Mounting a new winch... bumper mod question...

[off-roader]

I recently purchased a 12k lbs winch for my 96 Montero (currently running on 35's FWIW).

I'm hoping I can mount the winch behind my aftermarket Jeep TJ bumper but I know I'll probably have to re-enforce it since it's only made using 1/4" plate up front and I don't even want to consider a bumper failure while winching.

Here's how the TJ bumper is mounted currently...

The bumper's mounting bolts are all currently grade 5 bolts (3/8" and 1/2")
It's bolted and adapter we built (using 3/8" plate) for my frame (also re-enforced with 1/4" plate all around.

The design is cool because I could sell the bumper to a TJ owner and it could bolt right up to his rig w/out any changes.

My idea to allow me to mount a winch to this is to re-enforce the front plate area of the bumper with either 1/4" or 3/8" plate the whole way across. Cut a hole for the winch line to feed through and remove the front tube section.

Here's an illustration of what I'm thinking...

The top illustration is the way the mount bolts are set up currently.

The bottom shows the added plate and longer front bolts in 'red'.

Questions I have are...
(1) Will this work?
(2) 1/4" or 3/8" re-enforcement plate ok??
(3) Anything else I'm missing?

TIA!
:coffeedrink:

 

[TEJASYOTA]

Your graphic did not show up...I had to copy paste onto the address line to view it.

Anyways, looks good, I think it will work fine with either 1/4 or 3/8 plate.
I may opt for the thicker 3/8.
You may want to change out your bolts for Gage 8 versions.
Just to be on the safe side of things.

How are you going to slot the hole for the winch line?
Torch, laser cut?...Just make sure the hole is slightly larger than the bumper's hole.
Plus I would bevel the leading edge to make sure there are no snag points.

 

[off-roader]

Your graphic did not show up...I had to copy paste onto the address line to view it.

Anyways, looks good, I think it will work fine with either 1/4 or 3/8 plate.
I may opt for the thicker 3/8.
You may want to change out your bolts for Gage 8 versions.
Just to be on the safe side of things.

Yup, I was thinking the same on all points just be anally safe.

How are you going to slot the hole for the winch line?
Torch, laser cut?...Just make sure the hole is slightly larger than the bumper's hole.
Plus I would bevel the leading edge to make sure there are no snag points.

Not sure. I'm having this done. Not doing it myself.

Was planning to make the hole big enought that any burs wouldn't matter. Will be used with a hawse fairlead and 100' of Amsteel synthetic line.

 

[off-roader]

Well, my original plan won't work. After receiving the winch and installation info, I found the winch is ~1" too wide to fit between my upgraded frame rail ends.

So I'll need to mount it above that bumper. Anyone have a picture of a winch mount above the bumper? I'm not sure how safe/reliable mounting it this way would be.

As for the picture, the picture hosting site I was using recently had a disaster that they couldn't recover from. Seems their backups were ALL corrupted.:Wow1:

So the hundreds of pics I hosted on that site are not there now. I literally had 5-6 years of pictures I had uploaded to that site. I still have the pictures but I'm not going to re-upload everything. I'll upload what is needed like the bumper pics for this thread.

 

[off-roader]

As I noted above my new winch is too big to fit between the frame rails so I have to mount it elsewhere than behind my bumper.

I was thinking of mounting a horizontal plate above the bumper and mounting the winch to that... kinda like this..

The problem is, I know nothing about mounting winches. I'm not sure if this kind of mount is even a good idea or if I need to get a narrower winch that can fit behind the bumper between the frame rails?

If this kind of mount will work, I plan on using 3/8" plate but what kind of support would I need to make it handle the pulling stresses I'll be putting on it?

 

[ntsqd]

Is the bumper a manufactured part? If so, what does the mfg offer for mounting a winch?

 

[off-roader]

Is the bumper a manufactured part? If so, what does the mfg offer for mounting a winch?

It's either a Smittybilt SRC Jeep bumper or a knock off of one. Smittybilt makes a winch plate but it's designed to attach to both the frame and the bumper. The Montero's frame rails aren't long like a jeep up front so I'd have to figure out a way to attach the winch plate securely. Also, I'm trying to do this using simple, easy to accomplish (aka less expensive) mod/fab work. :bike_rider: