Builds A fabricators 80 build....

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That is some very f&%$'n nice welding you're doing there! Beautiful work!

:cheers:

And I'd stay with the single hoop myself but increase the tube diameter slightly, only for aesthetic reasons. That is one NICE bumper!
 
Man, I sure wish UnderDawg were around to comment
 
RDC76 said:
So some other food for thought. And feel free to give input. With wanting my winch low but my fairlead as high as possible. It brought forth a challenge? The line spools from the bottom. As we all know. And I've always had it. I wondered and couldn't find a definitive answer as to why it couldn't feed from the top? And not by respooling and reversing the connections but by simply turning it from left to right. Backwards if you will. Other than increasing the load and stress on the winch feet ( not worried about my base plate) I wouldn't be changing anything? The brake and clutch should function as it should and the controller buttons still work the same. To double check I called and spoke to two people at WARN and they said after some thought that it is fine to run it that way! They said their industrial line and some other models feed that way. So I'm gonna try it! Now my winch is low and my fairlead is where I want it. It's centered between the empty top part of the drum and where the last wrap would be. And about 5 inches higher than where it would have been if I had to go from the bottom. I also recessed the fairlead area back so only about a 1/4 protrudes from the bumper to clear on full side pulls. But doesn't stick out far. I went with Factor55's 1.5" fairlead as well.
Click to expand...
I'm really surprised warn told you to run the winch that way. I've never seen it done that way, but from an engineering standpoint and how metal stresses makes me cringe. For some that don't know, metal tears before it compresses. When running the winch in the normal position, the four mounting bolts act as huge sheer pins that don't sheer. With having the winch pull the line across the top of the drum, the load will be transfered to the heads/shanks of the bolts, and hopefully, not tear them off. Say you have a 9500lb winch, you're putting over 2300lbs of pulling force through each bolt, but by design it's putting the immediate load through the rear two bolts. That's over 4500lbs each. If Warn says it's cool, I'd still be against it, just due to the stresses on the hardware. Say one let's go, or two, then your winch is trashed as well. I'm all for outside the box, your fab work is sick! Design gets a A+ from me for all the items you're incorporating into this thing, I'm just beyond sketched out by the load over the top of the drum, and the hardware. Anyone else visualize what I'm spittin?
 
^ check the tensile strength of the required fasteners on a winch mount(5/16 or 3/8" grade8)and do some research on rigging and simple crane lifts at construction sites.

Those fasteners(if used appropriately) are well up to the task. In the field, or in positioning for welding, it is common to lift building columns 45k lbs plus with just four 7/8" bolts or 6" of 5/16" fillet weld with OSHA signs and literature everywhere and that setup is grossly exaggerated in the name of safety.

I realize your concerns are genuine and there's no such thing as 'too safe', but as long as those bolts are proper and torqued, he's not creating a death trap. Not even close. The winch will stall long, long, long before the attachments even saw forces equivalent to their non deforming yield point, let alone stretch or shear.

Having said that, That all gets compromised with fastener quality (ace hardware bolts maybe?)or improper use of them(loose), so your comments are certainly to be respected. Even using bolts that have a shoulder vs threads through the mounting tray changes many things in the right direction.
 
Proper hardware will work. It's not a setup I personally would run with, to each their own. As most folks here are mechanically inclined, I'd hate to see someone get hurt in the process of creating a new way of doing things, especially with all the options of hardware. Bolts from Autozone for this are as great as AR main cap studs to mount a hinge on my gate into the backyard. Guess the whole thing makes me nervous! To each their own, and I hope you find a new way of mounting the winch in the process! :cheers:
 
artech said:
That is some very f&%$'n nice welding you're doing there! Beautiful work!

:cheers:

And I'd stay with the single hoop myself but increase the tube diameter slightly, only for aesthetic reasons. That is one NICE bumper!
Click to expand...

Thank you! And I will be keeping the single hoop for now. The diameter is 1-1/2" which is the biggest die set I have on my model 4 bender as of the moment.
 
Phildoh said:
I'm really surprised warn told you to run the winch that way. I've never seen it done that way, but from an engineering standpoint and how metal stresses makes me cringe. For some that don't know, metal tears before it compresses. When running the winch in the normal position, the four mounting bolts act as huge sheer pins that don't sheer. With having the winch pull the line across the top of the drum, the load will be transfered to the heads/shanks of the bolts, and hopefully, not tear them off. Say you have a 9500lb winch, you're putting over 2300lbs of pulling force through each bolt, but by design it's putting the immediate load through the rear two bolts. That's over 4500lbs each. If Warn says it's cool, I'd still be against it, just due to the stresses on the hardware. Say one let's go, or two, then your winch is trashed as well. I'm all for outside the box, your fab work is sick! Design gets a A+ from me for all the items you're incorporating into this thing, I'm just beyond sketched out by the load over the top of the drum, and the hardware. Anyone else visualize what I'm spittin?
Click to expand...

Thanks for this post. And your constructive input. I agree with everything except the the part about the hardware on a "normally" mounted winch. The bolts are not in total sheer. That would suggest the winch line is pulling directly in line with the point of where the winch mounting feet attach to the base structure. Which at no time is it unless your drum is overfilled and your attempting a 4' pull. Lol. Jk. And your winch doesn't even come close to full pulling force until most of the line is spooled out anyways. At that point the same type of force is put on the bolts as in my positioning . It's just my positioning increases that force on the hardware. I was never concerned about the hardware and thanks to boogerwelds don't have to explain why. Thanks booger. I was concerned with the winch housing. That is why I called warn to find out. If you look at almost every flat bed wrecker, the winch is almost always recessed into the deck and feeding off the top. Same as mine. Even if some how ALL the bolts broke that winch would never come through my bumper.
You propose a valid concern and thinking about it and looking up the winch dimensions on warns site I have enough room in there for all but the power pack winches and the ones with integral electronics. With that said I'm going to see if I have room to roll the winch 90 degrees so the feet face the front and re-clock the select lever. it will still feed from the top cause I have it turned. I'll just have to add a mounting plate cause the fronts not flat. If this works it's a win win.
Thanks phildoh for making me rethink this. And helping the design. Was hoping to have it finished by tomorrow and paint this weekend but I didn't get anytime to work on it this week. We'll see..

Thanks ,
Rich
 
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That is one very nice looking bar. I think you have nailed the design on it. Look forward to seeing your recovery points and the finished bar.
 
celibaterifle said:
That is one very nice looking bar. I think you have nailed the design on it. Look forward to seeing your recovery points and the finished bar.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I've been busy finishing up some customer projects so I haven't worked on it since last week. And had to order a new mig welder. Hopefully that blue beauty will be in by tomorrow or Thursday. The sample soft shackle showed up this weekend. Thanks bubba rope!! I also checked to see if there was room to mount the winch feet forward as I mentioned last time. And there is plenty. So I could mount it that way on future ones. But I've decided to try the winch feet down as planned and as ok'd by warn. Just cause I want to try and see how it works. And it would be very easy to change or fix if there was an issue. As far as hardware goes I only use good hardware on everything. So no worries there. I also need to source out some good texture paint for the tops of the wings. I want a no slip finish on the top of the wings for standing on. Preferably something available in dark grey. To match the fairlead I think.... If anyone has any recommendations ??
 
Awesome build.

You can try Monstaliner as a no slip finish. You can mix colors to match what color you're looking for.
 
The new welder came in. And I was able to fit up and section/weld in the recovery points. Here are some pics of the progress.
image.jpg
 
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