Help with Budbuilt hidden winch mount install!

I was hoping to pick one of these up end of the year. Not sure I like the design change to those brackets. I'd much rather have the welded version. Knowing the issues with the bolt on bracket, I wonder if it would be more prudent to weld it in place either prior to install or even after in lieu of bolting it.
 
Alright guys got it all sorted out and truck is 95% finished, I ran out of daylight so will have to finish it tomorrow morning.

It’s pretty obvious I am kind of a Guiney pig for this new version and the whole thing could have been prevented by including…. Instructions… and necessary parts. Hopefully this will help anyone else with this plate and it won’t take you 20 hours like it did here to put this thing on. ;) Lots of trial and error was involved here.

1) The 2 nuts that you need are not included with the kit, so before you start install go to a hardware store and purchase grade 8 nuts, I had to try a few different ones to make them fit, as not a lot of room there because of the L bracket. You can find the thread and pitch online for the nuts as Toyo uses same ones for all bumper support points.
2) The mounting holes for the U brackets were off on my plate, there was just no way to make it fit, hopefully I just got a dud and they are not all like this. First we took the plate off and we were going to re-drill the holes in another spot but then we measured some things and made them fit by slightly enlarging 2 of the holes, took lots of grinding/test fit/grind/measure/test fit but it’s all secured now. You can probably do this with a high speed dremil and a cutting bit.
3) The bumper will not go back on unless you do some trimming in the lower black grill part, the bottom of the budplate extends past the mounting point (I don’t know why the heck the plate extends that far; looks like it’s some kind of mount for off-road lights). I attached pictures; you will have to measure and cut the lower plastic mesh legs so the plate can slide in. This also took quite some time to figure out as the plate is hidden so you can’t see where it hits the bumper when test fitting.


Truck looks great now ;)
 

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pics 2 and 4. what are we looking at?

wow, so it was a good mistake for me to install a 5th gen. Holy smokes. either way, i would have been fine since i drilled my bolts out on the frame rails.

also the u bolts should fit if you put the winch onto the plate then bolted up the u bolt to the front bumper reinforcement and then put the winch plate and the bumper reinforcement in together as one whole unit. thats how we did it.
 
oh now i see it, the u bolts. those are going to fit. just bend them a little. and make them go in.

btw- we should notate what year vehicles these winch plates are going in to see if there are any model variations or year changes.
 
yes pictures showing by how much we enlarged the holes, it wasnt much and the nut and bolt are very tight so no issues. we did try to do the U bolts first without bolting the rest and no way they were going in, we tried a big hammer also. :tea: With these issues worked out it will be a 2 hour install job.
 
I am glad I have the circa October 2013 version. Yours would have been back in the box to budbuilt and a refund requested. Revisions are for making parts better (stronger, easier install, etc..). This does not appear to be the case this time.
 
outrnm said:
yes pictures showing by how much we enlarged the holes, it wasnt much and the nut and bolt are very tight so no issues. we did try to do the U bolts first without bolting the rest and no way they were going in, we tried a big hammer also. :tea: With these issues worked out it will be a 2 hour install job.
Click to expand...

two hours? Nah i dont think that fast. i managed to milk it for almost 7. I also did two radio installs, answer phones and a remote starter LoL

Yea, two guys both reading how to do it, with some instructions and pictures. should be able to knock it out in 1.5-2hrs. most time consuming will be the fitting of the bumper cap back on. trim cut test fit, trim some more cut some more test fit. did that like 200x then i was happy with the fit.

ebg18t said:
I am glad I have the circa October 2013 version. Yours would have been back in the box to budbuilt and a refund requested. Revisions are for making parts better (stronger, easier install, etc..). This does not appear to be the case this time.
Click to expand...

This is what happens when we become early adopters of a custom made product for our beloved trucks. If Bud never put the time and energy into this product, there would be no product. I would say bud might have a batch of mounts to revise.
[MENTION=100331]outrnm[/MENTION] i know you secretly wished i didnt put the wrong one on so i could have saved you from spending thanksgiving on the cold concrete cursing. I am sorry.
 
outrnm said:
yes pictures showing by how much we enlarged the holes, it wasnt much and the nut and bolt are very tight so no issues. we did try to do the U bolts first without bolting the rest and no way they were going in, we tried a big hammer also. :tea: With these issues worked out it will be a 2 hour install job.
Click to expand...

Now that you've been through a tough process to figure out how to make it work... what steps would you recommend taking start to finish?

I'm going to pick mine up tomorrow. Any guidance is much appreciated!


..
 
Bud told me the new design with L brackets is so you don’t have to take the bumper off; which won’t work the bumper has to come off regardless to make it all fit.

Just follow the regular steps, and make sure you have a few grade 8 nuts ready so pick them up ahead of time. You can call bud and ask what the tread pattern is for them. Then also be prepared to enlarge the U holes if need be so have a dremel handy with a metal cutting bit. Have a second person help if possible to wiggle the mount into place, also you need to secure the winch TO THE bud plate before it goes on, so its heavy, I used a hilift jack to help with alignment since my buddies left me after a few hours. Just look at my pictures again, if I had to do it again it would take me 3-5 hours even with the mods, hardest part was trying to figure out how to make it all fit since no instructions came.
 
outrnm said:
Bud told me the new design with L brackets is so you don’t have to take the bumper off; which won’t work the bumper has to come off regardless to make it all fit.

