4x4Wire's TrailTalk Forums: Custom Winch Mount Finally built

Here is my buildup that was just completed this past weekend. I am very happy with it and Jarret did a great job. I highly recommend him to anyone who needs fab work done who is in the East TN area.

Well it all began with me wanting a winch, but the Montero didnt really have much of anything available aftermarket for a mount. It is a Unibody, as are most newer vehicles it seems. So that presented some what of a challenge.

I know most people say just get an ARB bumper and put it on, but my wife didnt like the looks of the ARB bumper on the front. There are lots of straight lines on the ARB, and if you havent noticed there isnt ANY straight style lines on the Montero.Its all curves. So thats where they custom mount came to mind. Eventually down the road there will be a custom tube bumper fabbed up to replace the tupperware one on there now.

Since it was a Unibody the mount needed to be structurally sound and able to take the pull of a winch safely. After we got the bumper off we saw that the mount could be built afterall without too much difficulty.

There are two front supports that were pretty decent metal that looked like frame coming to the front(even though they were still unibody technically) They had been stamped and spot welded and had a lip that had to be cut off to get a flat surface to weld to.

The porta-band served as a invaluable tool for this project and did 95% of the cutting with ease and extreme convienience.

This is the seam after its been cut

Then welded

Then there was some test fitting and some brainstorming for the best approach to the whole idea

Starting to cut the main pieces of metal up and getting them welded together to start the fab work

With the cradle sat on there to get ideas on gussetting and placement of braces it was noticed that there was a lot more room to make bigger gussetts to strengthen it up more. Orinally 5/8" gussets were put in the rear as you can barely see in this pic

But it was decided that bigger is always better and it made it a lot stronger with the bigger ones. Plus it looked better.

After the gussetting was done it was getting closer and closer to getting done. It just needed the fairlead mounts to finish it, which were fabbed up pretty easily in the front and then it was ready for primer/paint. So the underside was painted and then it was put on the vehicle and welded in place and then the top and front surfaces were painted.

Here it sits permanently attached and painted.

During the welding process the metal had drawn both sides of the mount up and made it slightly U shaped. Since the plate in the middle that the winch was actually sitting on had only been welded on the top, it drew it upwards. After seeing that it was decided to add a piece of angle iron underneath to give it more strength and draw it back true. You can see this piece of angle iron on the very bottom.

To tie into the bumper underneath the mounting plate, there are two plates welded to it and then gussetted to the bottom of the winch mount to give it more rigidity. This picture is taken underneath the mounting plate looking up from the bottom at those braces.

Then we mounted the fairlead and pulled the cable through and attached the hook and it was finally looking like a great winch mount.

Reassembly went well and them bumper and guard went over it easily. It looks like it was a factory OEM optioned mount from the front because it fits so perfect. Here are the pics of the finished project.

Again a BIG THANKS to Jarret for the great work and its a job that I am finally glad to see completed. Now its time to move on to other mods for it, as they never seem to end and a rig is never really complete. Theres always something else to do on it. :lol: :lol:

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03 Montero XLS, OME 2"suspension lift,Full skid plates, Extended Diff/transfer breathers. 34 LTB's, Winch w/syn rope, Locked front/rear.

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