Front-End cargo carrier platform ideas?

[Almost There]

It would be OK when it's in a locked tote box which is really secured down to the platform. 

The reason I do not like a plaform on the back is it scrapes when entering/leaving driveways & depending on what is on it, blocks opening the back doors.

There are swing hitch platforms available so that you can access the back doors without removing the platform.

Also, there are curved hitch inserts available that will fix the scraping problem.

I'll admit that even with just the special insert there is a driveway at my mothers apartment that I won't use with even the insert in place never mind a hitch hauler but then it's a ridiculously steep driveway because the underground garage has the natural ground level up one full storey from the street. I just use a different entrance in that case.

 

[highdesertranger]

ok I wish you would have said what van you own. it does appear that the frame could handle the weight, however there is a lot more to it than that as others have pointed out. I said never use carriage bolts for anything structural. the ones on your bumper now are probably special made for that purpose. the ones you buy at a hardware store are grade 2. they shear real easy. on a job like this use grade 8 bolts and not the junk Asian ones they sell at Home depot and the like. judging from the pics any weight you place on the front of your van will overload the front end, like others have said this is not good. the best way to find out how much weight you can add is to go to a scale and weigh your front end then compare that to your manufactures specs for front axle weight rating. make sure when you do this your van is loaded like you normally would have. don't try to cheat yourself with going lighter than normal. the difference between the two weights is what you can carry up front. highdesertranger

 

[akrvbob]

I have hitch receivers front and rear on my 1 ton Chevy van and have been using a rear hitch haul all summer in lots of nasty Forest
Service roads. Mine has a curve so it goes up and it has never dragged on anything.

I think leaving it on up front for the long-term is a bad idea, I think you are going to greatly increase your front-end problems and end up replacing parts early and often. A few trips a year might be fine, all the time is a bad idea. I wouldn't do it!

Here is the box on the back of my van in Montana:

Bob

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

A few of points for you to think about:

• 500 lbs is like strapping a V8 to your front bumper (Chevy 350 weighs 575 lbf). I am not disputing this. Just want to make sure you understand this is a large amount of weight to cantilever off the front of your van.
• To carry that much weight, you will be adding more than 200 lbf in structure to the front of your van. Do you mean the platform iteself will weigh 200 lbs?  Platform + reinforcing bumper + reinforcing frame attachment.  Front horns and bumper are not designed to take that much additional weight.  Replacement front bumpers to mount a winch weigh 250 - 400 lbf.
• That much weight cantilevered off the front is going to greatly affect your steering and braking. Yes it will, how much could it be?  Don't know.  Minimum you will have to increase front spring rates ~50%, add HD shocks or double shocks,might have to go to HD brakes; you have to work through the math for your setup for your driving style.
• Will reduce your GVWR and might exceed the GFWR of your front end. I will have to check the GFVR (Gross Front Vehicle Rating?) today.
• The things you listed will fall down if loose and you will hit them; no chance for avoidance.  Probably cause loss of control, maybe cause fire or explosion (Murphy was an optimist). Yes, everything on the front end platform would need to be strapped down on multiple points to the platform. Just mentioned this because of your concern in the OP for things falling off a back platform.

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]The reason I do not like a plaform on the back is it scrapes when entering/leaving driveways Same problem on the front; you are just trading 'departure angle' issues for 'attack angle' issues.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]  -- Spiff[/font]

 

[highdesertranger]

nice pic Bob. highdesertranger

 

[Canine]

You may want to Google the effect snowplows have on front ends. It isn't an exact comparison, but it should provide some good info.

 

[debit.servus]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]The reason I do not like a plaform on the back is it scrapes when entering/leaving driveways Same problem on the front; you are just trading 'departure angle' issues for 'attack angle' issues.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]  -- Spiff[/font]

The front doesn't have overhang compared to the back, which the backend has like 4 feet? I looked into these kind of reciever adapters, to raise the back platform up so it doesn't scrape. However even with this, the back platform loaded down the back doors can't really be opened. This adapter costs more than the cargo carrier platform costed, and I still have the back door issue. Carrying things upfront appears like a better option.

