Simple Winch Bracket

[chim]

At work we bought a used bucket truck that came with a Warn XD9000i with a cradle mount. It's in nice shape, but the prez said to pull it off. The winch sat on a cart in the Tool Shop for over a year, and I asked three times what plans there may be for it. The third time the prez said "Just take the friggin thing". OK

Mounting was easy with a 2" x 12" receiver tube from HF. Welded 3 pieces of 2x2x1/4 to the tube. Front angle has the leg up and is bolted to the front of the grille guard with 2 bolts. Picture was snapped before the second hole was drilled. Next piece is flipped so it can bolt through two existing holes in the GG cross piece. Third is in the leg-up position like the first. That angle isn't bolted, but is simply tight against the inside of the tractor frame. None of the bolts has much of a load on them. The angles lock the little frame into the GG and tractor frame.

While I was fooling around the battery area, it was a good opportunity to clean it up and hit the tray with a 2-part paint.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Nice job! That should do you well!

 

[WranglerX]

Just be aware the tractor electrical may not be robust enough for heavy sustained winching.... And please unspool cable and rewind, it could really turn in to disaster to unspool when you really want to use it, it was obviously wound loose after last use, and it should have been under some tension....

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It looks really close to the ground, how far off the ground is it?

What are you going to winch with it?

SR

 

[chim]

What made this winch appealing was how easily it can be mounted / unmounted and kept out of the weather. The real plan is to have it for my "retirement vehicle". As is sometimes the case, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. To have max flexibility, I bought enough 350A Anderson-type connectors to make up permanent power taps on the tractor and another vehicle, a short set of temporary cables made up with Anderson on one end and Visegrip on the other, and a 25' set with Anderson on both ends. All in 2/0 welding cable. That makes it long enough to be workable on either end of anything I'll ever drive. If something weird presents itself, the winch could be anchored to something 25' away from the truck.

Last official act this evening was getting all but about 5 wraps off and winding it up under tension.

I understand the sustained use issue. Years ago I had a situation (very long winch usage pulling out temporary feeder cable) where the Silverado's engine shut off because there wasn't enough juice to make it run.

It looks low, but the lowest point is 2" lower than the grille guard. It would affect the angle of approach, since it does stick out some. Pretty certain the loader crossmember won't clear it, but there's a solution coming as a small part of another project. And it wouldn't be a difficult to whip up an adaptor for the drawbar to use it on the back.

No definite plans on what to winch. The tractor mount was mostly a fun project. The L4240 doesn't weigh nearly enough for serious pulls. For anything more than light work, I'll run an anchor line from the mount and under the tractor to something solid behind it.

A few years ago I gave #3 Son the 8274 bought new in '83 that was last on the Wrangler and occasionally miss it. Winches are handy to have around. First winch I had was a used Belleview on my new 75 K5 Blazer. It was power-in only and was a bit crude compared with the 8274 it resembled. Had the 8274 mounted on the front of a Ramcharger and Bronco II, bed of a Silverado, front of a YJ.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

8274 had the advantage of being a bit faster winch, the disadvantage is, they had a single keyway to hold the drum to the shaft that turned it, and they would sometimes strip that key out, leaving you stranded without a working winch.

I've striped them out before...

SR

 

[Hay Dude]

Looks awesome. Please update with how the battery and wiring handles the winch under load. Getting ready to do a 10k winch on my Jeep Rubicon. Reading all the horror stories about melted wires, fires, etc. Probably ran winch too long or tried to pull too heavy a load.....

 

[chim]

I was fortunate. The 8274 was run right to the stall several times and never any problems. May have been a different story if I'd have been into a steady diet of logging. Getting the winch to stall took a pretty substantial load and generally meant anchoring the truck to a tree or another truck. It lived outside since new in 1983. Served well and had lots of grunt. Still has a lot of life for the boy's Jeep.

It came in handy dragging loads to the rear of a 50' trailer so the forklift could pick them, sliding switchgear, putting tension on trees to make sure they didn't go the wrong way, rescuing a stuck chainsaw, getting my FIL's MF 265 out of a ditch and other odd things.

Pic below is what it looked like last night after respooling.

 

[WranglerX]

Looks awesome. Please update with how the battery and wiring handles the winch under load. Getting ready to do a 10k winch on my Jeep Rubicon. Reading all the horror stories about melted wires, fires, etc. Probably ran winch too long or tried to pull too heavy a load.....

Have a 10,000 lb. Smittybuilt (typical Chinese) winch on my WranglerX, leads from winch relay box were long enough to reach battery and just put lugs under battery clamp bolts..... Have run battery (900CCA Odyssey) down several time winching to point engine died from low voltage to ECM, and never had to wait more then 20 minuets or so for battery to recover and be able to restart Jeep..... Only issue with winch was wires pulled out of plug for remote on first time I tried to use winch, took plug apart and tinned wires with solder, added a little dielectric grease to prevent corrosion and put ever thing back together and have not has any problems since.... Biggest thing I can recommend is be sure engine is running, even with 100Amp alternator battery drain is horrific, and WATCH VOLTMETER, if voltage goes below about 10 volts stop winching and let alternator bring battery back up.... Helps to run engine at high idle too (1500-2000 RPM) ...

 

[Hay Dude]

Have a 10,000 lb. Smittybuilt (typical Chinese) winch on my WranglerX, leads from winch relay box were long enough to reach battery and just put lugs under battery clamp bolts..... Have run battery (900CCA Odyssey) down several time winching to point engine died from low voltage to ECM, and never had to wait more then 20 minuets or so for battery to recover and be able to restart Jeep..... Only issue with winch was wires pulled out of plug for remote on first time I tried to use winch, took plug apart and tinned wires with solder, added a little dielectric grease to prevent corrosion and put ever thing back together and have not has any problems since.... Biggest thing I can recommend is be sure engine is running, even with 100Amp alternator battery drain is horrific, and WATCH VOLTMETER, if voltage goes below about 10 volts stop winching and let alternator bring battery back up.... Helps to run engine at high idle too (1500-2000 RPM) ...

This one is wireless or has plug-in controller.
Thanks for the battery tips. I figured it would be a heck of a drain on battery