Guide for another BudBuilt Hidden Winch Install, kinda. Lots of pictures.

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edit added @ 10am day after install and talking with guys at BudBuilt

PLEASE READ THIS NOTE BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY JUDGEMENT ON BUDBUILTs WINCH PLATE
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For those that dont want to read the story. I installed a 5th gen Budbuilt Hidden Winch Plate on a 4th Gen by accident. story in post 7
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So here it is. For my baby's 174,000 mile birthday.

She got a for her...
-Budbuilt Hidden Winch Mount
-Warn VR10,000 hitch


Vehicle:2003 V8 4th Gen

In the front there is....
-Curt MFG Front Hitch Reciever
-Full Set of Hornblasters train horns

20lbs of sh*t in a 5lb bag Basically, this write up is a guide for the install. It was a interesting job.

NOTE/Warning: You should have cutting tools handy. Airsaw, good set of drill bits, grinder and a lowes/home depot near by. Read and you'll see why.

First off, bumper comes off. I am sure there are write ups out there for this. So i'm not going into detail on it. since i never took it off before, i managed to take only 15 minutes to get it off.

So here it is with bumper off, no horns nothing in the way.




In this picture you will see two bolts circled in red below. I cut these guys off. They are too short. both front hitch mount and winch plate share that one bolt. hitch uses another bolt on the other side too
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There are 4 bolts to remove the bumper reinforcement off the frame.
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Mock up of the reinforcement back on and winch plate. As you can see the U-Bolts that go around the bumper reinforcement are crooked. thats because on my truck there are two tabs that allow the plastic bumper to bolt on to.

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Here are the tabs i am talking about. As you can see this u bolt is not lined up because of these brackets.
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Out came the grinder. whiiiizzz, and it came off in minutes LoL
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Now the U-bolts fit nice.

Then the winch delivery came.

Then the thought of all this stuff needs to go back in and more!.

NOTE: when you have it in this mocked up position with no winch on it. mark the bumper reinforcement with the hole for the front two winch holes. from the top.
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This is the winch mounted to the winch plate. Take note of the four bolts that hold the bottom of the winch. You need to drill out two holes on the bumper reinforcement so the two bolts towards the front can drop in that hole.[/URL]

Used a small bit to start the hole then enlarged it to 1.75"


See now the winch mounted to the plate will sit flush on top of the bumper reinforcement. if you didnt drill the two holes, the winch would be tilted up and sitting on the bolt heads.[/URL]

Not the best picture but one of the AC lines will be in the way. circled in red in the picture below. I unclipped it bent the bracket up. took off the white clip. pushe dthe line back under the bracket over the ac line, then zip tied the line to the back of the bracket. i wrapped it in some foam to avoid rubbing issues.[/URL]

two out of four trainhorn trumpets tucked away below the winch and above the hitch reciever[/URL]

two more trumpets below the passenger side headlamp
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This is what you need to use a airsaw for. to cut the plastic bumper out. take the black bumper reinforcement plastic that is behind the regular bumper cover off so you can cut the plastic better.[/URL]

Keep cutting and cutting and trimming. eventually the bumper will fit back on correctly. i took about 1 hour cutting and trimming so it fits nicely.

I am glad i got a winch with a seperate solenoid box. If i didnt this winch would not fit in there.

Concerns for me were...

*ac lines
*fitment of the winch
*fitment of the winchs plate
*fittment of front hitch reciever
*retaining my train horns

well ac lines, all it took was some slight bends to move them out of the way. easy!
winch, well we can see it fits. its a warn vr10000 btw
winch plate? fits well. no directions on how to install it. so here is my guide, its no bible..just a guide YMMV
front reciever? OMG i am glad it fits, never had a doubt, just worried on how much work i neede to get it to fit! It wasnt much, few minuted grinding off a bolt and putting a new one in thats longer and grade 8!

train horns, tested them out today when i had to do a service call in the city. Yep they work, moved traffic pretty well LoL!

