My new front winch bar ( FINISHED )

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:12 pm

bought a winch for the beast and decided we better make a new front bar to house it. Its not quite finished as it needs welds ground back and powder coating. Its been made to be a bolt on so i can swap it to another zook when this one dies.

Its nice and strong but no where as heavy as a normal steel winch bar. Still gotta bend up a hoop to go over the winch to mount lights and antenas on and to protect the winch a bit more.

what youz think??

Post by **want33s** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:51 am

Good work so far... I would suggest some extra reinforcement though... Like this...

Jas.

Post by **moose** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:16 am

nice bar !!!
now , more info & pics of the bike !!!!!

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:58 am

the bike is a mini chopper. mate bought it so he could use it as a display for custom trailers he is starting to make for harleys and the like. Goes prettty hard but doesnt like to corner

.

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:04 am

bar has been made to bolt on and off easy. Not keen on welding anything in permanent as i doubt this will be my only sierra. We have crush tubes to go into chasis rails. Te front cross member has been sleeved for extra strength and we may even make some sort of bracket to bolt onto it aswell. Still have a bit to do to it b4 its finished.

Anyone else have any pics of their winch bar mounting points?

Post by **Toecutta** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:04 am

Forget the bike, I want to know about the crazy induction system you have going on with those big pipes under the bonnet

Post by **want33s** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:11 am

built4thrashing wrote:bar has been made to bolt on and off easy. Not keen on welding anything in permanent as i doubt this will be my only sierra. We have crush tubes to go into chasis rails. Te front cross member has been sleeved for extra strength and we may even make some sort of bracket to bolt onto it aswell. Still have a bit to do to it b4 its finished.

I can remove my front bumper and winch bar complete with winch in about 15 minutes by undoing about 16 bolts. Nothing is welded to chassis.

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:23 am

I agree, if you only use the 4 factory holes on the end of the chassis you WILL winch the bumper off the front of the car, no question. That's why ARB bars bolt to the bumper brackets as well.

Want33's solution looks good if you don't want to weld the chassis.

The front of the Sierra chassis is very flexible and was never designed to take winching load, especially from a 9000lb winch. It looks to me that the winch cradle itself isn't really designed to self support- IMHO it looks like it is there to hold the fairlead in position. the cradle looks to me like like it was designed to bolt down onto chassis rails or similar. It's possible that if side loaded, the cradle could distort and bend the end of the chassis.

I'll try explaining that differently -

If the winch mount is very stiff, it won't distort when loaded so it can be mounted to a flexible, weak chassis because it adds strength to the chassis like an additional crossmember.

If the winch mount is flexible, it needs to be bolted to a big, solid chassis which will take the load.

I hope you get what I mean - I't not bagging your work which looks clean, I lust thing you ned to look at the mounting locations and the rigidity of the cradle.

Highway star posted some photo's of his bar with u bolts around the crossmember to add support. This is another way of doing it (ARB did this too on the early vitara) but I would still like to see the force applied a bit further back along the chassis.

Steve.

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:44 am

winch cradle is made of 6mm plate steel and so are all bracket arms. still need to put som angle brackets on the underside for extra strength. It will be bolted onto the 4 front chasis holes and with 2 "U" bolt clamps around the reinforced and sleeved front cross member. (Cross member was sleeved with 3mm thick walled gal pipe and has been snatch strap tested and has never shown any signs of stress. Rayed eyelets are bolted to the ends of it near chasis as recovery pts)

Total weight when finished (including 12000lb winch) will be about 50kgs.

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:51 am

Should be OK if there is some bracing to help prevent it going like this /_/ if viewed from above.

12000lb

go easy on it.... you will have a lot of power to bend stuff there - including springs etc when you are stuck, even if not the chassis.

Personally, I would have been mounting that on the rear - the back of the chassis is stronger and the weight has less negative consequences back there. 6k should be plenty on the front. Each to their own - as I said, I'm sure it will work out fine.

Steve

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:02 am

the price was right so we got 2. came with mounting plate (which we cut down to fit),all wiring and an inbuilt remote system. Ebay is your friend

not bad winches. we got them cheaper than this coz we got 2. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WINCH-12000LB-20 ... dZViewItem

Post by **sierrajim** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:44 pm

Protect the winch, even if its with some light weight sheet to stop as much crap getting in there as you can. Quality winches are bad enough for gunking up with mud, let alone the cheaper alternatives.

Post by **suzuki boy** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:47 pm

Looks great!

Might have to come have a few beers one weekend and mock one up for mine!

Post by **11_evl** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:53 pm

how much of a discount did u get for buying 2??

