Question about HC rear -fabricators/vendors please chime in!

So a question for everyone that could answer - would it be possible to have both a winch and a hitch in a high clearance rear bumper? Or would that diminish the strength to a point at which both the hitch and winch would be useless?

And for the vendors...how much would you charge?
What I'm looking for:

• HC Rear Bumper
• Tire Carrier
• RotoPax Mount
• Light cutouts
• Hi-Lift cutouts
• Hitch
• Hidden winch mount - inside the bumper
• Side/tail-light tube protection (Not a must)
• Awesomeness (Definitely a must)

And if I get multiple responses from fabricators/vendors...why should I choose YOUR product over others? Convince me

 

I don't think it would be very high clearance if you had both..

 

I know there are manufactures out there that make this Relentless in one but I am not sure about the strength. I have been pondering the thought of getting a Relentless but the hitch not being rated is a concern.

 

It costs thousands of dollars to test and get a hitch rated. Money that small fabricators just cant justify but the hitch will outperform the stock one if you are that worried

 

I made this out of ATO's image i found here

If the winch spools off the bottom and a hawse fairlead is used then it should clear fine. Just put an angled plate behind the hitch

 

And I don't need more than the factory tow hitch - I'll probably never pull anything over 6500lbs...again

 

You may want to look at the Kaymar bumper. It's pretty high in clearance and you can two close to the factory limit if you have the tow package.

I'm saving up for one since they are around $3K with swing arms and carriers. It's the only one I've found with a tow rating on it.

 

where would you mount the winch? theres not really a great place to tuck a winch in there. having a HC myself with a hitch, i dont see where you could put it without one interfering with each other.

 

Could be done, shouldn't be any issue.

Hitch will stand up to more than what you'd want to tow with the Tacoma, especially a hitch on a high clearance.

 

I cant find anything by them for a tacoma

I don't know where I'd put the winch - I've been thinking about that one all day. Maybe get a bumper that's just a bit taller...just tall enough to fit an M8000 and have it spool off the bottom, then like I tried to illustrate (poorly), just put a reinforced hitch below the bumper/winch

 

I can't find anyone that will do it I would contact Relentless but they're out of my price range lol

 

i've thought about a rear winch a number of times, and after a lot of measuring a drafting, i cuncluded that the best way to rear mount a winch on a high clearance (not using the hitch itself), is to cut out a portion of the bed, just big enough for the winch, similar to how the LT guys like to cut out portions of the bed for spare tire mounting. the centerline of the winch drum would be about even with the plane of the bed, which would put the fairlead just above the high clearance hitch. the fairlead mount would best be integrated into the bumper, but the winch would most easily mounted with the addition of a new crossmember, seperate from the bumper.

edit: i may do this in the future, i jsut have other things that are higher priority.

 

Would it not be easier to go with a HC bumper that has the receiver on it and just get a winch on a cradle. So much cheaper that way and just remove the winch when not winching. I believe jandrews is using a setup like this.

 

What if you mounted the winch further forward, like where the front of the spare tire would be in it's stock position (assuming you've already accepted that there's no way you're going to keep the spare under the bed with this setup). That way you could actually have the receiver built into the bumper and maybe put the winch fairlead above the bumper (like where you'd insert the rod to lower your spare tire currently). I'm not a fabricator, just throwing ideas out there.

 

that's a good bare bones approach that will get the job done. problem is if you burry your rear or have some other situation where you can't get to your hitch. a hitch cradle witll need almost 2 feet of clearance behind the truck to be mounted on the trail. I much prefer integrated solutions. clean installs, no need to secure the winch when it's no mounted to the hitch, no wire connections to worry about, etc. if/when i do it to mine, i'll have in-cab controls like my front winch does. If you get to the point that you need to recover your vehicle with a winch, you've already got a lot going on, and therfore want the method of extraction to be as simple as possible, both for effectiveness, and safety.

 

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/97112-Expedition-Overland-2013-Tacoma-Build/page10

 

Yeah the spare tire is likely going to have to go.

You run into clearance issues with the swing outs though.

 

Plenty of room for a fairlead above that receiver!

 

Very very true. I guess I wrote that down but wouldn't go that route myself. Would certainly prefer a clean, streamlined install.

 

I've contemplated this for such a long time.. most people going with a HC rear don't have a spare under there anyway.. I think it would be a perfect fit for an 8k lb winch and let the cable spool from the bottom of the winch.