Ease of install? 1-10 10 being hardest 7
Quality of materials? 10
Directions? ZERO, good thing i have some common sense and a shop full of tools
Time for install? 7 hours, that includes the following: Lunch, two radio installs, relocating train horns, rerouting airlines, redoing horn solenoid, taking customer phone calls and 3 breath-a-lyzer reclibrations. AND taking my time since i had no rush to go anywhere except home after work!

Nice job.

Kept looking around on your other pictures and didn't see the horns. Could see the air line hoses, and now a picture of them. Great job there, taking your time just to make sure it all was aligned and perfect.

OK, almost perfect, putting up an audible on them horns would take this write up over the top, probably would wet myself.

Wow, you fit a lot of stuff in that space, haha. Looks good!

having fun said:

Kept looking around on your other pictures and didn't see the horns. Could see the air line hoses, and now a picture of them. Great job there, taking your time just to make sure it all was aligned and perfect.

OK, almost perfect, putting up an audible on them horns would take this write up over the top, probably would wet myself.

Click to expand...

this is what my train horns look like.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-g...4runner-hornblasters-install-look-inside.html

in the first post you can see them installed.

ALSO EDIT ON FIRST POST IN BOLD!!!

i ordered a 4th gen hidden winch mount and 5th gen hidden winch mount. it came in on Monday. my winch came in on Tuesday. My luck Shannon is off on Tuesdays, Bud also was sick on this particular Tuesday. I called Tuesday morning about a fitment issue @ 930am. Couldn't get anyone on the phone so i proceeded with my install since the fitment issue was minor. required the cutting of the brackets on my truck. Brackets were rusty and had bolts stuck in them anyways, so it was ok. Minor hiccup, other wise the install went as planned with the exception of when the final assembly came. when i put the bumper back on. mount was too high where the fairlead goes in.. so i had to trim the bumper cap to fit it on.

So the 5th gen mount fits my 4th gen with some minor adjustments.

Is the solenoid box mounted straight to the vertical radiator support? Or did you use a bracket?

I'm in the midst of a winch installation on an aftermarket bumper (Relentless), and am trying to find a good spot to mount the solenoid box. Going to tackle it this weekend...

Nice job on the installation & writeup -- lots of photos.

Good catch there, lol. The solenoid box is mounted vertical. To the vertical rad support using a bracket that came with the winch but used it to Mount to the rad support

great post doing mine tomorrow!

gshadow325 said:

this is what my train horns look like.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-g...4runner-hornblasters-install-look-inside.html

in the first post you can see them installed.

ALSO EDIT ON FIRST POST IN BOLD!!!

i ordered a 4th gen hidden winch mount and 5th gen hidden winch mount. it came in on Monday. my winch came in on Tuesday. My luck Shannon is off on Tuesdays, Bud also was sick on this particular Tuesday. I called Tuesday morning about a fitment issue @ 930am. Couldn't get anyone on the phone so i proceeded with my install since the fitment issue was minor. required the cutting of the brackets on my truck. Brackets were rusty and had bolts stuck in them anyways, so it was ok. Minor hiccup, other wise the install went as planned with the exception of when the final assembly came. when i put the bumper back on. mount was too high where the fairlead goes in.. so i had to trim the bumper cap to fit it on.

So the 5th gen mount fits my 4th gen with some minor adjustments.

Click to expand...

I would look into either swapping it out for the proper 4th gen bracket, or some how figuring out a way to bolt that 5th gen bracket to the frame rails...the way you have it right now, it seems like it's only two u-bolts holding it down and I think Bud designed it so that his bracket ties into the frame rail as well. Last thing you want happening is the mount ripping out while doing a heavy pull...

Scroll down in this post, and you will see what I mean: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-g...-plate-install-instructions-2.html#post928269

eddiebx said:

I would look into either swapping it out for the proper 4th gen bracket, or some how figuring out a way to bolt that 5th gen bracket to the frame rails...the way you have it right now, it seems like it's only two u-bolts holding it down and I think Bud designed it so that his bracket ties into the frame rail as well. Last thing you want happening is the mount ripping out while doing a heavy pull...

