So I finally got around to taking my Smittybilt 10K X20 winch off my other cruiser and mounting it to my "new" cruiser. This '95 came with an ARB front bumper, which mounts the winch with the "bottom" towards the front. The problem is that after the flat front of the bumper, it tapers in and the rather long winch hits the bumper on the motor end. So the winch must be spaced back some in order to fit.
I had some 1" x 3/8" bar lying around and made a couple of spacers. I thought that would move the winch back far enough so that it doesn't hit. It didn't. It was close, but it still hit on the end. There was lots of room behind the winch, so moving it back further was no problem.
I didn't have any other 1" bar stock lying around, so I made another set of 3/8" thick spacers as stacked them. Perfect. It looks like you could maybe get away with a total of 1/2" of spacer, but having 3/4" seems good.
To mount the fairlead, you just need to drill a new hole, and replace the pin holding the vertical rollers to a bolt that will hold it to the bumper. Still need to wire it up, but it fits pretty well and looks good too.
Now about the bumper. This bumper came on the rig and I like the way it looks and already had it so I thought I would use it. I took off the bumper to mount the winch. IMHO, this bumper is weak. It weighs almost nothing (made out of thin steel) and looks like it would fold if you hit any kind of obstacle. My wife even commented that it weighed considerably less than a single rock slider. I think it may actually weigh less than the stock bumper. It has no recovery points and I actually had to go steal the recovery points off my parts rig and put them on the front of this one. That being said, it does look good and will probably work fine for this cruiser's application (overlanding).
I had some 1" x 3/8" bar lying around and made a couple of spacers. I thought that would move the winch back far enough so that it doesn't hit. It didn't. It was close, but it still hit on the end. There was lots of room behind the winch, so moving it back further was no problem.
I didn't have any other 1" bar stock lying around, so I made another set of 3/8" thick spacers as stacked them. Perfect. It looks like you could maybe get away with a total of 1/2" of spacer, but having 3/4" seems good.
To mount the fairlead, you just need to drill a new hole, and replace the pin holding the vertical rollers to a bolt that will hold it to the bumper. Still need to wire it up, but it fits pretty well and looks good too.
Now about the bumper. This bumper came on the rig and I like the way it looks and already had it so I thought I would use it. I took off the bumper to mount the winch. IMHO, this bumper is weak. It weighs almost nothing (made out of thin steel) and looks like it would fold if you hit any kind of obstacle. My wife even commented that it weighed considerably less than a single rock slider. I think it may actually weigh less than the stock bumper. It has no recovery points and I actually had to go steal the recovery points off my parts rig and put them on the front of this one. That being said, it does look good and will probably work fine for this cruiser's application (overlanding).