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 7:25 pm

basically got the mounting brackets free. They seem pretty good and the guy even keeps spare parts if something breaks. gonna be a few weeks before i get finished as it still needs some extra mounting brackets welded on and then its off to get powder coated.

Post by **Puk** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:37 pm

Leave it painted red, it looks like a big smiley mouth!

Puk

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:30 pm

ok bar is now all ground back and mounted to front of chasis. still needs a few extra brackets underneath to strengthen up mounting but these ppics give you an idea.

Post by **Red_Zook** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:41 pm

Man that bars PIMP!! i love it!!! like the bends!

Post by **want33s** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:22 pm

I know you aren't finished but I noticed your solenoid box is mounted on top of the drum the same way as mine. Mine needs raising because the cable bunches and pushes it up if not wound onto the drum perfectly. Easier to fix yours now !!!!.
The winch body is cast aluminium and will smash if hit hard enough. I'd be putting something in front of it so you don't use the winch as a crumple zone.

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:37 pm

Plan is to make a hoop to go over winch body infront of where solenoid box is currently mounted to protect winch from frontal impacts. It will also give somewhere to mount lights and antenas. It will be bolt on so winch can be accessed for servicing.

soleniod box will eventually get relocated to under the bonnet to keep it high and dry but for now it will stay where it is.

Post by **dank** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:07 pm

Hey B4T hows it going? Bar looks the goods definitely! For some extra mounting strength have you thought about maybe sleeving the front cross member and then making up a mount that bolts to it just inside the chassis rails, maybe using some u bolts?

My new tyres just slightly scrub on the bumper outriggers but I'm hesitant to cut them off as they provide that extra little bit of strength. I've been thinking about sleeving it and then welding some new mounts to it just on the outside of the body mount and chassis mount which sould give it the same strength as standard....

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:17 pm

front crossmember is already sleeved with a thicker, stronger pipe and we are planning to do exactly what you have said.

40mm gal pipe fits just nicely into the front tube.
You can see in that 2nd pic that i have rated eyelets bolted to the stronger tube for use as recovery points.

When this is finished might have to have a go making a rear bar with a swing away tyre carrier.

Post by **built4thrashing** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 10:41 pm

bar is now complete and is getting painted in gloss black killrust. It will eventually get powder coated but will wait till mate has some stuff to get done aswell. gonna mount it back up tomorrow when paint is dry.

all pics are here but heres one for the lazy people

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/ ... nch%20bar/

Post by **built4thrashing** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:23 am

Finished it this morning. just need to wire it up and its ready for abuse.

Post by **sierrajim** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:57 am

Just a question, what are the small eyelets either side of the bar for? (the small gold anodised ones)

Oh yeah, what are you going to protect the fairlead with? Maybe get a steel one instead of the roller. Sitting out there i can't see it lasting long.

Post by **Potter** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:21 pm

[quote="built4thrashing"]Finished it this morning. just need to wire it up and its ready for abuse.

quote]

I have a bender at home and was looking at making a tube front bar, when i have bent tube it leaves small dints like the above pic, how do i stop that from happening?

Thanks

Sorry for the hijack Your bar loks awesome too....

Post by **just cruizin'** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:45 pm

You could put a U bolt around the front cross member through those flats you have pressed up against it.

Post by **cjdeane10** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:08 pm

Excellent Bar mate! Well Done!

Yeah, something like this would stand up to more punishment than the fairlead rollers:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WINCH-HAWSE-Fair ... dZViewItem

However, the fairlead does look better (bling, bling)

Post by **sierrajim** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:31 pm

Potter wrote:I have a bender at home and was looking at making a tube front bar, when i have bent tube it leaves small dints like the above pic, how do i stop that from happening?

Thanks

Sorry for the hijack Your bar loks awesome too....

Buy higher quality dies and use the correct size tube.

Cheap benders have problems for two reasons, 1. they rarely fit the tube correctly 2. they generally press bend as opposed the the better quality benders that draw the tube through as they bend.

opw.com.au will be able to help with dies.

Post by **Potter** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:48 pm

sierrajim wrote:
Potter wrote:I have a bender at home and was looking at making a tube front bar, when i have bent tube it leaves small dints like the above pic, how do i stop that from happening?

Thanks

Sorry for the hijack Your bar loks awesome too....
Buy higher quality dies and use the correct size tube.

Cheap benders have problems for two reasons, 1. they rarely fit the tube correctly 2. they generally press bend as opposed the the better quality benders that draw the tube through as they bend.

opw.com.au will be able to help with dies.

The dints arent from the dies, they are from the rollers i think.

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My new front winch bar ( FINISHED )

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