XK Hidden winch mount

[Mudicon]

For those of us with XK (Commanders) as our expedition vehicles, there are few options for a hidden winch mount for the front. A couple companies offer a full replacement front bumper and 2 companies offer hidden mount kits for the factory bumper but all the above have 4-6 week fabrication and build waits. In addition, the current mounts offered require one to lay in the mud to reach under and shift the winch to free spool and neither offer a way to view the spooling cable to ensure you do not damage the winch housing.

I am neither patient nor do I relish the idea of laying in the mud...so I created my own.

 

[Mudicon]

I started looking for a mounting plate with pre-drilled winch mounting points. I found the Rough Country part# 1189 JK winch plate and started with it.



I did some 3D graphics to show the modifications that were necessary to enable the plate to work in the XK.



Cut the fairlead plate off the front and moved it 3" forward and 2.5" up.



I then added gussets to support the new fairlead plate location and enlarged the cable opening to ensure it does not chafe my synthetic cable.



Lastly I added 1" solid steel blocks (pre-drilled with the aligned holes mounting holes) to lower the entire unit so the winch engage lever will be below the bottom of the grill.



That finished the modifications to the plate and it installed to the factory tow hook mounting points to the frame behind the bumper. I used grade 8 3" bolts from the bottom into nuts and lockwashers I placed into the frame.

I will post picks of the prep and install next...

 

[Mudicon]

Start first by cutting out the top of the front bumper and the inner crash support



Next remove the front bumper and inner crash support.



Next cut the rebar and remove it



I cleaned up the ends and painted them satin black

 

[Mudicon]

The next step involved modifying the relay contact box and mounting the connection point in the grill and the relays in the right frame rail.



Next was the test fitting and installing with the grade 8 bolts.



Installing the winch and testing the hawse fairlead brought the XK closer to finish



Installed the bumper and cut out the holes for mounting the fairlead.

 

[Mudicon]

Lastly we performed a two-tone paint scheme on the XK and installed a color matched grill guard to finish the project.

 

[MuckSavage]

Great work from the concept, planning, fab & finished product!!

 

[Septu]

Looks great... but how do you avoid laying in the mud to engage the clutch on the winch?

 

[Mudicon]

Great work from the concept, planning, fab & finished product!!

Thank you! I am quite happy with the way it turned out and hope others will be able to use these plans and make their own. I have less than $150 in the materials and the commercially available ones are $500+

 

[Mudicon]

Looks great... but how do you avoid laying in the mud to engage the clutch on the winch?

The winch is mounted on it's base and the clutch handle is accessed through the cutout in the top of the bumper to the right.