More Winch Mount Thoughts

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

>winch is 12 inches deep (Warn and Ramsey REP winches are about 8 inches) and
>I fear the lose of approach angle if the bumper sticks out 13 inches.
>>But, mounting the winch any higher than the frame rail will start to
>impede radiator flow..
>Not something I was thinking about with the thermometer sitting at -10. My
Scout runs 192 degrees year around, -40 to 100 degree weather, any speed,
any load so I did not take that into consideration.

Hmm.. thinking along farther, perhaps you'd like a receiver-cradle mount for
you winch, that you can remove at will (Bill Thebert uses this approach),
which gives you almost 0 loss of approach angle most of the time.

Every other thought I'd had revolves around Willie and Joel's "basket" made
off the two frame rails up front..

BUT, a little more thought.. getting into the realms of some tricky thought..

1) small body lift, or just forget about any extra blockage of the
radiator.. your pick.

2) We *must* work from the frame rails.. this needs to withstand 8,000lbs
(or 9k?)..

But, putting rails on the top and bottom of the frame leads to a loss of
approach angle.. so..

What if you started off by extending the frame rails forward, using some
C-channel (sleeve it over the frame?), then put some angle-stock (with a
body lift or some trimming of the lower grille, you can use taller angles on
your angle-stock) along the top of the frame rails, back to the existing
holes through the frame (10 or 12" back from the front of the frame), also
weld the angle stock to our new extended frame rails.

Now, you have a fairly hefty (heck, add some more angles on the sides and
such) starting point..

The trick is to move the winch *UP*.. so, put your plate on TOP of the
longer frame rails.. and mount the winch *there*.  I don't know just how
much radiator blockage this will result in.. a variation on this would be to
mount the winch bottom about halfway between the longer rails.. so you have
half-the-winch height better clearance than the traditional
box-between-the-frame-rails.

Weld things up nice n' strong, and then trim your new frame rails.. look at
the rear bumper on TONTO.. Willie left the angle stock full-sized at the
frame, but then cut away at an angle and tapered the size of the "side" of
the angle until it almost disappeared at the very end of the rear bumper.

Just do the same with the new longer front frame rails.  I'd use the C
channel over a maze of angle-stock just for the extra strength.. most winch
mounts use something like angle stock on the top and bottom.. by mounting
the winch halfway up, you lose some of that strength.

-Tom