Is Front-Mounted Hitch Capacity for Winch Use Affected By Using High/Low Hitch Adapter

Question:

I had a question about a Front receiver hitch mounted 9000lb winch. I have installed a Curt front mounted receiver hitch on my Dodge Ram. I can put the Winch on the hitch fine but wanted to know if there is a product that will allow me to raise the height of the winch while on the vehicle and still allow for safe winch operation. I am looking at you 10K rated adapters but wanted to ask if they would be acceptable to use safely with a winch. can you help?

asked by: Greg J

Expert Reply:

Front-mounted hitches for Rams such as the Curt # C31015 have ratings for both vertical force and for linear pull, the latter being the case when used with a winch. This hitch has a 500-lb vertical load limit but a 5000-lb line pull limit.

If you were to use a hitch high/low adapter that gives you a height increase, such as # RM-048-4 from Roadmaster, you would retain your full hitch line pull capacity IF the winch cable remained absolutely level when in use. But if you had any deviation from a straight line pull, in other words any angle at all to the winch cable, then you would lose capacity because the hitch rating drops substantially from the level line-pull application to the vertical load application.

The trouble is that there is no real way to tell just how much actual capacity remains at any given cable angle so from a pure safety standpoint this is not a recommended practice.

expert reply by: Adam R