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Mounting a heavy duty winch on the front - DONE!

28K views 49 replies 18 participants last post by  ohecht 
#1 ·
I will need some sort of mount for a heavy duty winch as well as a winch.

Has anyone done this? I have searched the archives to no avail.

I have a section of road to my farm that looks like this. The Promaster can do it by itself, but bogs down when pulling a trailer.



Please advise.
 
#11 · (Edited)
MM has a metal fabricator to make it.


If I still owned my Mig welder, my stick welder, my 3’ heavy duty brake, my plasma cutter, and my pile of steel, I'd do one this afternoon! LOL
 
#12 ·
Will show that image to our young master machinist this week when he is doing more diamond plate
installs. When I asked him last week about putting a spare tire carrier onto a grill guard he said 'that's what
we do!' with glee and 'not diamond plate trim :)'

So the image above/the mechanical drawing ....I would simply need to add a 2 inch hitch receiver and then this-

Shame, I love the looks of the Ex-guard grill guard :)
But maybe one could have both ?
 
#15 · (Edited)
The winch presents the same issue although it is not as cantilevered away from the attaching plate as far and probably is heavier than the spare. The moment of inertia may not be much different. Just remember the moment increases as the square of the distance from the axis of rotation, in this case the mounting plate. Find the weight of a representative winch, spare tire and estimate the distances from the diagram and the picture of the winch mount face plate and Voila!
Rough and dirty estimate?
The “average" winch is about 100 lbs. and the spare must be 60 lbs. If the distance to the spare mount is 2X as far then the moment is 4X or the spare weight presents 2.4 times the moment of the winch. These are all estimates of course and the winch puts tremendous forces on the bracket in use that the spare does not. If that bracket can withstand the winch’s 8,000 lb. pull at even a small angle I would guess it can hold the spare.
BTW, many here would like to make their PM into a Land Rover.
 
#18 ·
I just finished mounting a Smittybilt 10,000 lb. winch on my 4 Runner desert rig. It has the newfangled synthetic rope which saves about 25 lbs. It probably weights 65# and would be a bit more with the hitch adapter. I am not sure I would ever need that much pull on the van but if you go off a snowy road it requires a real tug. It draws a lot of current when under load so some arrangement for power cables would be needed too.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K150VAI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I paid almost $100 less as it was on a deal.
 
#36 ·
It's going to make a big difference having that much surface area of the radiator blocked in certain situations. The plastic piece may be solid, but it looks like it leaves about a winch-worth of room between itself and the radiator. Blocking that airflow will cause a hotspot at the lower 1/3 of the radiator. The older Promasters had cooling fan issues to begin with, so if you have a pre-2018, you might want to make sure you at least get that fan replaced before considering a front winch.
 
#24 ·
Just ordered the Van Compass Hidden winch mount last night. (Yippee) Hoping this means I don't get stuck on my farm again. I really like Superwinches and have had one installed on the inside of my van for years to pull my carriage inside. No problems at all.

I have never used a winch to pull a stuck vehicle so I guess I should watch some Youtube to see how it is done. Recommendations, anyone?
 
#26 ·
I have a synthetic cable on the winch on my Subaru, and I will never have a steel cable again.

First, it makes the winch about 1/3 lighter. Not sure how much of a difference it makes on a promaster, but on my Subaru crosstrek every bit helps with the 148 hp 4 cylinder.

Second, it is safer when winching and safer to handle. I can imagine if can still do some damage if it snaps, but it stores much less energy than steel cable.

I really have been considering the Van Compass bumper and a winch. I operate my promaster on a lot of two lane roads in the northeast winters (some with poor cell service) and self recovery ability would be nice. All that said it looks like a $2000 expenditure that I am not quite sold on. If I had a lot more disposable income it would be one of the next things I do after I finish redoing my interior.
 
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