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Winch mounting. 1/4 vs 3/16

Pyleit

Pyleit

Well-known member
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
825
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418
2006 LJ. Has a 1/4 inch winch plate mounted to a 3/16 bumper. I am thinking its overkill and I could just mount the winch directly to the 3/16 bumper? Thoughts? It will be my sons 1st vehicle and dont want him killing a bus full of nuns with a projectile winch.
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What is your fairlead going to bolt to?
 
Ill weld 2 tabs on for the fairlead mount
 
Pretty sure those curry stubbies have bolt holes in the bumper for winches. Has been 15 or so plus years since I’ve looked at one though. Either tabs for the fair lead or several companies make fair lead holders that can be mounted to anything.
 
white-rhino said:
I like the fact that the winch mount gets the mounting in the 3/16 bumper out closer to the frame rails, which means it won't deflect as much as if the winch was just mounted to it closer to the center.
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Even though the 1/4" winch mount is only using the 4 winch bolts?
 
I have personally taco’d a 3/16 bumper, dont recommend it
 
I think you could get away with mounting it right to the bumper. Use some wide thick washers on the bottom.
 
I have a habit a doubling up 3/16 if I'm not using 1/4.

Either stitch weld a 1 or 1.5" wide piece front to back inline with the winch holes or I use triangular gussets spanning from just behind the rear hole to the face of bumper, sometimes also tieing into the underside lip. All depending on the design of bumper.
 
Shape is the key to strength.

Where youre going to mount is flat and wide, it has a bent lip on the back and obviously the front


Slip another flat plate on the under side about 1-2" wider than the bolt pattern and if possible get a lip on it and run it.

Hell, cut the fairlead lip off that crap plate, use the plate as i stated, then weld the fairlead lip to the top of the bumper.
 
The only reasons I was thinking of removing it is to save some weight and it looks cleaner without it. I'll leave it alone for now. 👍
 
Pyleit said:
Even though the 1/4" winch mount is only using the 4 winch bolts?
Click to expand...
When bending plate, the math goes up in the square of the thickness.
.188 squared = .0353
.250 squared = .0625
.0625/.0353 = 1.77

In simple math, it takes 1.77 times the force to bend the 1/4" plate vs the 3/16 plate.

Is this a big deal in your application? Probably not. All you Utah folks just use your rigs for poser shots anyway. :flipoff2:
 
The 3/16" material isn't the problem, it is the size of the unsupported span that's the issue. Weld some bulk head plates into the bumper near the mounting points of the winch and you'll be golden; even 1/8" will work.

I welded some 3/16" mounting tabs just big enough to clear a socket to a 2"x3"x3/16" tubular crossmember to mount a winch and they held up just fine despite some hard pulls. Unfortunately I never took any pictures of it.
 
My bumper is 3/16th and after a couple Years it's got a Lil bend/twist up in the back from hard winching
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The forces that winch would exert on that 3/16" plate would cause it to want to bow up and twist out. I would not underkill the design of a winch plate at all. Take the extra thickness.
 
I'd either cut the excess 1/4" from either side of the winch mount off or stick bolts/weld through the holes.

Excess weight is one thing, but excess weight for almost no reason is another. If they are only tied together by the winch mounting holes it's not helping much.

That LJ is going to be heavy, I wonder if the mount was added because the bumper was flexing?
 
Bolt it all together and do something more important with your time. Weight is negligible.
The fairlead looks a little sharp for rope. Get a bigger radius one. If it’s taller shim the winch plate up till the fairlead clears.
 
HYDRODYNAMIC said:
Bolt it all together and do something more important with your time. Weight is negligible.
Click to expand...

+20lbs is alot for a 4.0 jeep! 😆 I am not doing any of the work, I am supervising and guiding my son as it is going to be his 1st vehicle. We will leave it in place, and bolt the ends of the 1/4" down to the 3/16 plate and carry on. We have plenty more work to do together before he is old enough to start driving.
 
Looks like everyone is assuming that's just a big unsupported plate. I'd say it's probably designed to have a winch bolted to it and should have some bracing underneath. If not, either adding bracing or just leaving that plate and adding the outside bolts as mentioned would be the way to go.
 
It doesn't look like the winch plate is even bolts to anything at the ends?

I'd make two small brackets that welded to the crossmember tube under the bumper if you could. Tie the four mounting bolts for the winch into those two brackets. That would be much stronger and lighter than just about anything else. Install will be a bit of a pain in the rear.

You will have to add something to hold the fairlead, but that doesn't need to be a 30lb winch plate.....
 
I bought a TJ mount in 1/4” plate just like that off Amazon. I did cut the fairlead off to burn in an 8274 mount from TMR. The base plate flexes like crazy… I haven’t ripped the winch off yet but I won’t be surprised if it eventually cracks. I could probably toss some angle iron on the underside and burn it on to make it a bit more rigid but at the end of the day it s just those puny little bolts and two sway bar mount bolts holding it in place…
 
Just how strong do you keyboard engineers think the aluminum winch housing is? If the bumper flexes without something to keep it rigid it will break the winch where the bolts go into it due to uneven loading.
 
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