Front hitch on Gen 2s with stock bumper possible?

[Old-Raptor-guy]

Meh, I see a lot of air flow blocked to the intercooler. But you do you.

 

[Kurtj29]

What I came up with...



The Warn winch hitch is going to work great from the rear of course and this is where I will always try to use it but should I absolutely have to use it from the front we came up with the clamp that you see to attach from the hitch insert to the shackle on the tow hook. Obviously not ideal but might save me a 30 mile walk some day!

How did the front winch setup work? This is genius.

 

[TDAH]

Meh, I see a lot of air flow blocked to the intercooler. But you do you.

Take a look at the picture. If you run a front license plate like most states require, there is a huge area blocked by the plate. The hitch allows air to flow around it adding very little restriction. Ford designed it to be run with the license plate. If it was a issue they would have moved the plate.

 

[Old-Raptor-guy]

Take a look at the picture. If you run a front license plate like most states require, there is a huge area blocked by the plate. The hitch allows air to flow around it adding very little restriction. Ford designed it to be run with the license plate. If it was a issue they would have moved the plate.

View attachment 365185

1: thank God I don't live in a state that requires a front plate.

2: plate relocation bracket would be required if I did.

3: originally the front plate bracket on the ecoboost f150 (2011-2014) was offset to the drivers side.
To believe that Ford made 0 concessions on placing the plate in the center is nuts.
Every and I mean every business MUST answer to 3 entities
The government
The stock holders
The customer
How often do you actually think the customer comes 1st? The customer will ONLY come 1st when the customers interests align with the first 2.
I would guess that, the license plate being centered is required in one place.
It literally could be one county in one state and for production sake it would be easier to make them all centered. Again answering to the government come first above all else.

 

[TDAH]

1: thank God I don't live in a state that requires a front plate.

2: plate relocation bracket would be required if I did.

3: originally the front plate bracket on the ecoboost f150 (2011-2014) was offset to the drivers side.
To believe that Ford made 0 concessions on placing the plate in the center is nuts.
Every and I mean every business MUST answer to 3 entities
The government
The stock holders
The customer
How often do you actually think the customer comes 1st? The customer will ONLY come 1st when the customers interests align with the first 2.
I would guess that, the license plate being centered is required in one place.
It literally could be one county in one state and for production sake it would be easier to make them all centered. Again answering to the government come first above all else.

I agree with your breakdown of the powers that force decisions in these companies. If you look at the complexity of the air management through intercooler there is only one path that air can flow - around the license plate, through the bumper inlet, through the rubber ducting, through the servo controlled vanes, and then through the intercooler. The hitch is very bottom of the rubber ducting and has plenty of room around and behind it to allow airflow. By the way, the servo controlled vanes are there to REDUCE airflow to intercooler under certain driving conditions and manage air intake temperatures. I haven't had any issues and don't expect any. And, I just had my truck in to Ford do phasers (@ 26,000 miles!!!) and they had no issues with the installation. The hitch/winch works great! Perfect solution for us weekend offroad warriors who need real capability when the time comes ... and it will !

 

[anthony broussard]

I have a road armor bumper on my gen 1. It fit but is a tight fit