Winch Mounting Ideas????

[88GW]

I have fabbed up a winch bumper and mounts for my 88 GW. I am making minor changes to the mount system and wanted some input on what you may have seen or know.

The bumper is made of 2"x6" .250" thick rectangular tube with all .250" or thicker material.

Mounting is generally comprised of two 3/8" thick 2" wide hot rolled flat stock that will mount flat to the framerails via grade 8 hardware with .250" thick flat plates on the inside of the frame rail to prevent the frame from being pinched in.

I have also taken a piece of .250" angle iron and welded two flat plates to the ends and placed this inbetween the frame horns where the stock bumper bolts went through. I bolted this angle to the rectsangular tube that spans the original fram horns with grade 8 hardware and .250" thick backing plate to prevent the frame from being pinched. I am then going to bolt through the sides where I welded the flat stock to the angle iron which then goes onto the 3/8" flat stock mount on the bumper via grade 8 bolts.

Overall it will have four mount points per side, two on the angle iron which is bolted with grade 8 to the center section of the frame which is then bolted to the bumper through the 3/8" bracket. And two grade 8 bolts through the frame rails, the 3/8" bumper bracket and .250" backing plate on the inside of the frame.

All garde hardware is 7/16-20 which has a shear at the threads of 10,500lbs and at the body 13,500lbs approximately.

How does this sound if you can understand it? Any input would be great before the final bolting.

[Bob Barry]

I don't know how you'd get a plate on the inside of the framerail; there are two factory mounting holes, though, that take a 7/16" bolt. You may just use them.

Other than that, it sounds great!

[Chrome]

Several of the local guys have installed a draw hitch under the front to match the one under the rear. Then they mount the winch to a hitch insert that slides into the draw hitch. They install a battery in the rear that is connected to the front battery with a long piece of 0 guage welding cable. The winch has cables hooked to into with clamps on the end so if you need it in the front or rear just slide it into the draw hitch, clamp on to the front or rear battery and WAHLAH!
They have run this setup for years and love it.

[scotty]

there are a couple of pics of my front reciever and winch here:

http://nightcrawlers4wd.20megsfree.com/photo.html

my front bumper is 3x6 tubesteel,welded directly to the frame rails. i wanted it to be as high as possible so my approach angle was not affected.

i had a fairly good test of it this past weekend. while nothing broke off ;) the front bumper appeared to flex just alittle from the extra leverage on top. not much(it may have even been my imagination) but i still intend to remove fenders and core support in order to gain acess to triangluate the bumper and frame with some plates,and also extend the bars of my roll cage out to it.

ill agree a reciever mount is an excellent idea. i plan on adding a reciever to the front of my burb,my xj,and one on my trailer :D

[ April 28, 2003, 10:29 PM: Message edited by: scotty ]

[billyrb]

Wow, that thing sure is PURPLE! Well, at least it isn't yellow! ;)

Sounds like you have a good setup. As for mounting, warn sells a winch mounting plate that plugs into the reciever.....worth looking at....this is probably what we'll use on our bumpers from BJ's Off-Road.