If the front suspension can't handle 500 pounds over the front end I will just have to settle for 200 pounds or less; because beefing up the front end suspension to hold more weight sound like $$$. 200 pounds will be enough for the generator and possibly it's gas cans.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

200 pounds will be enough for the generator and possibly it's gas cans.

For some reason the idea of carrying gas cans on the front of a moving vehicle at bumper level just strikes me as a really bad idea.  For whatever that random thought is worth.

Regards
John

 

[akrvbob]

I've been driving around Utah and Wyoming for the last 3 months and slept every night on public land in as a remote a place as I could find.

I've never once scraped my hitch haul, but it does have a curve that raises it. Last year we drove to Alaska with that same hitch haul and never once scraped it.

In my opinion, if you drive around all the time with a 200 pounds up front, you will reduce the life of many of you front end parts. But that's just an opinion and not really based on anything but a hunch.
Bob

 

[debit.servus]

I've been driving around Utah and Wyoming for the last 3 months and slept every night on public land in as a remote a place as I could find.

I've never once scraped my hitch haul, but it does have a curve that raises it. Last year we drove to Alaska with that same hitch haul and never once scraped it.

In my opinion, if you drive around all the time with a 200 pounds up front, you will reduce the life of many of you front end parts. But that's just an opinion and not really based on anything but a hunch.
Bob

Why is the back-end any different in terms of load wear? I've seen the platforms that have raising curves, however they hold less than 500 pounds.

 

[ramblingvanman]

I've been driving around Utah and Wyoming for the last 3 months and slept every night on public land in as a remote a place as I could find.

I've never once scraped my hitch haul, but it does have a curve that raises it. Last year we drove to Alaska with that same hitch haul and never once scraped it.

In my opinion, if you drive around all the time with a 200 pounds up front, you will reduce the life of many of you front end parts. But that's just an opinion and not really based on anything but a hunch.
Bob

IMO, Bob is correct, not only that but you should have your vehicle aligned with the hauler installed and loaded to your normal travel weight.  It would help to upgrade your shocks and springs to the heaviest duty versions you can find. IMO, YMMV.

 

[akrvbob]

This is the hitch haul I use, it has a curve and has a 500 pound weight limit. I've driven it more than 20,000 miles over some really bad roads to Alaska and all over the Rockies and I have drug it less than 10 times--I can actually only remember 2 times but it must be more. No harm was done by it then.

http://amzn.to/1J4Uorf

There is no comparison to the front and rear end. Just consider that the front tires turn directions and the rear don't. Then think about the number of moving parts front to rear and how tight the tolerances are for the front and rear.

I have a 1 ton van and tow a trailer. I was trying to figure out ho to carry my Honda Rebel which is 300 pounds. I asked a friend who is the best mechanic, motor-head I've ever seen (he was the crew chief on a KC 130 in the Air Force). He said if I carried it on a rack in the rear the van would laugh at it. He thought if I carried it up front much I would soon be paying big bucks on front end repairs. I believe him.

Much more than that is the hassle of having it up front. I almost never consider it on back but having it up front would be a constant worry.
Bob

 

[highdesertranger]

it would wear front end parts faster because you are changing the angles of all your front end parts. in the rear you only have one angle to worry about, the angle of your driveline/u-joints. you have about 30 degrees to play with.

on your front end you have many angles to worry about, plus you only have about 15 degrees to play with, roughly half as what you have on your rear axle. in your previous pic of your front end everything looks pretty straight so when you load it up, you are going to change all those angles. if you exceed the max angles you will wear your front end quick. I would like to point out that your parts are already worn to where they sit, not worn to where they need to be replace but worn like broken in at certain angles, if you change those angles even a little you wear will accelerate. also like rambling van man said you should have it aligned with the load on it or it won't be aligned.

this whole discussion about the angles of your front end parts is why I always recommend against lifting independent suspension vehicles. you will have nothing but headaches. highdesertranger

 

[akrvbob]

Thanks HDR! That's just intuitive to me but now you moved it from intuition to science.