Scroll down in this post, and you will see what I mean: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-g...-plate-install-instructions-2.html#post928269

Click to expand...

thanks for the observation. You are correct, it would not be wise to not have it bolted up to the frame rails. You are right Bud didnt design it this way. As you can see in this next picture circled in red.

i cut the old bolts off since they were too short. these two same bolts on a 5th gen is a nut and bolt, on a 4th gen its a welded stud. Since i was putting on the curt hitch, i was basically stacking the BudBuilt winch plate on top of the curt hitch bracket. I lucked out by putting the wrong one on, why? turns out the 4th gen uses another L bracket for support. 5th gen has it welded on already. circled in red in the below picture


now that i am looking back. in this next picture circled in red. the 5th gen is short LoL. Kinda seem like it was meant to be. in that area thats where the curt bracket made up the shortage. in a regular 4th gen there would not be the support bracket like in the above picture. there would be a bracket that gets added on behind the plate. the same area the curt hitch bracket would be. So it was a good mistake! that turned out for the best!


I also found out that when installing a 4th gen, bumper removal is not necessary but absolutely made my job 1000% easier since i was stuffing train horns in there too!

olsen_karl said:

Is the solenoid box mounted straight to the vertical radiator support? Or did you use a bracket?

I'm in the midst of a winch installation on an aftermarket bumper (Relentless), and am trying to find a good spot to mount the solenoid box. Going to tackle it this weekend...

Nice job on the installation & writeup -- lots of photos.

Click to expand...

forgot to mention, thats one of the reason why i chose a winch with a separate solenoid box. i didnt want to have issues with space.

outrnm said:

great post doing mine tomorrow!

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If you guys run into some snags, you can PM me your number and i can give you a call between turkey bastings, LoL. Seriously, i am going over to someones house to eat their turkey...Lucky to NOT have thanksgiving at my house this year. I do have Christmas dinner duty though! So i will be stuffing my face all day and laying on the couch, so i would be avail for tech support LoL

gshadow325 said:

now that i am looking back. in this next picture circled in red. the 5th gen is short LoL. Kinda seem like it was meant to be. in that area thats where the curt bracket made up the shortage. in a regular 4th gen there would not be the support bracket like in the above picture. there would be a bracket that gets added on behind the plate. the same area the curt hitch bracket would be. So it was a good mistake! that turned out for the best!

Click to expand...

Ha, I was actually kind of wondering how you managed to keep the Curt hitch there and the BB plate since I think it interferes on our 5th gen. But yeah man really sounds like you sure came out ahead installing the "wrong" one, which ended up being the right one for your specific application. Should've just played it off as intentional, lol. :jk:

outrnm said:

great post doing mine tomorrow!

Click to expand...

If you need any assistance pm me. I will give you my ph# if you get stuck during the install. I am running the gen4 budbuilt which sits lower than Steve's.

eddiebx said:

Ha, I was actually kind of wondering how you managed to keep the Curt hitch there and the BB plate since I think it interferes on our 5th gen. But yeah man really sounds like you sure came out ahead installing the "wrong" one, which ended up being the right one for your specific application. Should've just played it off as intentional, lol. :jk:

Click to expand...

in all fairness, I am only human and messed up, like you said for the good!

big gamble was the curt hitch AND the winch! i rolled the dice that it would fit in there!

ebg18t said:

If you need any assistance pm me. I will give you my ph# if you get stuck during the install. I am running the gen4 budbuilt which sits lower than Steve's.

Click to expand...

yeah dont call me, i cant even get the right mount on my truck! LoL hahahaha

[MENTION=93434]gshadow325[/MENTION], I actually posted on that other thread also. And did catch a photo of your relocation of the horns, just took awhile before you got all the postings up, was surprised you got it to all fit. The audible part was just in a joke. I caught it on your other car post.

Again, My big rig is jealous now.

Hitch and winch

So would this have worked without the hitch mount?

Very cool! Thanks for taking the time to post!