Front receiver.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, I was considering buying a front receiver for my Lincoln or my F-150. The idea was to use it for parking my Safari with a tongue weight of around 900 lbs. So far, all of the front receivers can only hold 500 lbs. Any experience with front receivers for parking trailers?

[mimiandrews]

Yes. I put one on my truck a couple of years ago. It works well for tight spaces.

It doesn't eliminate the need for a spotter, because the trailer blocks the driver's vision worse on the front hitch than it does on the rear. I can compensate somewhat by leaning out the driver's door of the truck and sighting down the curbside of the Airstream, but it's still pretty blind.

If I only need to move the trailer a few feet, I use the front hitch because it's much easier to hitch up. Wish I had a rear camera.

[AWCHIEF]

I had one on my F-150. It made parking my little Bambi II in the back yard easier and less stressful. The Bambi had a tongue weight of less than 300 lbs., so that was not an issue. Not brave enough to try to back the Safari in there with the Jeep. Only about 6 inches extra room to get thru the gate.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Bob,

Didn't you get a portable 'pusher' awhile back?


Bob

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, I was considering buying a front receiver for my Lincoln or my F-150. The idea was to use it for parking my Safari with a tongue weight of around 900 lbs. So far, all of the front receivers can only hold 500 lbs. Any experience with front receivers for parking trailers?

I've thought about this as well. Seems that a slimp wheel at tongue jack and then the front hitch receiver might be a practical item.

Weight capacity on Steer Axle makes moving these trailers impractical otherwise.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Bob,

Didn't you get a portable 'pusher' awhile back?


Bob

Hi, yes I did buy a Powermover and I might have to use it a lot now. HOA required me to build a fence and gate making parking more difficult. I can easily get out, but I now have a 6X6 post to deal with that I didn't have before. The only complaint with the power mover is that it needs power steering.

[Airstreamer67]

I have a front hitch with a 500-pound limit but use it for a trailer with about 900 pounds of hitch weight. Two points:

1. When using the hitch for parking the trailer at walking speed or less, it produces relatively little stress on the hitch compared to if it were used for towing at highway speeds. I do not believe overloading the hitch by several hundred pounds when simply used to park the trailer will be any problem. The front suspension also might be overloaded with the front hitch used for this purpose, but the same applies: there likely will be no practical problem doing so because of the very slow speed and short distance involved. I can at least say I have not experineced any problem so far.

2. If someone is concerned about the overloading aspect even while parking, he, she or it can consider using the little wheel provided for the trailer's jack post to support all or part of the weight, provided it is used on hard surface such as concrete or blacktop. I have not done this (yet), but if done carefully it likely would not cause any problem, since the wheel is designed to support the trailer when maneuvering the trailer by hand. If used on soft or rough ground, however, the jack post could be damaged.

As noted earlier, a spotter is needed when using the front hitch to park the trailer in tight spots. But that hitch can be used to "thread the needle" when getting a trailer into a tight spot. It provides much more maneuverability, since the trailer turns very quickly and precisely when pushed by the vehicle's front steering end. This can be a blessing in some of the spots I've parked my trailer.

[Al and Missy]

Harbor Freight sells a tongue jack foot with a large wheel which is rated for 1000#. I used one with my F-150 and Safari 25. When unhitching from the rear of the truck I would put that on instead of the regular fixed foot. I would use it to lift off the rear ball, turn the truck around, and drop the coupler down on the front ball but leave the tongue jack carrying a significant portion of the weight. Worked great. Only consideration is to go slow and smooth so as not to put much front to back load on the tongue jack. The large, hard wheel on the foot helps.

Al

[Airstreamer67]

Al, thanks for that. I've never seen it but will be looking now!