Budget winch mount build - lot of pics.

So, winches....
Why do I want one? I dont do "proper" offroading, but use my Freelander for work as a groundskeeper so it sees a lot of Forestry Commission type of tracks. I occasionally get stuck but nothing a hand winch couldnt solve but having a big electric winch would give piece of mind.
Secondly, and more importantly, I fell a lot of trees and often have to use the Freelander as a ground anchor, using hand winches and steel cable to pull a leaning tree so it falls in the desired direction - this is a faff on my own and an electric winch would be a huge help, and it would also be great for dragging trunks and stuff.
This is one of the reasons that I bought a cheap Ebay special Chinese winch. Yeah a Warn of Winchmax would be better, but I aint got £700 or so to blow on one and since its only going to get relatively light use, I think the Chinese 6 ton winch will be more than up to the job. If I were doing Pay and Play days at quarries, plunging it up the headlights in muddy water and dragged overturned Pajeros out of ditches Im not sure a Chinese one would be a good idea.

€260 delievered from Ebay from China via a German seller.

The mounting....User Metacaibo on here built up some smart looking mounts which he was selling for £300 a pop. I never bought one as firstly I aint got £300 to spunk on one and secondly his were designed for the facelift which apparently has different length chassis rails. Mine is going to be a low budget build. I dont have CAD software or the skills to use it effectively, I dont have access to a laser cutter, plastic coater etc etc, I had to be ale to build it in my garage with a MIG welder, grinders, drills etc using scrap steel found around the farm. Its also a one-off built entirely with no plans except whats in my mind, so dont go asking me for dimensions, plans etc etc......
I wanted it to be as subtle as possible too - I have seen some shocking winch installs with half the thing hanging out the front of the car. I wanted it to be discreet with just the fairlead rollers visible at the front and nothing more.

So, starting at lunchtime, Time to take the bumper off...


Before removal, I measured and have 20cm between the radiator core and the inside of the bumper.


Bumper off. Mine is a 2001 with no air con. Radiator doesnt look too rosy - a lot of the fins are crushed.


The short chassis rails. Apparently they stick out further on the facelift models.


to be continued......

Approx 7 cm between rad core and the end of the chassis rails.


The winch. Comes with a wired remote, wireless remote, control box and wiring. Instructions are the usual Chinglish.


Grabbed some steel from the farm scrap pile. The u-section bottom left was ideal. 5mm steel and 20cm wide.


Made some plates from flat 5mm steel that bolt to the chassis end caps where the bumper bar originally fitted.

I fitted sections to the end caps that wrap around the inside edge of the chassis rails. I then cut the U section down to 17cm by removing the rear part and fitted it between the chassis plates. I cut triangles out fo rthe front corners to bend it in otherwise the bumper wouldnt fit back on. (just tacked in place here)


The winch trial fitted in place. I am not fitting the control box to the winch - anyone who has owned an old Mini will know what a bad idea it is to have electrical parts just behind the front grill. I will extend the wires and fit it in the engine bay somewhere as its not at all waterproofed.


And thats about it for this evening. I have cleaned up the steel around the joins and burned the welds in nice and deeply. Tomorrow will see some triangulation to stiffen further, some receiver mounts of some kind and then paint it before I start the wiring.

Like that!

See cooling issues. good luck

Do you want to hurt yourself or somebody ? Or maybe this is just a toy for eye and never be used ?

Nice so far, good to see someone making something rather than writing cheques.

Looking good.

Given that it sits where the bumper normally sits, that obstructs airflow, I doubt this will cause a cooling issue.

Though...
Question!

That winch can pull nearly 6 tonnes, but the bolts you've attached to certainly will not
Is there some other way this will be attached other than those four studs?

Edit: I went looking in the other revived thread, I see you've drilled outboard holes as well for more bolts like that one. The other one had drop down bits to the bolts below, are you going to build downwards as well?

Those studs are just holding the end plates while I tack weld the sections together. There will be 6 (3 M8 and 3 M12) in each face plate and two more on the sides into the side of the chassis rail, so 14 bolts in total. It isnt going to come off.

As you say, the entirety of the winch and bracket is directly behind the solid part of the bumper so I dont think cooling will be a problem.

Winu doesnt like it (despite not having even seen it finished yet) because it doesnt have a fancy logo and receipt he can add to his spec list.

What about the additional weight of bracket and winch? Suspension wise? Will there be a need for harder springs? Still looks good

LoL.
Nope, just it look like harmful stuff . You saw John's and Simons design (both not have a fancy logos) differences are eye visible.
Cost of those also don't comes from creators fantasy. Bending, laser cutting and welding costs few quids.

It isnt going to come off.

Click to expand...

It will if you will be winching up on angle...
This is why G4 challenge mount have fixings to lower part of chassis, and this is the reason why John and Simon got those in brackets.

