Skinny
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- Portsmouth, NH
Being that I already have a Class 4 hitch on the back of my M1031 and really like the idea of winching out of a stuck rather than further into it (the M1031 is a big heavy girl), I decided to go with a multi mount setup. Coming from a more extreme rock crawling style of fourwheeling it is a huge compromise on approach angles and mount integrity having that winch stick out so far. I'd much rather have it tucked between the frame rails. As such is life, I broke down and did the most practical thing possibly and just simply installed a front receiver hitch with a multi mount tray.
I chose the MM 12000 integrated 24v winch as I absolutely planned on taking advantage of the CUCV charging system, wanted to use the NATO slave cable as a hookup since it is already there on one end, and not have to worry about larger voltage drops going to the rear of the truck. I purchased some matching 2 AWG welding cable off of ebay pretty cheap, not bad quality for the price. I was able to source a slave cable end from a buddy, the rest is history. I've never really had any issues with MM winches. I owned a 12,000lb hydraulic winch on my old TJ which I loved, it pulled like a mule as long as you didn't need to steer. I had an 8,000lb electric cheapo on my old XJ which always worked and was dirt cheap. It was just slower than death and noisier than a jackhammer. Since you are extremely limited on 24v models unless you want to spend double the amount for a WARN, I went with the MM. WARN's are great units but this would have extremely limited use and being that they are also starting to use Chinese parts...what the **** I'll give it a try.
The receiver hitch is a Warn unit and the multi mount is made by Curt Manufacturing and appears to be a very beefy unit. All of this was sourced on Amazon and delivered to my door a few days later. Shop around because I am talking hundreds of dollars difference for the same exact stuff online.
In order to install the hitch, the front bumper and tow shackles must come off. You will need to unbolt the side brackets first and disconnect the BO lights. Then take the remaining fasteners out and remove all as one unit. Test fit the front hitch, you will note that one extra hole on each side must be drilled so a test fit for proper alignment is necessary. You will also note that one of the recovery shackle inserts no longer will have the bolt going through both sides, this will require a shorter bolt and inserting the nut through the shackle insert.
Get the hitch inserted into the frame rails, use the existing fasteners to hold the spacers in place while you slide the bumper back into place. Now one at a time insert the longer bolts quickly (which you must source from a hardware store because the WARN supplied fasteners are not designed to work with the CUCV shackle inserts) to keep the WARN spacer washers from falling out of place. Getting all fasteners fitted then start tightening while maintaining bumper and brush guard alignment.
Now that everything is mounted up, the ol' girl is going into storage for winter. Next on the list is to install the NATO slave hookup in the rear bumper and wire it to the 24v bus bar.
I chose the MM 12000 integrated 24v winch as I absolutely planned on taking advantage of the CUCV charging system, wanted to use the NATO slave cable as a hookup since it is already there on one end, and not have to worry about larger voltage drops going to the rear of the truck. I purchased some matching 2 AWG welding cable off of ebay pretty cheap, not bad quality for the price. I was able to source a slave cable end from a buddy, the rest is history. I've never really had any issues with MM winches. I owned a 12,000lb hydraulic winch on my old TJ which I loved, it pulled like a mule as long as you didn't need to steer. I had an 8,000lb electric cheapo on my old XJ which always worked and was dirt cheap. It was just slower than death and noisier than a jackhammer. Since you are extremely limited on 24v models unless you want to spend double the amount for a WARN, I went with the MM. WARN's are great units but this would have extremely limited use and being that they are also starting to use Chinese parts...what the **** I'll give it a try.
The receiver hitch is a Warn unit and the multi mount is made by Curt Manufacturing and appears to be a very beefy unit. All of this was sourced on Amazon and delivered to my door a few days later. Shop around because I am talking hundreds of dollars difference for the same exact stuff online.
In order to install the hitch, the front bumper and tow shackles must come off. You will need to unbolt the side brackets first and disconnect the BO lights. Then take the remaining fasteners out and remove all as one unit. Test fit the front hitch, you will note that one extra hole on each side must be drilled so a test fit for proper alignment is necessary. You will also note that one of the recovery shackle inserts no longer will have the bolt going through both sides, this will require a shorter bolt and inserting the nut through the shackle insert.
Get the hitch inserted into the frame rails, use the existing fasteners to hold the spacers in place while you slide the bumper back into place. Now one at a time insert the longer bolts quickly (which you must source from a hardware store because the WARN supplied fasteners are not designed to work with the CUCV shackle inserts) to keep the WARN spacer washers from falling out of place. Getting all fasteners fitted then start tightening while maintaining bumper and brush guard alignment.
Now that everything is mounted up, the ol' girl is going into storage for winter. Next on the list is to install the NATO slave hookup in the rear bumper and wire it to the 24v bus bar.
