My suggestion is to simulate stuck situations you may encounter while on the trail. I'd do a build up approach from minimal to large stress/load and verify structure integrity after each test. Incline with brake pressure applied is a good idea. Another suggestion is incline with a obstacle such as a log, concrete block or similar obstacles pin against one of the front tires.

looks really cool for home made. i have a cbi front hitch on my truck and it uses one more mounting point then you have.



im one for having things over built so to me the more bolts the better

Wow. Thx for the cbi pic. Honestly, didn't even notice the threaded frame section right there. I 100% agree the more connections the better..... I have to show that pic to my welder to see if we can easily "halfway" fix it.

Just an update, I ordered a black failrlead, didn't like the chrome on the front. It comes in tomorrow and I will throw on and get to testing and report back. We are on the same page for the ideas.

Alright,

Found time to test the setup tonight. Started light and progressed with more and more brake pressure. also put a 10 inch tall log in front of the wheels. It handled all of this extremely easy. After i built some confidence up i pretty much laid on the brakes and it drug me through the grass. It was really bogging the winch down pretty good which was the point. Mount held up great with no bad sounds or damage. This is not an extremely conclusive test, but for what I hope when I need I am satisfied.

Other report. I have bilstein 5100 all the way up and daystar spacer in rear. was happy with this setup until the extra weight on the front. between the second battery setup and the winch with plate. i know have about 1.75 inches of rake. I will be putting on coilovers in the front to "look right" again. More importantly, the front has gotten really soft. Not great for off road. Peace

Have you done any more testing on your wench setup?

Old thread but thanks for the inspiration. I grabbed the same HF winch plate and hunted all over town to get a few big scraps of 3"x5"x 1/4" angle. This way my brackets would be one piece.

After some cutting/drilling/welding it's all done and installed. My only pull so far has been to pre-tension the line. I ended up mounting the solenoid pack on the top drum section. It just "barely" clears the hood release and grille. I ended up having to bend the brackets a bit so it's well out of the way. I was very careful to move that AC line and zip-tie it in place at several spots after wrapping it with some silicone tape to prevent chafing.

A few "I wish I'd known this before I started" moments. I built the mount with the plate flush with the front edge of the stock metal "bumper". In hindsight I could have come forward maybe another 1/4" or more. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with the hook/clevis setup. The Smittybilt winch line comes with the hook spliced into the eye so it can't be removed with cutting. I've seen folks that leave their lines attached to one of the front anchor points. However, they're so low I figure if I get really bogged those might be underwater or buried in sand.



Don't forget to add some holes for the winch mounting bolts to clear. A 3/4" step bit did the job pretty well. I ended up having to drill 2 close together to get more of an oval so the bolt heads could drop in then slide back into final position.



I chopped the front "corner" off the brackets I made to allow them to just barely clear and made the mounting holes 1/2" so there's plenty of "slop" to get them on and off. I was able to install the entire bracket and winch without removing the metal factory bumper.



I did index the freespool lever back toward the radiator one notch (36-degrees approx). Therefore I didn't have to do any chopping on the bracket or bumper cover.

I can't see any pics, if there are any!

Sorry....I'd somehow inserted links to the album page and not the actual image. they should be working now.

I see all the photos just fine, not sure why you don't, they're also in my post in the quote.

Dang. Nice!

Thank you for the inspiration!! I ended up doing something similar to this. I used 2” 3/16 angle iron and flat bar for my brackets. Used the same HF adaptor plate and put the 12000 lb Badlands winch onto it. I had make some custom mounts for the control box and mounted it to the passenger side of the winch on the adaptor plate. We were a little off on the remote control plug so had to cut a small notch out of the top of the bumper to access the plug in on the control box. You can’t see it with the hood closed. All in all everything worked out well and I appreciate all of the ideas and inspiration given on this forum!! I would love to post pics but every time I try to upload it tells me the upload failed...

Finally able to upload pics. Weird how the website auto rotates the pics but it’s better then nothing.

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