Front Winch

Happy Christmas to everyone!






Looks like this space was made for a winch does it? Looking at it only quickly tonight I think I can shoehorn a winch in behind the factory bumper with a front plate fitting flush. I was going to fab a metal bumper but this would save me a lot of time and keep the original look. Has anyone tried this?

Hi there. Following this build with interest as I am trying to work out how to mount a front removeable “parking” towball to my 96 super custom in Australia to push my Aliner down my sloping driveway to my shed. Here the super custom van has dual airbags which the standard van did not for 1996 and they might trigger depending on the mount attachment. Has anyone had success getting a front towball fitted?

In AUstralia I have not yet even found a certified bull bar for my van. My van has a different front underchassis layout to the standard hi ace van here.

Hi. I'm no expert, but the winch will need to be attached to something that is attached to the chassis. Do these vans have chassis' or are they unibody vehicles??

Take a look at how winches mount into bullbars and then how the bullbar attaches to the vehicle and they will tell you how, what and where the winch should be secured to.

Also, something often overlooked, the winch should be mounted with the 4 (or however many mounting bolts there are) mounting bolts pointing forwards and not down. With the bolts pointing down, you will be pulling the winch away from its mounting & placing all the strain on the bolts.

I'm looking at fitting a winch to the front of my 200 series Commuter.

Jem:

What’s an aliner? I’ve seen Tacoma’s with a front 2” receiver hitch for recovery/ towing etc. By modifying a standard receiver hitch to fit under the front it would allow you to put a towball there for whatever you are moving. You could fab or modify a bull bar and incorporate the receiver hitch in the design.

My 91 lh119 is a unibody, with tube frame extending to the front, this is where a bull bar or winch goes there are 2 frame tubes extending straight out and 2 more angling slightly to each side. I will add more pictures as I go, waiting to see if I have some heavy I beam pieces at my farm that would work as a winch mount.

I want to design it kind of like this guy did and incorporate into the factory bumper at least for now. The plate mount will all be custom fab on the hiace though.

https://youtu.be/eJMH7MOlwC4

Siringo:

Not sure if I’m understanding what you mean about the bolts. Mounting the winch with the plate horizontally and bolts vertically through would put the shear stress on the bolts, which are sized to easily handle it.

Mounting the plate vertically will position the bolts horizontally and when force is applied through the winch cable it would want to put force on the threads potentially pulling them out and or stretching the bolts. I’m no engineer but I’m intending to put mine where the plate is horizontal and bolts vertical this is the only way I’ve seen it done. In the odd case I’ve seen the plate mounted vertically you need to then open the housing and rotate the clutch lever 90 degrees to position it so it is accessible from the top.

Hi.
What I meant was, you normally see the mounting bolts sitting under the winch, have the heads of those bolts at the front of the vehicle, so the bolts are horizontal with the heads at the front of the vehicle. That way when you winch, you'll be pulling against the mount you've built and not the heads of the bolts.

That's the ideal way to mount a winch.

Got tired of moving the winch box around the garage and finally mounted it! Was able to retain the factory look using the factory bumper and very happy with the result!

Installing winch in factory bumper!!
https://youtu.be/YV767waG_vc