Weekend Winch Project

[SickStringC]

Winch arrived in mail last week ...



Winch mount solutions seemed weak, so I decided to come up with my own - with a little help from a friend. (Saturday)



Trial and error are always an element when it comes to designing something new. We made good progress day 1. On top of finishing the mount and doing a trial install of the winch, we gave Boris' Yamaha Vulcan 900 an oil change and a tune-up, and found time to throw down some venison. The end result was an almost perfect mount with gussets that were a bit in the way of the stock D ring mount location (to be addressed next).



Got back to Pflugerville ... marked off spots where D ring bolt / nut interfered with gussets and got to grinding away again. End result, winch works perfectly with stock D rings:



Once stock D rings are confirmed to work, pulled off mount again, and painted it:



All painted, buttoned everything back up (I'll add a picture to this thread tomorrow taken in daylight):



Project done. Space left for a brush guard if I add one later ... :thumbs:

 

[JohnnySpikesH3]

Nice job . That's what i call a productive weekend .

 

[06 H3]

Looks awesome!

 

[3Hummers]

Nice days work!

 

[poncho1965]

I like it


Mike

 

[frumaker]

Damn, that's nice. You do good work!!


FRU

 

[f5moab]

Looks great, but will ask if you re-enforced the plates that the d-ring bolts thread into? Those plates are very thin... and bend easily, especially of doing a winch on a vehicle lower than yours (down a hill).

 

[SickStringC]

Damn, that's nice. You do good work!!


FRU

. . . Someone does good work. I mostly stand around and watch, make minor adjustments and paint. :wink:

 

[alrock]

Very nice!

 

[SolidusJ]

. . . Someone does good work. I mostly stand around and watch, make minor adjustments and paint. :wink:

Looking good and I also know that feeling. :giggle:

 

[JDstagg]

Nicely done!!!! Any chance you can shoot me the specs for that mount, I am getting ready to build one and get a winch on mine.

JD

 

[Schwarttzy]

Sweet winch mount man! I'm working on doing the reverse of your mount and hiding the winch inside the the upper front bumper part and see yours is driving me nutz to finish mine lol.

 

[ReconH3]

Looks great, but will ask if you re-enforced the plates that the d-ring bolts thread into? Those plates are very thin... and bend easily, especially of doing a winch on a vehicle lower than yours (down a hill).

I had the exact same concern, but I think the thick plate of the winch plate should give it the rigidity it needs. Especially because the plate runs across both mounts, therefore doubling its strength.


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

 

[f5moab]

Chris (CP Photo) had his winch plate, very similar to this one here, installed and he was winching someone up a hill (rubble trouble) and those factory installed backer plates (where the D-rings bolts screw into) bent downward from the top. He and Brodie (Broken) developed a super duty plate that is welded onto the back of the factory plate and onto the end of the tube frame to reinforced the design.

That's the reinforced plate from the back welded to the frame.

This is a front view, you can see the smaller GM factory plate welded to the reinforced plate....(NOTE: that real skinny plate hanging there is part of the anti-lift feature that came out in 2008 H3s.)

It is a good idea if you ever use the winch, but not my vehicle. I was just curious.:thumbs:

 

[ReconH3]

I have Brodie's plates too. I got them since I'm used to using my recovery points a lot!


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

 

[poncho1965]

Mike

 

[SickStringC]

I had the exact same concern, but I think the thick plate of the winch plate should give it the rigidity it needs. Especially because the plate runs across both mounts, therefore doubling its strength.

Yeah, i'm not worried about it. I've actually never had my HUMMER stuck *knock on wood*. Should I need it, I am confident it will hold up. We used really heavy, thick steel plate.

Nicely done!!!! Any chance you can shoot me the specs for that mount, I am getting ready to build one and get a winch on mine.

We reverse engineered THIS. PM me if you want me to actually send measurements - you may want the gussets a little closer together than I did so you don't need to cut out for the recovery hooks. I'm not concerned with the strength with the cuts, however and actually like the look as-is.


Thanks for all the positive feedback! I'm happy with it!!