Okay I have a 2003 Mazda B4000 and I am trying to find a winch plate so I can mount my winch to my frame. I have a 3 in bodylift to install. Will the body lift cause anything to get into the way and where can I get a winch plate mount? thanks

 

i have one designed and built by a guy on here but i dont think he's making them anymore, im probably going to sell mine in a little while..

i would actually recommend a front receiver with a plate to put the winch on that goes in the receiver...

 

I got a winch plate from Harbor Freight. It was free when I bought my winch, but I think it costs about 30 bucks otherwise. You should be able to mount it to your frame with few issues if you plan on welding it or something... Though it probably won't be pretty.

 

I just dont like that setup plus I have a brush guard as of now but if worst comes to worse I guess I will take it off. If you plan on getting rid of your I might be interested but will probably cost too much to get it shipped. I just need some Ideas I am sure I can weld something but would rather just bolt it on because that is a lot easier. and another question do you know if the front valience will be in the way with a 3 in body lift?

 

uhm.... about that..

i cut the center sections out because it was a pita to get the hooks to fit through nicely... then this happened.


so i dont exactly have any valences, i managed to break the other side off the same night..

the problem is there's no way in hell i could make that same climb with the winch plate on there

 

wow. so it would probably be better to just rip the valence off instead of trying to fabricate it a little bit. maybe I will just fabricate and weld my own winch mount. I just didnt want to have to do that to a 2003 but oh well dont have the money for a winch bumper. Do you know how big of a pain it would be to fabricate the mount or is it too easy?

 

well it all depends on what you do and how much you care, i didnt have fog lights any more so i wasn't really worried, and that was a pretty steep hill where the front locker probably did a significant part in getting me up..

if your just a mild offroader i wouldnt worry about tearing the front end apart in preparation of destroying everything..

is your truck the one where you can take pretty much the whole bumper off and leave that chrome tab on top?

 

you know I am not too sure about that but I do believe it is. I am in Afgahnistan right now so its not like I can go out in the driveway and look at it.

 

This would be the best route, you can take it on and off as needed, and would be more convinent

 

yea I know that would probably be the best thing but I baught a pretty big winch and it would be a pain to put it on there I would have to put it on blocks or call a buddy up just to get it up there. here is a link to the winch I baught:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...D25%26PO%3DOp1

I would prefer to put it on the front and hide it. plus I want to keep my brush guard. I was thinking about just fabricating my own but I dont want to have a weak weld and have something break.

 

well you just have to ask yourself what kind of terrain you wheel on? can you afford the winch sticking out? how often will you use it? etc...

then determine how much you care about the front end lol

 

get synthetic line and it won't be too heavy to be hauling it around on a receiver.

what does 88ft of 3/8" steel cable weigh?

cause 100ft of synthetic line only weighs like 3lbs

 

Trust me moveing 70lbs back and fourth is well worth the trouble , For one reason you kill your aproach angle . With the winch on front youll lose a noticable amount of mpgs . but the best reason for reciver say your stuck with nothing to winch to from the front but a perffect tree behind you , take it out and put it in the back reciever .

 

well you also have to look at it this way if you are wheeling and you get up on a hole and if you dont get through it then you got to get out dig out the reciever and put the winch on. so for that said if you needed to winch from the back but pretty much swamp it to where you can't even see your bumper then you might be SOL. I am just saying that it just makes more sense to have it mounted behind the bumper because you may not be able to negotiate the steeper areas because you need the winch on just in case you need help pulling yourself up but then you add that much more onto your bumper. I know I am not going to want to get out and slap the winch on while I am on a steep grade. I plan on doing some heavy off-roading. With that all said yes the reciever cradle is good if you are by yourself but when I go out and plan on getting stuck I will have a budy with me. I can see all the pro's and cons I am just set on the semi hidden mount. I was just curious on the pro's and cons. oh and about loosing the mpg's I am not too worried. If you plan on running 35's you shouldnt be too worried about mpg's. you loose a lot with that.

 

im getting <10... it really sucks haha

anyways, its all up to you, i thought. "eh it wont effect too much" now im like "that biach has got to go" lol

i'll deal with having to climb a hill with the receiver when the time comes, i have yet had to use it on my truck because i didnt make something.. the only time i used it was when i had one tire off the ground and i was pretty tipsy... oh yea and the 4wd wouldn't engage.. the rest of the times its been a jeep :D

i'll sell you mine haha

 

well you guys have been a big help but I am just going to stick with the frame mount. I am located in NC and there are a lot of "sink holes". the ones that you just cant seem to get through. I plan on trying to find the holes that swallow my truck up. Trust me there are a lot around my house. My budy last year had his blazer(6ins of lift and sitting on 36's) got into a hole that swalowed that thing. but anyhow I was thinking today about all the offroad stuff I got and I have a high lift jack and the winch kit that goes with it(freebie) because I knew some people that had an oversupply. lol. so with the winch mounted on the front and all my other goodies I dont need to worry cause I got a shckle reciever for my hitch and can just use my high lift jack as a come-a-long. what more do you need? I think I have it pretty much covered. now I just need a second job to pay for gas but oh wait that is what the wife is for. lol.

 

here is a picture and you can see the front but its a bad angle. Sorry the wife doesnt take good pics.


I plan on taking the fog lights out and hooking the switch up to the lights on my brush guard