Ideal winch placement on my blazer... questions - and a few crappy pics

[scouthead]

So I've had it in my head that mounting my winch "foot forward" is a stronger setup than just plopping it down on a horizontal surface...
Agree? No F-ing way? I started thinking about it and now I'm not sure...

Anyways I want to fit this thing between my frame rails and try to keep it up and out of the way.
I have to re-clock the motor and gearbox if I want the feet of the housings facing forward....No problem. So I sit the thing on a jack and push it into place, and the fairlead is going to be way too low.

So I can mount my winch in front of the grill and way higher, but then my bumper will get huge.
Or, I can move the fairlead to the top of the drum instead of the bottom... but I will have to spin the winch around so that the cable is pointed the right direction again. also not a big deal (so what if the stickers are hard to see)

So my main question is will this affect the structural strength of the winch? As long as the mounting pad is forward and the pulling forces are going down through the feet, and not across them in shear, the winch shouldn't care if it's pulling off the top or bottom of the drum, right?? And would that be stronger or weaker than just mounting it horizontal?

 

[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 .

 

[scouthead]

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 .

I don't think I follow you on the whole overlay thing. Did you think I was going to strip the drum and respool it? If I flip the whole winch (fully assembled) it is now upside down, and the motor and gearbox have just traded sides, and instead of the cable ending up (fully spooled in) bottom left, it would now be top right...
but the cable and drum should interact the same right?

The pictures of my truck suck so it's kind of hard to see what's going on (I left my camera on the dash of my truck during a heat wave), but the only difference between the middle and lower drawing in the above diagram would be that the whole winch got flipped over.

 

[scouthead]

and just so I'm clear on terms here:

 

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

I don't thing it matters whether the winch is mounted "feet down" or "feet forward" as long as the winch mount is up to the task.

I don't like your idea of feeding the cable off of the top of the drum however. The farther away the plane of the winch cable is from the mounting surface increases leverage on the mount. Pulling cable off of the bottom of the drum keeps the "pull" close to being inline with the mounting surface (i.e. the frame of the truck.)

Just IMHO, I'm no engineer!

Regards,

Alan

 

[davegonz]

Some of the larger winches are not designed to be mounted feet down. When you mount the winch feet forward, everything is in compression and therefore eliminating any chance that the bolts will shear or the casting breaking.

Why don't you just mount the fairlead in between the two sets of mounting bolts?

Here's a post with some info: Why you mount a M12000 Foot Forward. - Pirate4x4.Com Bulletin Board

 

[scouthead]

Here's a post with some info: Why you mount a M12000 Foot Forward. - Pirate4x4.Com Bulletin Board

Thank you for posting this link. It answered a bunch of my questions.

My winch is a T-Max EW10000 and has cable close to 3/8" thick, and it seems like should have quite enough pull to risk breaking a foot pad if bottom mounted, so I will definately mount this thing foot forward now, and I think it will be fine having the winch flipped. The motor and gearbox don't care if they are on the driver or pass side of my truck. The only Big issue I see is with the drain for the motor, and that can be rearanged...

Why don't you just mount the fairlead in between the two sets of mounting bolts?

This confuses me though...
Correct me If i'm wrong but you are asking, "why don't you just do this (see pic below)?"
Or is that not what you meant?

Would that just be to save all the effort and confusion of flipping the winch? Seems like it would be better to not have preload on the roller all the time?
Really there's no more work involved having the winch right side up or upside down... the bolt pattern is the same either way...and the fairlead has the same bolt spacing as the winch...
and if the fairlead gets mounted sharing two of the winchmount bolts, the open space in the fairlead is almost always going to allow the cable a straight shot out. Looks like it was designed to mount there?

 

[davegonz]

Thank you for posting this link. It answered a bunch of my questions.

My winch is a T-Max EW10000 and has cable close to 3/8" thick, and it seems like should have quite enough pull to risk breaking a foot pad if bottom mounted, so I will definately mount this thing foot forward now, and I think it will be fine having the winch flipped. The motor and gearbox don't care if they are on the driver or pass side of my truck. The only Big issue I see is with the drain for the motor, and that can be rearanged...




This confuses me though...
Correct me If i'm wrong but you are asking, "why don't you just do this (see pic below)?"
Or is that not what you meant?

Would that just be to save all the effort and confusion of flipping the winch? Seems like it would be better to not have preload on the roller all the time?
Really there's no more work involved having the winch right side up or upside down... the bolt pattern is the same either way...and the fairlead has the same bolt spacing as the winch...
and if the fairlead gets mounted sharing two of the winchmount bolts, the open space in the fairlead is almost always going to allow the cable a straight shot out. Looks like it was designed to mount there?

Yeah, that's what I meant. It will work either way.

 

[jjdeneen918]

You need to stop helping install other peoples winches and make a bumper and install your winch!


But really, thanks for the help!

 

[davegonz]

You need to stop helping install other peoples winches and make a bumper and install your winch!


But really, thanks for the help!

Who are you talking to?

 

[craptabulous]

I don't think I follow you on the whole overlay thing. Did you think I was going to strip the drum and respool it? If I flip the whole winch (fully assembled) it is now upside down, and the motor and gearbox have just traded sides, and instead of the cable ending up (fully spooled in) bottom left, it would now be top right...
but the cable and drum should interact the same right?

The pictures of my truck suck so it's kind of hard to see what's going on (I left my camera on the dash of my truck during a heat wave), but the only difference between the middle and lower drawing in the above diagram would be that the whole winch got flipped over.

ok gotcha your just flipping the whole thing , sorry im used to 80 tonne cranes more then i am 4x4's .

it should be perfectly fine if you flip it .

as long as the mount is up to the task overwinding the cable is no problem what so ever , most cranes have over run cables . if they can lift 250 tonnes with a overwound winch then im sure you wont have a problem . but yes it will act as a lever (probably about a 6" lever depending on how thick your drum is )

looking at your pictures im thinking your mount might come down from above the winch ? in that case its stronger to over wind your winch (flip it like your planning on )

the only place you would have problems is if this were a worm drive winch instead of a planetary since the worm drive might not get proper lube . but you have a planetary winch so no problem .
bottom mounting is for atv winches , i wouldn't do it on a 8k plus winch .