My DIY 80$ winch mount, high clearance cross member approach

Greetings! This is my approach to mounting a 12k Badlands ZXR winch (paid 209$ brand new, with a steel line that I replaced with a 100ft synthetic rope) using a harbor freight winch mount plate and about 20$ worth of steel(. I was looking to move the low hanging front cross member in the process. All steel I used was 1/4” to match the winch plate and all done with an angle grinder and a mig welder. Majority of the time spent was planning the strategy. I wanted to keep the stock bumper to not murder aerodynamics and obviously not spending ridiculous amounts of money on a heavy bumper that ends up being a bolt on stuff secured with 3 yanks bolts(counting the extra amount paid for side brazes and 1 extra bolt) Here are the pictures. I already stress tested everything with no movements cracks or crazy bs. Cheers!


As you can tell I had to cut the skid plate and add a 2.5” of 3/16” steel and correct to the new angle.

Ask the if you have any questions, and yes all the interior portions of the cross member are fused to the frame and reinforced.

 

Few extra pics

 

Looks good. I'll be looking at this again.

 

Solid, let me know if any questions brotherrrr

 

Looks nice man good set up