Designs for Hidden Winch Mount

[vr4madness]

I have been looking to design my own hidden winch mount for the front of my 2004 Montero Sport. I wanted to see if anyone on here has done this themselves. If you have, can you lend some advice? I plan to anchor it to the frame and build the bracket and components out of steel. Not sure how thick to go on thr steel, I want it to look minimal and not drag my suspension down at all. Thanks for the help!

[muddblood]

I was going to see how close this is and use it as a starting point:

www.4wd.com/p/westin-winch-mount-plate-black-47-3106/_/R-BCTC-47-3106

It ALMOST looks like it would bolt right up...

[vr4madness]

Interesting, it would be nice if it was at least close. I haven't been able to work on this as much because I have been really busy with work and have been trying to figure out how to do the Pajero Sport HPE headlight conversion done. I have finally found the parts and ordered some of them. Hopefully I can get that done so I can focus more of my attention to this.

[muddblood]

Jun 20, 2017 15:32:12 GMT -5 vr4madness said:

Interesting, it would be nice if it was at least close. I haven't been able to work on this as much because I have been really busy with work and have been trying to figure out how to do the Pajero Sport HPE headlight conversion done. I have finally found the parts and ordered some of them. Hopefully I can get that done so I can focus more of my attention to this.

I would love to a find store that has one in stock to look at.  My front bumper is 75% gone so it would be pretty easy to hold it up and see how close it is.  Maybe one day....much like you, I have other priorities (like rebuilding the top end of my truck  )

[muddblood]

Not sure you are still looking, but found this today:

www.devon4x4.com/mitsubishi-shogun-sport-winch-mount.html

I'm going to see if we can make one at the shop I am now working at as it may be slightly cheaper.

[vr4madness]

May 21, 2018 20:21:53 GMT -5 muddblood said:

Not sure you are still looking, but found this today:

www.devon4x4.com/mitsubishi-shogun-sport-winch-mount.html

I'm going to see if we can make one at the shop I am now working at as it may be slightly cheaper.

I did find that one! I talked to an employee there about getting one shipped with a winch that would fit it. It was q pretty costly endeavor. Enough to where it would be just about as expensive as getting a custom steel bumper built with a winch mount. If you can find a way to re-create that affordably, let me know!

[muddblood]

I did find that one! I talked to an employee there about getting one shipped with a winch that would fit it. It was q pretty costly endeavor. Enough to where it would be just about as expensive as getting a custom steel bumper built with a winch mount. If you can find a way to re-create that affordably, let me know!

The owner here at Tru Automotive said about $500 to make the mount, and a couple months out to make it. Probably not much cheaper than the custom bumper. I did get an email from Devon 4x4 with an email address for a US distributor...wonder if it would be cheaper to go through them? Here is the email:

Hello,

Thank you for your enquiry.

To purchase D44 parts in the USA, please contact Lucky 8 who are our US dealers [e-mail]

Regards,

Jake Lloyd
Sales Team Leader
Devon 4x4

tel: [phone]
email: [e-mail]
post: D44 Store Ltd, Southlea Business Park, Bish Mill, South Molton, Devon, EX36 3QU. United Kingdom

[muddblood]

I contacted Erik at Lucky8 and this is what he said:

Jason,

Thank you.

I can do this for $398 to your door (winch mount only)

Lead time is 2-3 weeks

Thanks,
Erik

[vr4madness]

Jun 1, 2018 22:00:17 GMT -5 muddblood said:

I contacted Erik at Lucky8 and this is what he said:

Jason,

Thank you.

I can do this for $398 to your door (winch mount only)

Lead time is 2-3 weeks

Thanks,
Erik

That's not bad, but it doesn't sound like that included the "D44 Stainless Fairlead for Lowline winch" (https://www.devon4x4.com/d44-stainless-fairlead-for-lowline-winch.html) which is something I would want to keep things clean looking. And my worry was not being able to find a good winch here that fits properly. You could always ask for dimensions on their Warrior S9500 Samurai winch. We know that winch they suggest for it would fit, so I would get all of that too.

[muddblood]

I wonder if they have a DIY winch kit and then have a local shop weld it together. I also wonder if this would be any less expensive. Also, I'm sure you could drill holes to fit any winch. I know Warn makes a low profile/compact 8,000 pound winch. The other issue I see is payment and ordering. Erik at Lucky8 says to send him a PayPal payment to his email address which I don't like. Lucky8 doesn't seem to have a website or anything.

And in all honesty, I think we could have a winch mount made for about the same price. It doesn't look hard at all (my bumper is 90% gone so I can see the bumper mounts, which is where the winch plate would mount to).

There is a shop in Boulder, CO that advertises custom steel bumpers for $400. I might contact him to see if he can replicate the Devon 4x4 winch mount.

[vr4madness]

Yeah see what they say! You should let me know what their contact info is too BTW haha.

[PaydayGabe]

A few years later,, what was the outcome of this winch mount search/ build?
Lucky 8 doesn't show D44 parts available on the site.
Maybe special order🤷‍♂️. IDK.

[muddblood]

I don’t know about the OP, but I ended up buying a YJ bumper and modified it to fit my truck.

[PaydayGabe]

Have a great 🇺🇲4th of July celebration🙋‍♂️.
Thanks for the teaser post. Anything else you can share would be greatly appreciated,, like mods to the jeep mount,,
did it work?,,
are you happy with the project?,,
pictures of the process, etc.
Cheers 🍻, G.

[muddblood]

Hmmm...doesn’t look like I can post pics from my phone. The TJ bumper is a flat mount and has 4 holes that would bolt to the matching 4 holes on the frame. I made my own mounts using a scrap 2” receiver hitch. The TJ bumper at 1st glance is too long, but I “straightened” the bends and bent it to match the body lines of my MS.

It performs amazingly well! I used the 2 factory mounting holes and my custom mount wraps around the frame where I drilled a 1/2” hole and used a grade 8 bolt and washer to go through the frame. I pulled several cars out of snow and 2 weeks ago, I pulled 5 rigs (including myself) out of a mud hole.

A couple things I don’t like...it sits about 2” too low so there is a gap between the bottom of the grill/lights to the top of my bumper. Easy fix with some filler. And while the bumper is just the right length now, it doesn’t curve around and go under the fenders. But I’m surely not complaining as my bumper was only $50. I’ll try to post some pics tomorrow.