Budbuilt Hidden Winch Plate

Mick1

Mick1

New member
I received my Budbuilt Hidden Winch Plate this evening. :girl:

It came with zero instructions or documentation. I asked last week for instructions and the response was deer in headlights.

Can any of the few people that have installed one of these give me some pointers?

I don't even know if I HAVE to take the bumper off or if the few pictures I have seen of the winch plate with a bumper off were because it was in the design process or regular installation. :shrug:

I snapped some pictures and added them to my photo sharing site. Click link in my sig to view.
 
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Mick1 said:
I received my Budbuilt Hidden Winch Plate this evening. :girl:

It came with zero instructions or documentation. I asked last week for instructions and the response was deer in headlights.

Can any of the few people that have installed one of these give me some pointers?

I don't even know if I HAVE to take the bumper off or if the few pictures I have seen of the winch plate with a bumper off were because it was in the design process or regular installation. :shrug:

I snapped some pictures and added them to my photo sharing site. Click link in my sig to view.
Click to expand...

Congrats.

Sorry, I am no help, but have been curious about the winch plate since I heard about it.

How much does it weigh (just the plate)?

Those bent all-thread look a bit funky. You could get a spring shop to bend you up some decent u-bolts (square) that wouldn't be fully threaded and much stronger.

Good luck with the install. Take pics of it going together!
 
Sorry I can't help but was also interested in that mount :shrug: it does look as though removing the bumper cover is necessary.

I agree the bent threaded rod looks iffy, I think I'd go to a spring shop and get some real U-bolts made for it
 
Just to clarify. I was thinking / hoping i could squeez it in with just the grill off.

After looking at it last night i think i probably have to pull the bumper. So lets hear some tips for that procedure.
 
Mick1 said:
Just to clarify. I was thinking / hoping i could squeez it in with just the grill off.

After looking at it last night i think i probably have to pull the bumper. So lets hear some tips for that procedure.
Click to expand...

I'm not the most mechanically inclined so I'm not the one to give you detailed instructions (see Antman's comments on my FIAMM horn mount wiring job for reference. :biggrin2: ) but I did have to take the bumper cover off and if I remember correctly I ended up loosening the actual bumper as well to get the plate down in there. Once you get the cover off though it becomes pretty straight forward as there is really only one way to get it in.

I did end up having my laptop there and looked at a few of the other winchplate threads with pics on them (Harper's comes to mind) for reference.

The one tip I would offer is make sure you have considered your winch mounting hardware during the install of the plate. In my haste I had the plate installed and tightened up before I realized that I needed access to the bottom of the plate to mount the winch which of course I couldn't do after the plate was mounted. Doh.
 
Can you post some pictures of your winch plate installed or getting mounted? I have not found much information or pictures.

I am happy that the holes drilled for light mounts look like ill be able to use them to attach a mount for an off road flag. Silver lake dune park requires a 10 ft flag on the front bumper and there really isnt a good spot to mount one.
 
Sorry but this is the only Antmanish pic I have aside what's in my build thread. I installed mine when doing the TE convert so I had the bumper off.

BBWinchPlate.jpg~original
 
Okay so that does help. Wow what a cluster. I thought the u brackets were going to attach the other direction. Im not sure why, but without having seen it installed or tried to fit it yet, i thought they would attach the other way.

Are your u brackets all-thread or more like an axle u bracket?

Yes i understand the design has changed. It now has holes for lights and can take either hawse or roller lead all in the same plate. I had not seen any pictures of the new design. You can click my link to see the pictures ive taken so far.

I see a couple holes in the plate that dont line up w anything is this to drill the bumper for another fastener that wad not supplied?
 
Mick1 said:
Can you post some pictures of your winch plate installed or getting mounted? I have not found much information or pictures.

I am happy that the holes drilled for light mounts look like ill be able to use them to attach a mount for an off road flag. Silver lake dune park requires a 10 ft flag on the front bumper and there really isnt a good spot to mount one.
Click to expand...

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/gallery/58037-june-2010-t4rotm-harper7-10.html#post755114in

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/103698-budbuilt-winch-plate-install-instructions.html
 
I installed it yesterday. Taking the bumper cover off was pretty easy.

Fitting the winch plate with no instructions was annoying. I ended up having to loosen the bumper quite a lot in order to get it to slide in. I had to cut the u-bolts because they were too long. I still could cut off another 1/4"-1/2". It took a long time of fiddling to figure out how to mount the winch control box and route the cabling.

It is in and working but unfortunately I need to tear it all apart because I have decided I want to mount the winch control box 180 degrees from where I have it now. More pictures added to the pic site in my sig.

http://rhino4runnersuspension.shutterfly.com/pictures/1326
 
Last edited:
Mick1 said:
I installed it yesterday. Taking the bumper cover off was pretty easy.

Fitting the winch plate with no instructions was annoying. I ended up having to loosen the bumper quite a lot in order to get it to slide in. I had to cut the u-bolts because they were too long. I still could cut off another 1/4"-1/2". It took a long time of fiddling to figure out how to mount the winch control box and route the cabling.

It is in and working but unfortunately I need to tear it all apart because I have decided I want to mount the winch control box 180 degrees from where I have it now. More pictures added to the pic site in my sig.
Click to expand...

No pics or write-up for install?! Blue falcon!

EDIT: kk - saw the pics. I stand by my no write-up comment.
 
No write-up yet. I was pretty worn out most of today from working on this yesterday.

Besides, between F1 and Indy car there was a lot of racing to watch today. :lookout:

I just finished tearing it apart, reversing the control box, cutting the u bolts down further, and re-running the wiring. It went much faster this time. I'll add some more pics now.
 
So with this plate, what happens if you rearend someone or hit something head on? Does the winch get pushed through the radiator? Even in the smallest "accident" when the bumper moves back it looks like more damage will happen due to the winch. Just curious.
 
I am wondering if there is something better to use other than allthread u-bolts to secure this to the bumper?
 
There are a couple holes drilled in the plate. You could drill through the bumper and put a bolt through there too, but no hardware was supplied to do it. I didn't look at it closely. I'm not sure how long of a drill bit would be needed to get through the bumper.
 
Mick1 said:
There are a couple holes drilled in the plate. You could drill through the bumper and put a bolt through there too, but no hardware was supplied to do it. I didn't look at it closely. I'm not sure how long of a drill bit would be needed to get through the bumper.
Click to expand...

How many of the frame extension bolts are used to connect the winch plate to the frame? What is the mounting setup, just frame extension bolts and the u bolts around the bumper?

Thanks, I am just trying to get an idea of the mounting.
 
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