Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I need peoples opinions on if the place im planning on mounting my winch will be strong enough. Basically i did RUF conversion on zook a while ago, and replaced the round bar crossmember up the front with some 50x100x2.5 RHS with the plans on mounting a winch on it later by squeezing RHS between the winch and two plates, as well as bolts and crush tubes (which would go on outside of RHS, no need to drill holes).

Thinking about it now, im not quite sure it will take the load of a fully laden zook on the side of a hill with a 9500lb winch. I have been roughly snatched out many times using snatch straps wrapped around the crossmember and it hasnt bent if that helps.

I did the RUF by extending the zook chassis rails with 100x50x2.5, then plated them either side with 5mm flatplate that extended a little up the chassis, avoiding use of vertical welds.

I have included some pictures of how i did the RUF conversion which will help.


This is the RHS chassis rail.


This is the LHS chassis rail.


Where i plan on mounting the winch. Of course it will be mounted higher to be in centre of RHS, but my stands werent tall enough.


RHS crossmember, didnt really have a choice but to use vertical welds here, but it was welded to the 5mm plate so i figured it was ok. Main thing im worried about is the RHS bending.

are you bolting right through through the rhs? will it crush the rhs at all? this wiould be my main concern.

The crossmember on the front of mine also has two plates which bolt across each corner to brace it against the chassis rails.

but other than that I would think its fine. A winch is only held on by 4 bolts and most tow points by two bolts, so as long as its solid and welded well it should be fine. but maybe some crush tubes for the bolts?

I made mine beefy as and was probably over kill.

Yes I am planning on crushtubes, but since the bolt spacing is 114mm for the winch, and the height of RHS is 100mm, the tubes will be on the outside of the RHS, so wont be weakening it by drilling. It wont crush the RHS.
I was thinking of running braces that attatch to the back of the plates that have the bolts and crush tubes, then on an angle back toward the rear of vehicle and then use same plate and crush tube method to attach it to the actual chassis rails.
Heres a crappy pic of what im blabbing on about

'feet' backwards would have to be the weekest of all the mounting methods. feet down up or forward would be better. and i hope you are doing more with those shackle mounts.

Those shackle mounts are just as strong as OEM, and have survived many many jumps, most accidental like hitting two humps in sand which i didnt see at about 100+kph, talk about airborne.

joeblow wrote:'feet' backwards would have to be the weekest of all the mounting methods. feet down up or forward would be better. and i hope you are doing more with those shackle mounts.

joe is right, reverse mounting would be the weakest way to mount your winch.

If i was you, I would weld 5 mm plate to the bottom of the chassis and your cross member.

then bolt down through the plate.

would double as a bash plate and protect your winch.

Shadow wrote:

joeblow wrote:'feet' backwards would have to be the weekest of all the mounting methods. feet down up or forward would be better. and i hope you are doing more with those shackle mounts.

joe is right, reverse mounting would be the weakest way to mount your winch.

If i was you, I would weld 5 mm plate to the bottom of the chassis and your cross member.

then bolt down through the plate.

would double as a bash plate and protect your winch.

this was what i did pretty much. but rather than welded it to the chassis I had 8 ht bolts to the chassis rail and cross member some in shear and some in tension, then the winch feet down on the plate. if you can get the damn search function to work you could see my basic drawings. but its only an iddy biddy zuk so it will probably be ok

the braces on my lux are a plate which bolts onto the bottom of both the chassis rail and cross member.

Hmm ok so my original thought of mounting to crossmember seems to be flawed, i love forums, lotsa good info.
Mocking it up, i can get the winch almost snug up against the radiator ontop of the chassis rails (hits the steering box first), then i might just make some mounts to horizontally bolt it up like that.

here is a basic drawing of my mount so it sits in fromt of the cross member where you wanted it. you could also use the same bracket to brace your front cross member to the side rails.