Winch mounting plates

[grendel]

I have an idea for mounting a front winch utilizing more of the existing space on the 939. It is not easy and will be somewhat time consuming. It may still require a very slight extension of around 2 inches to clear the bumper. I hate to cut bumpers! Anyway I would remove the hood support channel and make plates (mounting and clamping) to do both jobs. The winch would still hang down some below the frame since the plate would have to be located at the same height as the existing hood channel. I estimate the span plate would need to be around an inch thick to hold the hood and winch. If anyone wants to fund this I will be happy to give it a try. I would also want a protection plate designed to go under it. Otherwise I have a front extension kit that extends the bumper about 8 inches. I may shorten this an inch to keep it tighter. There are always trade offs in everything we do. I am also making two storage bins to go behind the existing bumper when extended to make it a 10" deep bumper. They will replace the 4 gussets we now use and make a wrap around box. The stock bumper will resemble the maxxpro bumper but have storage doors on the back.

How's this going? I am replacing my M932A2's winch with an MRAP electric and the factory bumper with an MRAP bumper. Looked at it today and yes, it looks like getting rid of the hood mount makes it pretty easy to build a winch box.

 

[Hard Head]

I have 3 different mounts now and I have 3 different MRAP bumpers I work with on 939's. I made a new mount that mounts to the rear of the bumper and ties to the frame via 3" angle iron to keep the winch from removing the bumper . Anyway I have made the boxes on the original extension and it works great. I looked into shortening the extension and the grease fitting needs to be removed for the hood and it really makes things too tight since the winch sticks under the bumper lip a little. I made 1/2" tie plates to attach the mrap bumper to the frame since they are not designed to attach to the 939. I like the bumper that the winch mounts on top of and I like the one the winch mounts in. It can go flush like the original bumper. Anyway let me know which bumper you have and I will be happy to give you suggestions. Depending on the bumper you may not have to fool with the hood mounts. If you do you can hinge the hood to the bumper mounts and not the cross member. I have hung the winch upside down depending on the bumper which had an access door for the clutch release. If you want you can get clutch extensions or an air clutch. I mainly power out while keeping tension on the cable to keep from getting a kink in the cable from the attachment point. I could go on all day about winches since I have worked with hundreds of them now.

 

[Hard Head]

The biggest issue has always been the mounting plate / orientation based on the winch. If you pull from the bottom you can mount it flat. If it pulls from the top of the drum you have to mount it vertical. When going vertical the min stell thickness I use is 3/4 and also to protect the winch control houseing it may have to be around 10 1/2 wide and be notched to fit between the frame. There are several models of this winch so be aware the mounting position. I laser cut the plate since the hole spacing is critical for horizontal mounting to prevent shearing of the bolts or cracking the winch housing. You want the exact spacing since the 8 bolts should have equal pressure on them. When mounting Vertical you can get away with some inaccuracy since the sheer strength of the mounting bolts is not in question. The bolts have to be at least grade 10.9 eqiv to grade 8. I use grade 12.9 which are about 20% stronger. I also never just use grade 8 bolts in frame extensions or winch plate attachments. I use structural bolts where head distribution if force needs to taken into consideration. They have a better head load distribution than a standard grade 8 bolt. Use either A325, A490 or grade 8 depending on if a bolt failure can be catastrophic or if you want your frame attachment bolts to stretch before failure.

 

[grendel]

I have this one - I took off the M932A2 winch, was going to mimic the plates I took off, but make it shorter. I also want the tow shackle points on the top and the bottom.

 

[Hard Head]

I have installed the RG31 bumper in the pics (upper) and Caiman bumpers (lower). I do make a 1/2" thick AR500 wrapping protection plate with fairlead cover that encloses the winch on the Caimans. I sell them to various swat departments that have the setup in the pic below. Several fell victim to damage during civil unrest last year so I sold a few plates to protect the 5k winch target on the front! I am not sure if the Series 18 winch will mount flat against the bumper you have. If it will not you will need to extend the frame just enough to get the winch behind it and mount the fairlead on the bumper. Do you have the 10" or 8" drum on your series 18 winch? You can pm your info and I can call you.

 

[grendel]

I guess I need to unbox them... That's tomorrow's project.

 

[Hard Head]

Check out what happened to this 5 ton! Peeled that bumper right off the frame pulling it by the shackles! Seems the passenger shackle pins did not sacrifice like the drivers side.

 

[86m1028]

Check out what happened to this 5 ton! Peeled that bumper right off the frame pulling it by the shackles! Seems the passenger shackle pins did not sacrifice like the drivers side.

