Damage while using winch on improperly installed Rough Country High Mount

[Tricky Dick]

You can never really over do strengthening, (Well I guess you could). But gussets are your friend in these moments. Do you have a picture of these LOD brackets your speaking of? Never seen them or heard of them. Before I retired from the military, I would always go over to the engineering shop and fabricate my own stuff.

I kind of panic bought them so I'll work with them. It will save some time too. Moab is in 3 weeks, tick tock.

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[Grumpy]

These are the brackets?

 

[Grumpy]

Haha you beat me too it.

 

[Sooner]

Be careful welding on the vehicle without unhooking the ECM, it can kill it on the Caterpillars I work on. Keep the ground as close to what you are welding as possible.

 

[chtucker]

Also curious if the ford mount is that much better

The Ford mount has frame reinforcement brackets

 

[Grumpy]

After looking at LOD brackets and not knowing the thickness of them I would do a small 1" weld on the back edge of bracket to frame. If you ever need to remove later, you can always grind it off. Once the brackets are bolted in place, I would consider also maybe adding a top plate to tie both brackets together and seam weld in place. Once again if you ever have to remove, both sides would come off as one unit, and go back on as one unit once you weld in the top plate. Just my 2¢ worth of past experience talking. Good luck what ever way you decide. Make sure you post up the final result.

 

[Bruno]

Just the concept of a "High mounted winch" - is wrong.
When you pull a car onto a flatbed to tow, you hook the chain to the frame....

Question: Would you ever let a tow truck, hook up to your bumper??

 

[Grumpy]

Just the concept of a "High mounted winch" - is wrong.
When you pull a car onto a flatbed to tow, you hook the chain to the frame....

Question: Would you ever let a tow truck, hook up to your bumper??

No matter what you do in today's refined world, unless you tie in your winch to straddle the frame rails, you are going to have this happen. Old school we always tied the winch in with the frame by making a mounting plate to either bolt or weld to the frame rails. Then mount the winch onto the plate.

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

This is an interesting problem that needs investigation. I’m going to need to spend some time tomorrow looking for/ at the Ford winch mount install instructions to see if there is any reinforcement in their design.

 

[EL in NH]

This is an interesting problem that needs investigation. I’m going to need to spend some time tomorrow looking for/ at the Ford winch mount install instructions to see if there is any reinforcement in their design.

https://performanceparts.ford.com/download/instructionsheets/IS_M-1821-B_2021U725R3.PDF

 

[Tricky Dick]

No matter what you do in today's refined world, unless you tie in your winch to straddle the frame rails, you are going to have this happen. Old school we always tied the winch in with the frame by making a mounting plate to either bolt or weld to the frame rails. Then mount the winch onto the plate.

That's the downside of all this "prebuilt" stuff. You buy the baddest Bronco trim, slap a bunch of bolt-ons on it, assume the engineering has been done, and you go out and play. Back in the day you knew you had weak factory junk and it would need some fabbing to hold up.

 

[Tricky Dick]

https://performanceparts.ford.com/download/instructionsheets/IS_M-1821-B_2021U725R3.PDF

Ahhhhh! This is exactly what I first envisioned while I was poking under there, tie into the bash plate mounts.

 

[chtucker]

Ahhhhh! This is exactly what I first envisioned while I was poking under there, tie into the bash plate mounts.

I talked to Warn corporate a few times including some contacts and they would not sell the brackets separately.. I created my own

 

[Nobody]

On the high mount winches, thinking out loud...

Wonder if you could use a "remote fairlead" and run the cable from the bottom of the winch to reduce the stress. Maybe someone smarter than me can flush out the physics.

 

[Tricky Dick]

I talked to Warn corporate a few times including some contacts and they would not sell the brackets separately.. I created my own

Well I know someone with manufacturing connections....me....hmm I might be able to make some lemonade out of this.

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