Winch Access

Does anyone have a 3rd gen Tacoma with a winch installed in either a hidden winch mount + factory bumper, or with an aftermarket bumper? I’m curious how easy the spooling lever is to reach from the top through the engine bay.

 

I have the slimline bumper by southern offroad and there is a cutout to reach in and turn the lever. It is also reachable from the hood with a good stretch.

 

That’s what I’m wondering - if I keep the stock bumper, there would not be a cutout for access. Top down from the hood would be the only way in. Sounds like it’s not easy, but is possible?

 

All our bumpers have cutouts in the face for accessing the free spool without opening the hood and reaching.

 

That’s cool - thanks. But I’m probably not doing a whole bumper so I can save the weight (and $$$). The armor aspect isn’t really needed for me. Unless you have a $400 aluminum bumper.

 

We have our Stingray Lo-Pro bumper as well, basically just the lower winch mount style. Weighs about 80lbs.

 

Nothing to see here. Wrong bumper type.

 

ARB bumper here with access door that allows for easy access

 

Thanks for the input guys, but I’m NOT going with a full bumper. My question was how easy is the free spool lever to reach from the top when you don’t have an aftermarket bumper with an access hole.

 

As a point of refernece my free spool lever is just below the cross brace if you look under your hood you should see it. Ill post a pic shortly.

If you can reach that cross brace without too mich effort you should be ok.

 

How tall are you? How long are your arms? How strongly do you believe in the power of the all-mighty?

 

I have no access from the front and is not an issue to get to the clutch lever with hood open.

 

I have the CBI hidden winch mount. Depending on the winch and it clutch lever location you can get to it two different ways. There is a lot of room with the hood open to just reach down and grab it from there. The second option it to cut part of the bumper that has slats in it where some put a light bar to reach through that without opening the hood to get to it.

 

6ft. Less than 6ft. And I slept in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

How do you like that CBI mount? I was looking at that one today.

 

I liked the CBI mount a lot. I bought it through low range offroad delivered to my door for less than $400. The only thing that I didn't like about the CBI mount was the lack of directions. However they were very responsive by email and willing to take by phone also.