CruiseOrlando
Conveniently Enhanced
For those of you who think you've seen this before, you have, and that's where I got the idea from:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/370693-project-stock-front-bumper-integrated-winch.html
Of course there's always a bit of this-and-that when it comes to these things, so I wanted to share my experience in the hopes that it helps someone else in the future.
I bought the Badland 9000# winch from Harbor Freight. Since I don't plan on using this a whole lot, I didn't want to spend $1000+ on a nice one. I found this one on sale, then somehow was able to double up on the 20% off coupon to get the price down a whopping $209. Don't ask me how, I'm not quite sure myself.
I also got the channel mount from them ( Universal Channel Winch Mount ). This took about 2 months to get since it was backordered. But I wasn't in a big hurry anyway so I didn't mind waiting.
So far I was in for about $310 after shipping and all, which I was pretty happy with. Upon opening the box, everything was packed nicely and it looked pretty good.
When I first started finally putting things together, I didn't realize how much cutting was really involved. I had to really trim down the channel mount quite a bit, and none of the mounting holes lined up (except for the ones for the winch itself to the plate). I used a few metal cut-off wheels - I got one for my skill saw, the other for my angle grinder. They both came in handy for different cuts - the saw couldn't get into some places that the angle grinder took care of (and the skill saw wasn't a good choice for the bumper cutting).
After a few cuts, I did my first test-fit on the truck:
That seemed to be ok for the first test. So I put the winch in place, and make sure everything was accessible.
This started problem #1 - I couldn't turn the clutch handle to the fully engaged position! It was hitting the tranny radiator...
In trying to come up with various ideas, I posted https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/558590-need-help-mounting-winch.html to gather thoughts on what I might be able to do, and was told that "clocking" the winch would probably do what I wanted to do. After a little fumbling around, I finally figured out how to do it, and moved the handle position forward a bit.
In trying out a few more test fits (and after cutting the bumper for the first time), it looked like I would be able to make it work if I took out the lower 'air vent' covers in the bumper and reached in there to move the clutch handle.
I put the fairlead on, and figured out that was going to be a real pain in the a... when it came to final assembly (the bolts are short, and due to the nature of this project, the entire assembly, bumper and all, would have to be on before I could put the fairlead on. This would prove to be a slight challenge later)
Then I test-fit with the bumper to see where I was.
This was the end of my available time for the first weekend, and a few things were apparent. One, getting the bumper on was going to be a real pain in the butt. Because I didn't want to fully compromise the bumper integrity, I wanted to leave some steel along the bottom edge. This wasn't exactly cooperative with the channel mount, which was protruding a bit beyond this.
Second was the tie-downs, which would need some kind of spacer to go back on due to the 1/4" plate of the channel mount that was now in the way. More on that later.
The third problem was the solenoid box. I wasn't sure where I was going to mount that, but I'd run out of time anyway so I forgot about it for a week or so.
This weekend I started on the solenoid box, and after dinking around with various locations, I played around with putting it "where it belongs" on top of the winch. A bit of pushing, prodding and cussing developed a postion that I was relieved would work well - but only left about 1/2" of clearance to the body! But that's ok - I plan on a 1" body lift pretty soon anyway and that should give me a little more breathing room right there.
All of the power cables would route well and work without issue, as well from here:
The tie-down hooks (or "recovery point" as some people call it) were another problem, but a few fender washers fixed that. I did have to source a few extra bolts (1.25 x 12 if anyone is interested in knowing) that a local hardware store carried (10.2's, I think?).
The channel plate was mounting up to the forward two holes on the frame rails, and you can't keep these tie-down points that far forward if you hope to bolt the bumper back on. So that's why it had to sit back in its original position.
After a few more trims, some rustolum on the exposed surfaces and a few good whacks with my mallet, everything finally came together:
A little bit of wishful thinking - actually I just put the truck in N to try and wind the rope properly...
