Hi Jeff,

I hear yea about needing to win the lottery. My Decor’s paint is pretty ruff, at least the rig has very minimal rust issues. There will be many safety, mechanical and comfort upgrade before it receives new paint.

Looking forward to seeing your winch project. I was inspired to do a hinden winch when I seen xcntrk’s winch build at CB.com.

Thanks for the update,

Fred

In preparation for Super Cell West, I am finally getting around to doing this project.

Here is what I’m working with;
- 1-3/8” body lift (minimum requirement for 351w with Ford OBDII EFI and stock hood)
- Explorer radiator which hangs slightly lower than Bronco radiator
- Warn M8 series winch with synthetic rope
- Badlands winch mounting plate

First thing was to locate and clean up my old frame horn inserts I used with the Meyers plow.

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I’m interested in how this turns out, I’d like to do something similar on TFB.

Body lift.

Nose job?

https://www.dufftuff.com/Early_Bronco_R ... 4175-6.htm

Body lift and this?

mount the winch behind the rear axle and run the cable to the front and mount the fairlead on the stock bumper.

Finally got some time to work on it again.

This is the best it’s gonna fit unless I want to move the radiator up and / or back.

Ended up with 3/8” flat bar as shim between bottom of frame and the winch mount.

So now I just need to figure which way I want to mount the bumper.

Don’t worry that cheep ass grade 1.7 carriage bolt is just there for mocking it up.

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so you don't want a 1" body lift...but it will look like you're running one...

Well played ;)

More progress today........

Lots of fitting and refitting. Bumper is mounted in stock position.

I removed the ends of the winch plate which were protruding outside of the frame rails.

Extra points for anyone that can point out the obvious problem.

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So where does the rope come out?


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Plenty of room for the rope to come out of that HUGE gap between the grille and bumper.

That turned out great, nice work looks awesome!

Well done! A nice polished hawse fairlead would look right at home there. But incorporating a flip up plate holder would be cool. My advice is to keep the bottom of the plate higher than the bottom of the bumper. I bent mine enough that it broke off.

That's TOTALLY BAD ASS Rox!
I would do that in a heartbeat if I had any Mechanicabilityness about me...but I don't so?
Anyway Nice job!!! Love it!

A little more progress...........

I didn’t quite get the opening for the fair lead in the perfect spot in the bumper so there is little crown to bumper when tightened down. Good enough for now.

As you can see I’m using the new tangle free rope.

Also, still trying to figure out a slick solution for the clutch release lever. I cut the lever part of it off for now and it sits right behind the bumper. May drill an access hole large enough for a screw driver or Allen wrench and modify lever to suit.

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That turned out really nice, I like how hidden the winch is and drilling a small hole for the release lever seems like the only option. If you do use a small screwdriver or Allen wrench to activated is there enough room to cap the actual winch hole to keep junk out while not in use

The last couple of weeks have been hectic, can’t decide if it’s been a whirlwind or a tailspin?

My new job has had me super busy so I haven’t had time to prepare my rig for Super Celebration. So I decided to bring it to a shop to have them install the Duff long arms and fix the leaking rear ARB locker, and a bunch of other stuff. I had a really bad experience with the shop such that I couldn’t trust them to work on it anymore, so I had to get in the garage and do it myself.........which is the way I prefer it anyway.

The shop did a good job installing the long arms. Too bad they did a hack job removing the original radius arm mounts.

I installed Duff extended shock towers and their new MS2020 Eibach shocks.
I built a custom tow hitch with receiver going through stock bumper.
I installed Duff rocker guards.
I installed a new air tank and re-plumbed all the ARB lines front and rear.

Now I gotta pack for our adventure at Super Celebration West in Buena Vista.

Can’t wait to go wheeling !