First, the GCWR is for rolling weight, so the weight ratings really do not apply to winching. But that receiver has more force exerted on it than it's GCWR pound ratings. The force applied to the receiver when braking hard with a 7K# trailer behind it would be very high due to the inertia of the trailer. I think that Hummie2 must have had a defect in his receiver, because you would think it would drag the H2 towards the stump before it would bend the receiver.
In my opinion it is always advisable to use a snatch block. It's not just that you double the pulling power but you also attach to the vehicle at 2 different points, usually attached to different highly stressable locations.
In one instance, I buried my H2 down to the frame. I ended up using 2 snatch blocks. A double pulley one attached to a tree and the other attached to one tow hook on the front. The cable was coming from the winch, to one pulley on the tree, back to the snatch block attached to one of the tow hooks, back to the second pulley on the tree and then anchored to the second tow hook on front.
This same setup could be obtained from the rear also, since there are tow hooks on the rear. I had assumed that the chain holding the double pulley would fail before the frame members of the H2 would fail. I had tried to pull it out with just one snatch block first and it wouldn't budge. With the setup above it inched it out without much strain on the winch.
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