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I have no idea about an answer to your question, so this may or not be helpful. But, I have had an M932 that was a former USAF truck that had a bumper mounted pintle hitch. They reinforced the bumper at the hitch point with additional slabs of 1/4" steel. How well reinforced the mounting point is will affect how much you can move.
I'm definitely going to say it's going to depend on your reinforcing of the mounting location and how it's tied into the frame. You might be able to get it up to half the rating with proper reinforcing, possibly more.
But I don't think it's going to be used very often or for extended periods for very heavy loads. If you tie it all together right, I definitely think you could put a similar load on the front as you would on the back for moving into tight places better without worrying unless you were using that one constantly.
Not poo pooing the idea, as all my Brit MoD vehicles have front hitches standard - great for 'nosing' trailers onto landing craft (yeah - do that all the time!!!), but handy, not only for recovery but also for rigid bar use. As Bruce + above mentioned, bracing, bracing, bracing.