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My $50 2500 lb front winch install


lancer6x

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Hey all, I'm brand new at the forums, but a month back I did my first winch install on my ranger. It takes an interesting approach from the installs I've seen before on here so I figured I would share it!

First of all, I did use a welder for this build. My buddy picked up a Hobart 140 so we decided to break it in by taking a trip to Harbor Freight and picking myself up a $50 2500 lb winch on sale!

To start, we took the included winch bracket and picked up a piece of angle iron to fit as a bracket to the front end of the truck. My truck comes with the tow hooks in the front, so we decided to conveniently use those as mounting places. We were even able to reuse their mounting hardware and keep them in place, with the angle iron secured between them and the frame.

The angle iron was cut to 21 inches, and the tow hooks were removed. Lying under the truck i used a center punch to mark the two holes for each tow hook on the angle iron. This was done with the other surface of the 90 degree angle pressed firmly against the frame, so any pulling forces would be distributed to the frame, rather than solely on the bolts themselves. Then we took our angle iron to the welding bench, and started attaching the winch bracket.

Action shots:







With our fancy new bracket fabricated, we used the included mounting hardware with the winch to secure the fairlead and winch to the bracket.




(note the high quality rattle can chrome coat)




And then it was as easy as placing the angle iron bracket on the frame over the holes for the tow hooks (tow hook bolts can be seen in the above pictures) and tightening the bolts back down in to the tow hooks! This sandwiched the angle iron bracket between the frame and the tow hooks, with the vertical part of the angle iron butted firmly against the front portion of the frame to distribute pulling loads effectively.



Slapped that bumper back on and did a little ugly chopping on the plastic to make the winch fit happy and tada!





We figured the angle iron may look a little weak for this application, but considering its attaching a harbor freight $50 winch to an old rusty ford, I think it would be the last thing to fail..

The control box for the winch was screwed in place underneath the plastic air guides behind the grill to keep it from the weather as much as possible and keep it nice and hidden. The winch came with a crappy wireless remote control so we didn't have to worry about routing any cables for the controller. Just hoping I don't lose the remote...

Let me know what you think! So far it has done it's job just fine, and we had a lot of fun with the build.
 


Il Brutto

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Nice little write up man. I'd be interested in hearing how well this winch holds up over time and just what kind of situations you've gotten yourself out of with it.
 

straycat

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Looks great, Bro!!! Great job. How does it work?
 
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:icon_confused: not trying to be a jerk or anything... but that is an atv winch.
it does look good going through the stock bumper though.
 
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ianyboy

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^^x2, 2500lbs will be barely enough to get the truck moving on pavement :O

A 2000 4x4, supercab has a total curb weight of 3599 lbs <-- According to here
 
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Rowdy Fitzgerald

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I had one of those 2500 lb winches on my old Suzuki Samurai years ago. Never actually used it for winching out but I believe it's rated at 2500 with a snatch block which isn't included with the winch.
I mostly used mine for lifting pigs into trees to butcher them after we went hunting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

6gun

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Cool!

Been thinking of making a similar style mount myself utilizing a piece of 3X3 channel 5/16 thick. I want a winch something awful but have no use for a 500# ranch hand/hawg killin/road-under-armor bumper. I just want a simple winch mount but results have turned up none!

Grab a snatch block and you will be amazed the trouble you can get out of with 2500# pulling force! I can't tell how many times we've rescued my dad's 3/4T Dodge loaded with wood with a 1 ton Tug-It chain hoist.

One more note, if your winch saves you one off-road recovery wrecker call you will have paid for it 10X over!:icon_hornsup:
 

59bisquik

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I generally try to be really positive with my posts. I like how the winch is tucked in the bumper and looks like a factory install instead of some big ugly add on.

However, I would caution you on relying on a 2500lb unit for a vehicle. Please make sure you are using all of the correct accessories like a snatch block, tree saver and line weight etc. I have brought my 8k almost to a stall and killed the engine after retrieving a full size pickup.

I guess I am saying, it will work fine for light use, but do not get into a situation where you need something with more capacity. SAFETY is first...
 

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