View attachment 668552

I'd like to know the WHOLE story behind that pic !

 

[Hard Head]

From what I heard, a M984 wreckers recovery winch was used to try and pull it out from the front. When it ripped the bumper off, they got a Unimog to dig it out from the rear and then used the M984 to drag it out from the rear. I have never seen a bumper rip like this. Needless to say a 60,000 lb winch is very powerful indeed.

 

[grendel]

Looks like I have an 8" drum. My plan is to U it - build a winch mount that grabs both frame rails, mounts the feet of the inch by the front and also bolts to the bumper with the triangular gussets from the old bumper and the tow points.

I also plan to mount the hood to it.

 

[Hard Head]

I designed a plated for mounting to the 939 series bumper that is exactly like that. It is offset but I can change anything on the mount since I have the drawing and the laser I cut out of hardened 3/4" plate and use 12 bolts to fasten it to the frame and 6 bolts to fasten the out plate thru the bumper into the 3/4 plate.

 

[TwistedOaks]

And you had the pictures for it... where?

I designed a plated for mounting to the 939 series bumper that is exactly like that. It is offset but I can change anything on the mount since I have the drawing and the laser I cut out of hardened 3/4" plate and use 12 bolts to fasten it to the frame and 6 bolts to fasten the out plate thru the bumper into the 3/4 plate.

 

[Hard Head]

It still requires a bumper extension! I have had no luck getting a winch in without them . The reason for the new plate is that the narrow drum winches do not pull from the bottom like the full drums did and have to be mounted feet forward. I had to make a heavier plate and attachments to keep the winch from pulling the bumper off. The original mount I have is only mounted to the frame and is flat so it can take more force without having to reinforce with the bumper. After seeing what can happen to a bumper I made the attachments stronger and the bolts bigger for the newer mount. I can send you a cad drawing as I don't have any in stock right now. I have 2 orders coming so the price for the front vertical mount is 1100 qty 1 or 1000 each. When I have more than one order I reduce the handling and setup time so I can pass the savings along. Shipping in not included in that price. It costs more in materials and time to make them than the standard front mount. The bumper has to control the flex in the plate. Also you have to have frame to plate ties so you are not trying to pull the bumper off the truck in a recovery. I do recommend replacing the gussets with 3/8" gussets and drilling out the bolt holes to 5/8" and 3/4" instead of 1/2". This way the the bumper will not sacrifice and it will only have to control plate deflection and not be the attachment point for the frame. I will go over to the shop this afternoon and then send a pic of the plate to you. You can also make the bumper stronger by putting on my gusset storage boxes that wrap the bumper back to the frame.

 

[Hard Head]

Here is a picture of the finished product using an small drum Series 18. Winch and fairlead are for 8" wide drum. The mounting plate and fairlead plate are attached to one another thru the bumper. We also changed the design of the atttachment plates so they are stronger and make adding a cover plate easy.

 

[TwistedOaks]

mmmmmm.... yes please. More pics?

 

[Capecodlange]

Do you still have warn 18 mounting kits available for a M923?

 

[Hard Head]

Yes, I can make as many as you like. The foot forward mount is approx 1250 + shipping (based on steel prices, we can also make the front plate out of AR 500 or 600). It includes everything and is laser cut for accuracy. The kit has 4 new designed and thicker frame to bumper connector plates custom frame extension (these are custom cut and bent. The standing front plate is also bent so we no longer require angle iron connections between the frame and a straight front plate (this is the hardest part since the plate is 5/8 thick and we design in 5 thousands tolerance to deformation). The front plate and militariaengineers.com logo plate are also in the kit. Along with all the bolts necessary. There are a lot of grade 8 and structural bolts that are built into the design to prevent catastrophic failure found where only one bolt type is used. Structural are used at frame connection points where grade 8 can be used to join the Bumper between the winch plate and fairlead plate. There is no sheer stress on the winch mounting feet first compared to feet down so the risk of winch casing cracking and failure is removed. The front plate is painted or powder coated per the customer request so they are just left alone until you buy it. It is best to contact me by email as I don't get on the site much anymore. I have been sick for a several months now and I don't get over to the shop much. I am going over next week to see how many winches I have left. My email is young1julian@aol.com. You can also send me your bumper and my assistant can put it all together ready to mount on your truck. The stamped bumpers are not so perfect on the 923's and require trimming for perfect plate spacing and drilling to mate with the plates. Installation instructions included.

 

[Dodgepwrw]

Hard Head, I sent you a email about wanting to purchase a front mount kit. Hopefully you are still making these. Thank you.