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How to: Winch Install on a 2nd Gen - Factory Bumper

I'm pretty busy from now up till early March for the Mint race but after that, I'd definitely be interested...
 



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Now for a few fun pictures again.
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This was a really cool wall to climb. You have to approach it a bit farther to the right than you may think or want to for that matter cause it creates a goofy feeling of off camber in the truck but its really not. Then you have to spin all tires on the wall (can do at a light throttle) and walk the truck over to the left about 1-2ft. Then you reverse a hair, then hit the hammer and get up the wall. Was a really fun obstacle, haven't ever climbed it before. Always went around it when I was stock of course. The limited slip in the front was very beneficial as I could turn all 4 and walk the truck over. My brother [MENTION=137709]sector9[/MENTION] with the open front diff did it but was a bit more work to get it to walk over.
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I'm pretty busy from now up till early March for the Mint race but after that, I'd definitely be interested...
I am pretty busy until March 15th as well. Will be down in St. George from the 12th-15th but will all be on 4 wheelers with a bunch of guys from up here. (annual get out of the snow in Salt Lake guys ride) After that as far as I know I am free game for any weekend.

That would be a fun run, two white SAS coil over Explorers from the two best gens to modify.
[MENTION=3817]BKennedy[/MENTION]^^^^Knew he would be in, we have talked about getting together for a run for a few years and never have managed to actually set one up yet.
 






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What did you wheel base end up as? Mine is 114"
 






I am 114 1/16" :) So dead on the same as yours.
 






So onto catching up winch pictures. Winch fitted on plate after plate was completed.
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Factory transmission cooler location.
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This will be the new location.
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Making sure the lines will clear.
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Starting the lower cooler mount. Made a simple mount out of 1/2" wide 1/8" flat stock. Turned the legs sideways as to not impede any air flow. (not that it would matter any lol)
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Mocked up into place. I used all 3 factory cooler mounts with original hardware.
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Wires crossing the frame rail to reach the winch motor.
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Do you see the power wire for the winch? Me either, it's hidden. It is inside the upper section of the front fiberglass core support. It is just under the black trim piece you see sitting up in place on the top. It is inside it as it is U shaped.
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Wires hooked up to the winch motor and old trans cooler lines coming through their routing. Think I am going to redo the hard cooler line ends so the rubber section can go on the side of the radiator instead of under it.
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Bumper back on with winch in place.
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Holding the fairlead roughly where it will end up being mounted.
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So onto the fairlead mount. First held bumper in place did a bunch of measuring and then laid it out onto my CAD. After the rough size was there and the shape of the fairlead was drawn onto it I could then better see how I wanted the mount to look and where I wanted the support. All this is made from 1/4" plate and all cut out with a 4 1/2" grinder with a cut off wheel.
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So this is what I decided on for the mount design. It is strong and ties both sides of the mount together as well as keeps a very minimal footprint that you can see from the front of the truck. Also when you see it done you will see how it will act as sort of an arch and will also ad a bit of strenghth to the plate from flexing at all when the winch is twisting. I also center punched the fairlead mount holes through the pattern so it was all done in one shot no guessing.
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Cut out.
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Fairlead sitting on it, love how its the same angle as the fairlead aluminum.
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Rest of the mount cut out.
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All sanded and edges all rounded and corners rounded for a nice clean look. Also easy to handle as it is smooth everywhere.
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All mocked up and ready to be welded. I used a piece of 1/4" plate under it so that the mounting surfaces would be perfectly flat and in line.
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All welded up.
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Fairlead attatched.
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Mocked up on the winch plate.
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Fitted the bumper so I can make sure it is exactly what I want. and is placed perfect. Then mark so some mounting holes can be drilled. Also I did end up needing to cut about 1/4"X1/2" off of the inside of the bumper where the lower corners of the fairlead mount at fitment issues. Easy fix. I have at least 1/4" between any part of the fairlead and any part of the bumper.
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All bolted up! Here you can see where the fairlead mount can act as a sort of arch and add a bit of flexing strenghth to the front of the winch plate.
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Made the remote plug socket mount onto the fairlead mount at the end as I thought it would add a nice clean look to it and will be easy access to plug in. Also didn't have to drill any holes for it else ware.
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All stripped down and taped off and ready to be painted. Finally, as usual the project took longer than I thought it would. Last Saturday had a huge migraine so didn't get anything done so that didn't help either. But very happy with how it has turned out. Was a chore getting it to fit really cleanly behind the factory bumper but I got it done.
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Got the pigtail for the remote control extended 18" and had the wife braided it for a nice really clean wire. Was a good thought I'll have to remember this for other projects. Looks really clean compared to 3 random wires.
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Got the chrome part of the grill all plasti dipped. It turned out pretty good. I kinda suck with it, it always wants to peel around where I tape off. But either way it turned out great for a temporary look. I really like it.
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Winch control solenoid box is mounted for the final time. This is where the power wire for the winch is run, it runs straight up from the solenoid box to the upper section of the fiberglass support. Nice and clean and no way to ever rub on any metal since this large wire is not fused or breaker-ed.
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Nice and hidden.
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And where it does duck through the core support I did 2 layers of heat shrink tubing so as not to run into any issues.
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Winch is fully mounted and wired in for the final time. Winding up the rope onto the winch drum. I will have to spool it out and do a proper rope spool with it pulling the rig on flat ground to make sure its tight enough so the rope doesn't fall in between itself and get stuck when I am doing an actual recovery pull.
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All spooled up and fairlead mounted in place. Looks awesome tucked in there. :D I love how the fairlead mount turned out!
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Front bumper refitted and alined for the final time with the winch rope fed through. I also did a full wipe down of the fiberglass support since I was in there it might as well be fully cleaned. Compare to the bottom picture in the last post.
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And the final product with the winch fully in and the chrome portions of the grill are now plasti dipped white. I really like how the winch turned out, it is very simple and really really clean looking. Turned out just like what I had in mind. I also really like the white grill.
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