Hi folks! Here's a short summary of a project I did earlier this fall.
"The sneakiest winch you never saw."
Goal:
To make a winch mount that discretely fits inside the OEM Bumper behind the license plate.
Background/history:
I bought a Badlands Recover Winch in October, and it sat on my shelf for a month doing nothing. I was still offroading, but I wanted my winch. I was in a market for an armor bumper, but I still wanted to use my recovery tool in the mean time. During a weekend in November, a buddy of mine and I made and mounted a sneaky winch mount in about 15 hours. Even though I have a completely functional winch setup hidden in the OEM bumper and brush guard, I am still planning to replace the bumper with armor later in 2014. This mod is good in the mean time, and I bet it could work for long term as well.
Methodology
The winch mount mod has to meet these constraints:
-Fit inside OEM Bumper
-Still allow for brush guard mounting
-Be solid
-House a 6K winch (light, but adequate with a block n tackle)
-Still allow mounting for frame bumper (correct me if that's not the right name for it)
-Be sneaky, like OEM sneaky.
I lost all of my original progress pictures since I stick welded with my iphone in my pocket (scrambled the data on my phone. That was a hardcore derp right there). All I've got left are the afters from the dry fitting.
Not-to-scale model of the winch mount (notes on dimensions also lost from the welding/iphone mishap). The example is close dimensionally, I'll measure it again if needed, but these give the gist of it. This model does not show the fairlead mount.
Offset topside view
Front view
Offset underside view
Next up was the dry/fitting installation of it and remounting of the bumper.
This was an image of the 4Runnner parked without the fairlead mount finished. Folks looked at it and said it looked a jerry-rigged border crosser. I guess one could take that as an insult and a compliment at the same time...
Results and Discussion
Now it looks back to normal! Winch, lead and hook all are hidden behind the license plate. The only thing out of the ordinary is a red, lizard tongue flag that dangles from under the plate.
What did I learn? This should be common sense, but welding with a cell phone in one's pocket is not the best idea. I scrambled my iphone's memory while welding. Being a welding engineer, that was really dumb on my part. The welder's cable was draped across my cell phone pocket. The phone had something of a drug trip afterwards. It was actually kinda cool to see the thing spaz out, flash funny colors and type its own words.
Conclusions:
Overall, it took 15 or so hours to design, fab, fit and finish. I'm content until I upgrade to an armor bumper. :lever:
What do y'all think?
"The sneakiest winch you never saw."
Goal:
To make a winch mount that discretely fits inside the OEM Bumper behind the license plate.
Background/history:
I bought a Badlands Recover Winch in October, and it sat on my shelf for a month doing nothing. I was still offroading, but I wanted my winch. I was in a market for an armor bumper, but I still wanted to use my recovery tool in the mean time. During a weekend in November, a buddy of mine and I made and mounted a sneaky winch mount in about 15 hours. Even though I have a completely functional winch setup hidden in the OEM bumper and brush guard, I am still planning to replace the bumper with armor later in 2014. This mod is good in the mean time, and I bet it could work for long term as well.
Methodology
The winch mount mod has to meet these constraints:
-Fit inside OEM Bumper
-Still allow for brush guard mounting
-Be solid
-House a 6K winch (light, but adequate with a block n tackle)
-Still allow mounting for frame bumper (correct me if that's not the right name for it)
-Be sneaky, like OEM sneaky.
I lost all of my original progress pictures since I stick welded with my iphone in my pocket (scrambled the data on my phone. That was a hardcore derp right there). All I've got left are the afters from the dry fitting.
Not-to-scale model of the winch mount (notes on dimensions also lost from the welding/iphone mishap). The example is close dimensionally, I'll measure it again if needed, but these give the gist of it. This model does not show the fairlead mount.
Offset topside view
Front view
Offset underside view
Next up was the dry/fitting installation of it and remounting of the bumper.
This was an image of the 4Runnner parked without the fairlead mount finished. Folks looked at it and said it looked a jerry-rigged border crosser. I guess one could take that as an insult and a compliment at the same time...
Results and Discussion
Now it looks back to normal! Winch, lead and hook all are hidden behind the license plate. The only thing out of the ordinary is a red, lizard tongue flag that dangles from under the plate.
What did I learn? This should be common sense, but welding with a cell phone in one's pocket is not the best idea. I scrambled my iphone's memory while welding. Being a welding engineer, that was really dumb on my part. The welder's cable was draped across my cell phone pocket. The phone had something of a drug trip afterwards. It was actually kinda cool to see the thing spaz out, flash funny colors and type its own words.
Conclusions:
Overall, it took 15 or so hours to design, fab, fit and finish. I'm content until I upgrade to an armor bumper. :lever:
What do y'all think?
