Winching in general (fwd, bkwd, at all)

["Jason and Maria Colavecchia" <jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided>]

Hmmm......

I am in the process of installing a winch right now...
The winch and accompanying bumper came off a donor Scout. The bumper was a
"factory" (probably dealer) installed unit with a cable-operated, Warn
6000lb unidirectional winch.  It can power in, but not power out (uses a
clamp-style brake to hold it when you pull out winch out of gear.) If
anyone has one of these, let me know how you find it and maybe some
pointers on how to make it function correctly.  I have completely rebuilt
it, including replacing the shift control arm, and seems to operate
perfectly...

Anyways, I am going to mount it in the original forward position, as it
requires a series of manual control cables to work it (including the huge
"power" switch mounted about a foot from the battery) and is somewhat
impractical to mount in a moveable carriage OR in a permanent rearward
position.  I was considering various ways to route the cable to the rear of
the truck, and someone mentioned using "pulleys" to direct the cable AROUND
the truck to the back. Here is my idea:
-Mount/modify front winch bumper with 3 2" receivers; one facing forwards,
the other two mounted facing out on each side 90 degrees from the forward
receiver.
-Mount a NEW rear bumper with the same "T" arrangement of receivers
-Make up 4 strong pulleys that mount to the truck using 2" receiver style
tongues. Three are simple direction-changers, with one set up to allow
various towing angles with a round fairlead of some sort. 
-When in a situation where winching must be done to the rear of the truck,
install one standard pulley into the forward receiver and two others into
whichever side of the truck is available. Route the cable of the winch
using these pulleys, which effectively skirts the outside of the truck. The
fourth pulley requires some kind of "shackle" to allow reeving without
removing the hook off the end of the cable.  Then, winch as normal....

This setup, with the recievers, would allow flexible arrangements to winch
with the cable routed from either side of the truck, and also offer easy
access, even if the truck is buried pretty deep in muck. If the bumpers are
made strong enough, with quality part, there should be very little concern
that this would "lateral" the frame, since force from one end would be
pushing against the other side at the same time.  Again, quality components
would keep this from being a problem.

Interestingly, this setup could be duplicated with the winch in the rear
position with similar results...

My only true concern would be making sure the cable somehow stays on the
pulleys when the line is slack....perhaps some kind of "trough" would fix
this...