Just follow the regular steps, and make sure you have a few grade 8 nuts ready so pick them up ahead of time. You can call bud and ask what the tread pattern is for them. Then also be prepared to enlarge the U holes if need be so have a dremel handy with a metal cutting bit. Have a second person help if possible to wiggle the mount into place, also you need to secure the winch TO THE bud plate before it goes on, so its heavy, I used a hilift jack to help with alignment since my buddies left me after a few hours. Just look at my pictures again, if I had to do it again it would take me 3-5 hours even with the mods, hardest part was trying to figure out how to make it all fit since no instructions came.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks, I'll do my best to follow your advice (and likely still find unique ways to make the job bigger than it needed to be).
 
my notes:

** i removed the whole bumper reinforcement to the truck. so i could cut out that one nut so i could install a longer one. i did also do a fornt hitch mount too at the same time.

(i was cold not trying to hide)


** [MENTION=86678]ebg18t[/MENTION] did have a good suggestion. paint the u bolts since his are starting to rust. mine are not, but its only a matter of time.

** i also found it easy to mock everything up before install on the reinforcement. winch, solenoid pack, wire routing, wire management (zip ties and loom), DRL mod to the turn signals, ect while the front bumper is off.
 
I've started my install and am unhappy, but not surprised, to find the winch plate out of spec.

Here's some questions:
The u-bolt holes are about 1/2" off from where they need to be to clear the bumper. Is there any reason not to drill new holes instead of enlarging the current holes?

Next, the L-brackets. I'm not sure which goes left and which goes right side? I see the flat part goes top side but each can do that on each side.

Next, two of the winch mounting holes are right above the bumper so it seems that mounting the winch will lift the winch plate off the bumper instead of lying flat? How does that work?

Bud answered email FAST for these questions

Sorry for the hassles Kirk :(
We'll walk you thru so no worries. :)
If you loosen the bolts that hold the front bumper reinforcement onto the brackets ( 2 bolts deep inside, socket in from front to back on vehicle, then put the u bolts on, then install the rear inside nuts and L brackets loosely, then tighten them all up evenly, it should all work just right. :)

Angled front portion is on the bottom, meaning the top of the L bracket should almost touch or touch the bottom of the winch mounting plate. It really does not matter but that is the right way. Will find and send a pic of that a little later tonight.

That is why we supplied you with the flat head bolts and allen wrench, for those 2 front bolt holes! Check the bottom side, they are countersunk so they sit nice and flat. :)

I'll be checking email all night so ask away with any more questions. If you still have fitment issues, a picture is worth a thousand words so send some of them! :)
Thanks!
Bud
 
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noshortcuts said:
I've started my install and am unhappy, but not surprised, to find the winch plate out of spec.

Here's some questions:
The u-bolt holes are about 1/2" off from where they need to be to clear the bumper. Is there any reason not to drill new holes instead of enlarging the current holes?

Next, the L-brackets. I'm not sure which goes left and which goes right side? I see the flat part goes top side but each can do that on each side.

Next, two of the winch mounting holes are right above the bumper so it seems that mounting the winch will lift the winch plate off the bumper instead of lying flat? How does that work?

Bud answered email FAST for these questions

Sorry for the hassles Kirk :(
We'll walk you thru so no worries. :)
If you loosen the bolts that hold the front bumper reinforcement onto the brackets ( 2 bolts deep inside, socket in from front to back on vehicle, then put the u bolts on, then install the rear inside nuts and L brackets loosely, then tighten them all up evenly, it should all work just right. :)

Angled front portion is on the bottom, meaning the top of the L bracket should almost touch or touch the bottom of the winch mounting plate. It really does not matter but that is the right way. Will find and send a pic of that a little later tonight.

That is why we supplied you with the flat head bolts and allen wrench, for those 2 front bolt holes! Check the bottom side, they are countersunk so they sit nice and flat. :)

I'll be checking email all night so ask away with any more questions. If you still have fitment issues, a picture is worth a thousand words so send some of them! :)
Thanks!
Bud
Click to expand...

Very impressive customer service
 
no luck

I gave Bud's directions a shot but alas no amount of loosening bolts, hammering, or other forces would allow me to get both U-bolts wrapped around the bumper and through the winch plate holes. The holes just aren't properly placed.

I guess I'll be dremeling or drilling this weekend.
 
Yuck,
Thought I would enlarge or create new holes today but when I knocked out the one U-bolt I managed to force on, I found the threads stripped from being forced though the hole. Could not locate another square u-bolt locally.

Bud never did send the picture of the L-brackets he said he would send and did not respond to my next email with pictures trying to show why his install instructions don't work.

Now I'll need to get him to send new u-bolts since I can't find any locally.

So my tip to add to the thread so far is don't bother trying to force the bolts to fit if the holes are not spaced properly. I should have known better.

Also don't buy Bud's hidden winch mount until Bud can confirm the problem and revise his design. I know he meant well and imagine he'll fix the design for the next round.
 
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How did you manage to force the u bolts in then strip the bolt? That takes a ton of skill to do. Lol

I didn't use a hammer in my install. If you hammered the to threaded part.You can actually just grinded it down to useable thread.

If you are going to add to this thread. Add pictures to show others what your problems are so we can all know what's going on.

I am interested to see what issues you are having.
 
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