P.S
Chassis rails 2001-2006 are the same, bumper is the difference. So brackets can be fitted with no probs.
Difference in chassis rails are in 1998-2000 series and 2001 and up.

B34R said:

Edit: I went looking in the other revived thread, I see you've drilled outboard holes as well for more bolts like that one. The other one had drop down bits to the bolts below, are you going to build downwards as well?

Click to expand...

No point, really. That other design has the winch mounted much further forwards than mine. In fact his winch sits entirely beyond the ends of the chassis rails, so vertical forces could twist the bracket and could be an issue hence I assume why he built the legs down to the lower bolts where the sump guard fits to add a bit of stability.
On mine the winch is further back, mostly between the chassis rails so vertical forces are much less likely to twist things, especially as I have plates on the inside faces of the chassis rails, bolted through the inner skins which will cancel out any twisting forces that may occur.

A mixture of 5 and 6 millimeter steel, multi-pass fillet welds with full penetration, 14 mounting bolts....There is no question of it not being strong enough. If anything Its maybe too strong as this will probably pull the front off the car before it fails itself.
This isnt the first winch mount I have made....first on a Freelander, granted....and I have never had one fail. Its part of my job and pretty much what I do for a hobby to make strong (granted sometimes rather........aesthetically challenged....) bits of equipment for all sorts or situations.

Not quite sure why I am justifying myself to a bunch of imaginary people on the internet, but there you go.....

Todays work...
Poor light in the garage so its hard to take photos of something glossy, especially with my cheap camera.



The bits of heavy tube that stick out forwards on each mounting plate are for receiver points of some kind that I still need to build. I have a few massive high strength bolts lying spare, M22 or something like that. I drilled a clearance hole through the plates and welded the nut on the rear so it sits in the original oval hole on the end of the chassis rail. The tubes are a sleeve to guide the bolt into place and to provide something to screw against. Im thinking another bit of the tube with the bolt passing through it to go through the bumper and a D-shackle fixed to the end. I havent decided if they will be removable or permanent yet.

Annoyingly, Chinese cheap rubbish showed itself straight away when I bolted on the rollers. They fix from the rear and the frame is made from some kind of cast alloy monkey-metal. I put the bolts in by hand then just showing it the spanner caused one to strip its threads.
I drilled the hole out, tapped it and put in a Helicoil insert which seems to be holding nicely.

With the bumper loose, I started slowly cutting away a hole to expose the rollers. I have one of those oscillating saws which works ok on the bumper plastic.
This is where I stopped this evening - need to open the hole up another 5mm or so to clear properly then sand the edges. I also used a hole-saw to start the cut-out for access to the clutch lever but it was too small so I made it wedge-shaped with the shaky saw.




Tomorrow - finish the bumper, fit the control box, battery cut off switch and plug for the remote lead.

Nice, I like that it's mostly hidden and more of the bumper is retained.

That's coming together quite nicely!

I think we're more curious than trying to rip you to pieces on this one, well most of us.

Finished, I suppose.

The bumper is back on properly. By chance the bottom of the winch tray was at exactly the right height for the three screws that fit upwards in the lower grill which originally went into the alloy bumper bar. I drilled into the winch tray and used self tapping sheet metal screws with big washers to fix that part of the bumper.

The numberplate mount isnt great - Its just spaced out with blocks of wood for now. I was thinking of getting a pair of these spring clips....

...and using them to clip the number plate to the rollers. I have seen proper plate mounts exactly like that for sale at about £30 so I reckon I will build it myself.

The shackle mounts are ok - I will probably do a different design at a later date. I probably wont leave them in place either to prevent them getting nicked. Need to find a blanking grommit to keep road dirt out of the thread of the mounts.





And with them removed....


The control box is in the engine bay in front of the battery. I havent fitted the plug for the command wire on the outside....might do that later if I get fed up popping the bonnet to connect it.....Doubt it though as the range of the wireless control is great - easily over 40 meters so I will probably never used the wired control.

I did a quick test by parking the Escort at the bottom of the garden which is quite a steep slope and wedging the brake pedal down to lock all 4 wheels. The Freelander winched it up with no problem at all. I didnt go far as it would have chewed up the ground too much, but Im happy with it so far.

Well done! Much simpler than the earlier design and within my skill base too! I guess that be lengthening the two plates that face each other [where the bumper mounts] you could effectively raise or lower the winch mount 'tray' to suit the particular winch purchased. Good idea with those recover points too.

That's very professional looking.
Well done and thanks for sharing.

1.6 ton trailer up the bastard-long hill to work this morning and the temp guage sits exactly where it always sat, so as expected, no cooling problems.

Fair play for the enthusiasm and effort.........
Does anyone remember Richard Hammond's Mini in the India Special edition of Top Gear ????