$70 winch mount, done.

Howdy all. I had planned on eventually buying a nice winch bumper for my $200 tacoma but in the end, I'm cheap with my cheap project vehicles. So I decided to build a mount and still use the factory bumper. I saw a few threads about using a front hitch mount as a base but decided I didn't like the amount of ground clearance it ended up using. So I pulled the front bumper to see how it attached and did a little quick brainstorming.

Then off to Harbor freight for a winch plate to build off off. While I was there I found an open box 9k badlands winch. I'd planned on going with an Engo, but after a little haggling with the store manager I picked up the badlands for $160. For that price, the taco is getting a badlands.

The plate came in around $40 and with an additional $30 in steel from the local welding shop I'm winched for $230 and about a week of off/on (mostly off) work. I still have to put the radiator stone guard back on and decide if I'm going to mount the solenoid pack under the hood or on the winch. But the weather is nasty and I won't be driving my car tomorrow so everything had to be physically together tonight.

If there's any interest I'll post the in progress pics. Otherwise here she is in all it's cell phone not the best pics glory

 

Good job on keeping the winch tight on the truck! What did you end up welding to on your front end? I ended up making my own crossmember from the frame when I made mine. Did you need to do something similar?

 

That looks really nice!

 

I made a new cross member out of some 4" angle welded together to make a t-beam and then cut to fit around the truck. I welded the stock mounts in better and upgraded the olts, them finished withsome tack welds between the fram and new cross. The tacks are so/so, not an easy place to weld.

Rough cuts


Test fit


Done


Im not the best welder but the beam is welded along the entire perimeter plus 5 windows cut on the back side to secure in the middle as well. She's stout. I went through about 2 rolls of wire on this project.