jim07x

It can be done! Takes a lot of patience and a lot of trial and error. My goal was to eliminate as little of the winch plate as possible so as to maintain structrual integrity. Others have trimmed of the entire rear angle of the plate and most of the front except the fairlead mount.

The winch plate is HF 90476, got it on sale for $29.99 The winch is the HF part 67577 Road Shock (not sure who makes it) 10,000 lb reg. $549 on sale for $299 and they discounted it another $60 at the register so I could get the 2 year replacement warranty at no additional cost (actually $10 less overall!).

Remove factory bumper and trim metal sub bumper like so (I had previously stubbied it). Basically cut across at the top of the ovals the width of the winch plate.


Trim about 5.75" of width off of the front edge of the winch plate, aprox 1/2" deep (from inside of front lip).


The plate will now fit on top of the bumper mount, flush with the tow hooks. I used 4 1/2" grade 8 washers under the rear bolt to level it and 1 7/16" grade 5 washer in front.

Here's a few of the plate mounted in place. I bolted only through the top of the frame rail, not through the entire frame. 1/2" grade 8 in the rear, 7/16" grade 5 in the front (couldn't line up the two holes well enough to get 1/2" bolts in both. Lock washers and Loctite all around. Needed to trim the hole in front to get the wrench in (third pic).



Here is the bumper reinstalled with out the winch plate. You can see what is needed to be trimed off of the plastic. Cut at the top of the front bevel on the outer plastic and just above the fog light housing on the inner part. Helpful hint - use spray foam anywhere you can and it will bring back a lot of the rigidity of the bumper.


You will need to trim a little more for the roller fairlead, just in the center (sorry no pic).
Here's a few pics of the finished prduct.

frankie945

Looks good. Nice clean look with the factory bumper.

lacmprs

I agree, looks clean, one of the cleanest factory bumper cuts.

Question, would you have to make the extra cut you made in the plastic for the roller fairlead if a hawse fairlead was used instead?

GoodysGotaCuda

Looks pretty good, it was the 10k lb one on sale last weekend? Hmm, though it was the 8, should have paid attention more. From what I've read they are hit or miss on being good winches. Either last a long time or not. Considered trying one. "winches in hell" article said it wasn't bad at all. Just slow.

BillyJK

I really like those universal 10k winch plates. I picked one up for $30. That's about $200 cheaper than a name brand.

Was going to mount my winch just like yours. But I ended up doing something different w/ my plate. I welded on sides, a front, and soon will add some bars.




But overall I love the winch plate for the price.

jim07x

Thanks for all the praise!

Probably not. The way the bumper is beveled away I believe the hawse would clear. I actually thought the roller would clear but it wasn't even close.

Wallsofcrete

X2 that does look good.

bbrider

Well, I started doing mine today. Actually this afternoon so I didn't get to finish it. I got the mount done and the bumper done. Everything is reinstalled too. My Warn M8000 was dropped off by the big brown truck at 6:30 pm so I was able to unpack it and sit it up on the mount to look at and like you I had to make a few extra cuts for the fare-lead. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I will be stuck under the carport......no mowing the yard .. Guess that means I will be forced to finish installing my new winch. I believe after I get the new wheels and tires on it I am going to have to bob that bumper too.

Anyway, thanks for a great write-up. The pictures were a big help too.......although as an amateur photographer........I did catch myself saying focus focus......LOL.

I will post some pics of the bumper tomorrow after I get the winch installed.


This shows the sides and how I notched them arount the farelead. This way I was able to leave the upper part of the bumper long enough to go over the mount plate just a little and help give the cut plastic some support.


Before the winch is mounted. This makes it easy to see the cuts.

As you can see, I got my plate to sit a little lower in the front and forced the plastic bumper over the front of the plate to help support the plastic. There are some slight stress spots showing on the plastic at the far left side of the left cut and the far right side of the right cut. This is because the plastic was unable to expand over the plate as easy at these points. Had I thought I would have cut the mount plate on a slight downward angle the last 3" making the end of the cut about 1/4" lower to help relieve that pressure.

Also I drilled 3 extra weep holes in the bottom of the bumper to help get any water out. One under each crush post and one in the center of the bumper.

bbrider

Here is the winch mounted. I am waiting on my brush guard to get here now. I plan to make two mounting brackets and attach them to the winch mount that will be just slightly above the plastic fender on each end of the winch mount. Then I am going to mount the brush guard on them.

When I get the B/G mounted I am going to mount the control box for the warn winch on the B/G. I will post another pic of it when I get it done.

bbrider

Thanks Echo, I don't believe I would have tried to figure this out if it hadn't been for jim07X doing the write up. He did a really good job on the write up which made my doing this so much easier.