General winch mounting questions - What's stronger?

[scouthead]

I thought that mounting a winch "foot forward" would be stronger than bolting it to a horizontal surface. Any thoughts on this? Wondering if it would make it harder to break the foot pads on the winch housing or easier?

I posted a thread in the winching forum:
https://forum.ih8mud.com/winching-r...er-questions-few-crappy-pics.html#post4514708
but it's quiet in there.

The winch I'm mounting will be going on my blazer, but you can see my FJ55 in one of the pics, so I figure it's fair game here on mud

 

[craptabulous]

do the middle one , its the strongest and easiest

if you want to overlay your cable you have to go from left to right not right to left like under wound , thats from the drivers perspective . if you plan on using right hand cable (what you currently have) . left hand lay is opposite but expensive / rare . so you would have to flip your drum end for end , if thats possible on your winch .

i wouldn't bottom mount the winch .