Front Winch...
- Thread starter 06B3030
- Start date
I decided to put an electric winch on the front of the tractor. I sold my Jeep that had a winch, which i used to pull equipment out of my basement. I went with a HF 5000# winch, as I don't expect to be pulling anything heavier than 500-600#.
First thing was to make a mount for the front of the tractor. I made a paper template so I could transfer the holes to my 1/4" plate. I tacked a length of 2 1/2" square tubing to the plate, and placed the winch on it to figure out how long it needed to be.
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With the length figured out, I removed it, and started welding up the rest of the mount.
A little "overkill" but that's how I roll!
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Next I needed to figure out how to fit the electrical up front by the battery.
I made a bracket to mount the solenoid next to the battery.
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Mounted the plate to the front along with the winch, and made my electrical connections.
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Cut a notch out of the bottom corner of the grille for the wires to go to the winch.
Covered the two cables with some wire loom to make it look neat. Mounted the controller connector right under the grill, attaching it to the cables.
This way it doesn't impede pulling the grille or side panel off if it were mounted to either one of those.
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Got rid of the wire line and rollers, and used synthetic rope an aluminum fairlead.
That gave me about an inch of clearance to the guard for the hydraulic lines.
Cut a piece of rubber mat from Tractor Supply to make a bumper for the d-ring.
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Ran a strap around a tree, and used a snatch block to route the rope back to the hook on the tractor.
Had no problem moving the tractor...should work out well for what I need it for.
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Pretty happy overall with the setup. Relatively inexpensive mod!
However...with the winch, I decided to install the 40 amp alternator upgrade kit.
The little dynamo wasn't going to cut it!
Looks a lot more "Sexy" with the little dynamo gone!!!
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You did a fine job. i would tell you that for the hook buffer at the fairlead I used a cheap hockey puck with a hole drilled in it. Works great if you feel you ever have to replace.