Good job!
Bob

 

[offroad]

You may want to Google the effect snowplows have on front ends. It isn't an exact comparison, but it should provide some good info.

This should be investigated. People are putting plows on trucks and stressing the front ends of trucks for decades with snow plows. Maybe consult with a plow manufacturer. How long between front end rebuilds, when you are running a plow. Obviously the snow plow is dropped off the truck during summer.

 

[Patrick46]

There's a reason why trucks with snowplows hanging off the front handle like crap!


...ask me how I know.


but hey...it's your rig brother.

 

[Canine]

How long between front end rebuilds, when you are running a plow. Obviously the snow plow is dropped off the truck during summer.

I'm not intimately familiar with time between rebuilds, but one guy I know rebuilds (to some degree) his front ends every year or two. This is on his old Fords with 3/4 ton solid front axles. Plows can weigh from 400 pounds to 1100+ more with snow stuck to it.

 

[highdesertranger]

with a straight front axle(SFA) and with leaf springs, it's the same as a rear axle. they can handle the weight much better, they can have more travel(up and down movement) than an independent front suspension(IFS), you can put a lift kit on a SFA truck. a SFA has far fewer moving parts than an IFS, which in turn makes them more reliable. remember though if you overload anything you will have problems. I don't see how a snow plow would overload a Dana 60 kingpin front axle. highdesertranger

 

[offroad]

Love Dana axle!!

 

[VanGirl]

This thread is about sharing how-tos and ideas on how to fabricate a front-end cargo carrier platform for a van, capable of holding a minimum of 500 LBS (like the hitch reciever does on the back of the van). Share pictures of  front end platforms that have been built by others, ideas and advice for fabricating one from scratch and on the cheap.  

     Since the 2015 RTR I have been thinking about front-end platform to place a generator and other things on for full time living. I thought about installing a 2" reciever to the van frame then mount a standard cargo carrier for the platform.

     I recently had the idea "What about a permanent or semi-permanent mount bolted to the iron bumper, can't a iron bumper hold some weight?". Then I imaged the design in my head while sitting infront of the van, with most thought to the mounting. I know I can't weld, and only know one person who can spot weld. "Everything will need to be bolted together" I kept thinking to design with that limitation.

     One simple, strong and possibly low cost design I came up is this. Take 2" square hollow steel (the kind that fits in trailer recievers) , and fabricate L forks facing out from the front end, and depending on the load each of 8 carriage bolts can handle, build four of the "L Forks" each directly mounting via long carriage bolts.

     The more points being mounted the better, to add redundency incase one bolt decides to snap. imagine two bumper mounting plates with a 2 1/4" square hollow steel tube welded or bolted together. The "L Forks" would drop inside the 2 1/4" (2 1/4 or the inner diameter a 2" hitch reciever has) steel square tubing, so the forks and platform are fully removable if needed.

     If stuff on the back platform falls on the highway at speed, it's a road hazard. If stuff on a front end platform falls, depending on weight it could fly up over the rig causing scratches at minimum, or if it's a large genset could fall under the van and cause massive damage to engine, transmission, differential and potentially everything on the underside of the rig. If (most certainly when) I do not have enough money to complete this project, The platform would be the place to skimp. I would use plywood secured to the "L Forks" with zip ties. It is NOT a good idea skimp on the mounting or the "L Forks".

     I searched AMAZON for "bumper cargo carrier" and I see there are bolting reciever mounts for RV bumpers? Thought of buying this, and if the van bumper can not support the weight needed, add some cable/rope reinforcement attaching/hooking to a stong point on the vans body/frame. So part bumper supported, part suspended. Is what I described in this paragraph accomplishable?

http://www.amazon.com/Swagman-RV-2-...38040596&sr=8-5&keywords=Bumper+Cargo+Carrier