anadlas

So I was looking at bumpers and was considering going with poison spyder customs rock brawler setup. However I was looking at the rear full length bumper series. Great looking bumper, however I am baffled by the intergrated hitch. I have a factory hitch rated to tow, however it's easily removed so I can run a higher clearance hitch. However they state that it's only for recover and not rated for towing. What is the point of this when there are two recovery points welded on the bumper already. This seems like a waste of engineering to me. Is there some benefit to using a center mounted recovery. I'm army and we use tow bars to recover vehicles and it works great using two points so what am I missing, is this a wasted addition?

lowendrider

I think the majority of manufactorers claim "not rated for towing" just for reliability reasons. Most of the bumpers are probably as strong or stronger than the factory hitch.

lowendrider

edit..that should read liability..lol

sellnotsale

I agree. If something were to happen they have to cover their asses. Auto manufacturers spend millions certifying everything.

anadlas

Thats kind of good to know, didnt think about it that way. My towing is pretty light duty anyhow, justa a small trailer with two dirt bikes so it may work for my needs.

rob_engineer

I actually needed to tow a heavy load - up around 5000 pounds. The smittybilt XRC bumper is the only one I found that actually came with a tow rating. It is 5000 pound rating with 500 pound tongue weight. Like others have said, most bumper manufacturers don't want to do the testing necessary for tow rating or want to avoid legal issues if something goes bad.