Hidden Winch Is Installed

Was much more effort than it needed to be. I cannot believe that CBI doesn't include instructions or even make a video or download available. No excuse for that with today's technology. The mount itself is great. Powdercoating is good, welds are perfect, but all but 2 of the smaller square washers had slag/powdercoating in the holes and had to be drilled to fit the bolts. Got it wrapped up in about 8 hours, but had to run to Depot for SS hardware for the fairlead as the X20 fairlead bolts were too big the the factor 55. Also put in the ditch lights while I was in there.

 

Been thinking about it as well. Anyone have ideas for mounting a front license plate with this?

 

Thanks! I can't wait to put it to use.

 

The CBI kit came with a flip hinge. You would need to put a spacer above the fairlead to get the plate in front, but shouldn't be too hard. Alternately, you could build a bracket out of light steel or aluminium sheet that would bolt behind the fairlead as a mounting point.

 

FYI, I wondered and say the question asked without an answer, but you cannot mount a light bar in the bottom grate after this mount, at least with the x20. I don't think there's room. I am going to see about mounting one behind the grill, but it may interfere with being able to access the clutch on the winch I will probably look up some dimensions and mock one up to see if I can squeeze one in.

 

Also, protip for the ditch light install. Mount the lights on the mounts before mounting the mounts to the hood as it sucks trying to get them tight after. And for the love of everything holy, mark the hood alignment to the bracket with tape or something before removing the bolts. The tapered collar on the bolts that aligns the brackets to the hood do not fit through the brackets far enough to engage afterwards. If you don't mark it, you get to dick with it back and forth until you finally get it just right.

 

Cascade 4x4 makes a frame that flips over the opening.

https://www.cascadia4x4.com/product...ip-up-flip-down-license-plate-mounting-system

 

That one looks pretty good. You would need to fab a spacer still for that because the fairlead is not inset so it would need to sit away from the bumper by a couple inches depending on your fairlead and hook choice.

 

How much weight is added to the front end? Stock suspension? Any sag?

I love the hidden winch look. I may end up with a custom built hidden recovery /hitch bar in this location if my buddy ol' pal fabrication guy ever had the time!

 

Looks good, link to product?

 

I really like the C4 fab low pro winch bumper but, this is even better. Looks really good.

 

Winch was a good 60lbs. Mount was maybe 30. The crash bar and hardware is maybe 20, so probably a net gain of 70 lbs. I should have taken better measurements, but I think it dropped a little over 1/8".

 

I ordered it from here because shipping was free and I got a popup with another 5% when buying. They were the cheapest I found before the 5%. Seem like good people.

https://aventuron.com/products/cbi-offroad-3rd-gen-tacoma-hidden-winch-mount

 

whoops...linked the wrong one. this goes behind the fairlead.

https://www.cascadia4x4.com/products/flipster-v2-winch-license-plate-mount-made-in-usa-canada

 

Also, yes, stock suspension at the moment. I have a skids and sliders being fab'd currently, so I am sure I will be adding suspension.

 

That's kind of what I envisioned. I like the flip idea. I am glad I don't have front plates, but I would do that if I needed one.

 

Looks solid nice job

 

Thanks. I tried to offset the weight of the winch with driver blood loss during the install lol.

 

clean

 

I debated a lot. I like the stock bumper look and that ultimately won out. The low pro bumper would be nice for the recovery points, but is a lot more weight.