And a few close-ups of the job after everything was said and done:
I'd say this is a
project. You should probably have 2 people, too... probably would have saved a few moments of frustration on my part.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/370693-project-stock-front-bumper-integrated-winch.html
Of course there's always a bit of this-and-that when it comes to these things, so I wanted to share my experience in the hopes that it helps someone else in the future.
I bought the Badland 9000# winch from Harbor Freight. Since I don't plan on using this a whole lot, I didn't want to spend $1000+ on a nice one. I found this one on sale, then somehow was able to double up on the 20% off coupon to get the price down a whopping $209. Don't ask me how, I'm not quite sure myself.
I also got the channel mount from them ( Universal Channel Winch Mount ). This took about 2 months to get since it was backordered. But I wasn't in a big hurry anyway so I didn't mind waiting.
So far I was in for about $310 after shipping and all, which I was pretty happy with. Upon opening the box, everything was packed nicely and it looked pretty good.
When I first started finally putting things together, I didn't realize how much cutting was really involved. I had to really trim down the channel mount quite a bit, and none of the mounting holes lined up (except for the ones for the winch itself to the plate). I used a few metal cut-off wheels - I got one for my skill saw, the other for my angle grinder. They both came in handy for different cuts - the saw couldn't get into some places that the angle grinder took care of (and the skill saw wasn't a good choice for the bumper cutting).
After a few cuts, I did my first test-fit on the truck:
That seemed to be ok for the first test. So I put the winch in place, and make sure everything was accessible.
This started problem #1 - I couldn't turn the clutch handle to the fully engaged position! It was hitting the tranny radiator...
In trying to come up with various ideas, I posted https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/558590-need-help-mounting-winch.html to gather thoughts on what I might be able to do, and was told that "clocking" the winch would probably do what I wanted to do. After a little fumbling around, I finally figured out how to do it, and moved the handle position forward a bit.
In trying out a few more test fits (and after cutting the bumper for the first time), it looked like I would be able to make it work if I took out the lower 'air vent' covers in the bumper and reached in there to move the clutch handle.
I put the fairlead on, and figured out that was going to be a real pain in the a... when it came to final assembly (the bolts are short, and due to the nature of this project, the entire assembly, bumper and all, would have to be on before I could put the fairlead on. This would prove to be a slight challenge later)
Then I test-fit with the bumper to see where I was.
This was the end of my available time for the first weekend, and a few things were apparent. One, getting the bumper on was going to be a real pain in the butt. Because I didn't want to fully compromise the bumper integrity, I wanted to leave some steel along the bottom edge. This wasn't exactly cooperative with the channel mount, which was protruding a bit beyond this.
Second was the tie-downs, which would need some kind of spacer to go back on due to the 1/4" plate of the channel mount that was now in the way. More on that later.
The third problem was the solenoid box. I wasn't sure where I was going to mount that, but I'd run out of time anyway so I forgot about it for a week or so.
This weekend I started on the solenoid box, and after dinking around with various locations, I played around with putting it "where it belongs" on top of the winch. A bit of pushing, prodding and cussing developed a postion that I was relieved would work well - but only left about 1/2" of clearance to the body! But that's ok - I plan on a 1" body lift pretty soon anyway and that should give me a little more breathing room right there.
All of the power cables would route well and work without issue, as well from here:
The tie-down hooks (or "recovery point" as some people call it) were another problem, but a few fender washers fixed that. I did have to source a few extra bolts (1.25 x 12 if anyone is interested in knowing) that a local hardware store carried (10.2's, I think?).
The channel plate was mounting up to the forward two holes on the frame rails, and you can't keep these tie-down points that far forward if you hope to bolt the bumper back on. So that's why it had to sit back in its original position.
After a few more trims, some rustolum on the exposed surfaces and a few good whacks with my mallet, everything finally came together:
A little bit of wishful thinking - actually I just put the truck in N to try and wind the rope properly...
And a few close-ups of the job after everything was said and done:
I'd say this is a
project. You should probably have 2 people, too... probably would have saved a few moments of frustration on my part.
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