you all. I have some better ideas now.

Sleepy, last year we went to AK - there were some places we did not go because of no diesel availability - it was too far there and back. The information about weight/fuel economy percentage is helpful. FWIW, I did read a thread on extra tank pluses/minuses a while ago - those who had them seemed 100% happy they did.

Raften, I did not know about the differences in weight of tires. Thanks!

5percent

[Raften]

Nothing says you have to carry fuel in your spare tank, only when you need to.

When you look at tire carriers pay attention to how sturdy it is. These wheels and tires weigh a lot more than the typical boat trailer wheel and tire.