Winch WARN 8274..best winch for Zuk

A little too tall and "in your face" for my liking - and the height forces you to mount it well forward, which can cause issues with the weight - compare that to a good low mount that can be tucked away, out of sight, behind the bumper.

having and install this WARN 8274 for years..and no mount problem or anything you have wrote

 Now trying to figure out the mounting.

When mounting your new winch, be aware of how much change you will be creating in your approach angle.  It does get frustrating beating the bottom of your new winch mount on ditches and rocks you had no problem climbing through/over.  So tucking it into grill and above bottom of bumper is better.
I made my winch mount out of a piece of  7" channel iron I had on hand.  Way to much overkill, and weight.  I would say go with one of the universal mounts and build from there.

Here is the last quick bumper winch mount we built.  (It helps to have access to a tubing bender.)  A lot better approach angle than my heavy duty bumper.

x2 with brd I changed my winch mount and flipped it higher and my approach angle gain was awesome... I yet have to hit it going through deep cross ditches when I figured that I would

having and install this WARN 8274 for years..and no mount problem or anything you have wrote

This may be one of those things that you have to experience personally to understand - your car is already so modified that you probably couldn't or wouldn't feel the difference, and since it appears to be a dedicated off road vehicle, it may also be a matter of you simply want/need the advantages of the high mount winch and are willing to accept the  disadvantages that come with it.

You're adding 100+ pounds of winch & cable, along with another 75~150 of mount/bumper to the very front of the vehicle - in your case well out in front of the vehicle - this added weight affects the way the vehicle rides, the way it handles and the way it steers - you HAVE to compensate for it with either stiffer springs or coil spacers (both of which have their own impact on ride & handling), but they can only correct the loss of ride height, the effects of the additional weight on the vehicle's center of gravity and it's effect on the vehicle's handling will still remain, and will still be felt - the vehicle will be nose heavy and have a tendency to wallow.

Here are a couple of commercially available low mount designs - just so that you can get an idea of what can be done with a low mount winch - the first is by Taubenreuther of Germany, and the mount incudes a front skid plate that distributes the pulling forces between the front of the frame rails and the lower cross member - this actually pulls forward & up - it accommodates most of the Warn low mount winches, and the winch fits between & below the frame rails and behind the factory bumper box reinforcement.



The impact on approach angle is minimal (as compared to a stock vehicle) and the added weight is kept low down and close in to the vehicle, thereby keeping the moment of inertia and it's effects on handling & steering as low as possible, the actual winch is out of sight reduces the possibility of theft & tampering.



Here's another one, this is from AFN in Portugal, since it is a full plate bumper, it's obviously going to be heavier than the Taubenreuther, but the winch is again mounted in between the frame rails and behind where the box reinforcement would have been.  This bumper also does not reduce the approach angle, the lowest part of it sits higher than that of the factory plastic bumper - the front tow loop, which passes through the factory bumper, passes below this one.

If I ever get around to completing my design it will probably be similar to the AFN in appearance, with the winch mounted in between the rails but "feet forward" as this allows thinner (and lighter) metal to be used whilst still maintaining adequate strength.

Thanks for all the replies.  I made a winch mount out of 1/8" walled 2x4 steel.  I used a harbor freight universal winch mount and mounted it even with the bottom of the bumper so, high.  I didn't want to lose any approach angle since my 4door sidekick only has a 3" lift and 30" tires.  The bumper weighs about 65 lbs and the Smittybuilt 9500 lb winch with synthetic rope supposedly weighs 48 lbs.  So total is around 115lbs.   Not too bad.  I can feel a little difference in handling but not bad.  The winch is really a lifesaver though.  The two best mods I've done are the winch and a rear locker!

Quote from: yuri on November 12, 2015, 06:02:34 AM

having and install this WARN 8274 for years..and no mount problem or anything you have wrote

This may be one of those things that you have to experience personally to understand - your car is already so modified that you probably couldn't or wouldn't feel the difference, and since it appears to be a dedicated off road vehicle, it may also be a matter of you simply want/need the advantages of the high mount winch and are willing to accept the  disadvantages that come with it.

You're adding 100+ pounds of winch & cable, along with another 75~150 of mount/bumper to the very front of the vehicle - in your case well out in front of the vehicle - this added weight affects the way the vehicle rides, the way it handles and the way it steers - you HAVE to compensate for it with either stiffer springs or coil spacers (both of which have their own impact on ride & handling), but they can only correct the loss of ride height, the effects of the additional weight on the vehicle's center of gravity and it's effect on the vehicle's handling will still remain, and will still be felt - the vehicle will be nose heavy and have a tendency to wallow.

Here are a couple of commercially available low mount designs - just so that you can get an idea of what can be done with a low mount winch - the first is by Taubenreuther of Germany, and the mount incudes a front skid plate that distributes the pulling forces between the front of the frame rails and the lower cross member - this actually pulls forward & up - it accommodates most of the Warn low mount winches, and the winch fits between & below the frame rails and behind the factory bumper box reinforcement.



The impact on approach angle is minimal (as compared to a stock vehicle) and the added weight is kept low down and close in to the vehicle, thereby keeping the moment of inertia and it's effects on handling & steering as low as possible, the actual winch is out of sight reduces the possibility of theft & tampering.



Here's another one, this is from AFN in Portugal, since it is a full plate bumper, it's obviously going to be heavier than the Taubenreuther, but the winch is again mounted in between the frame rails and behind where the box reinforcement would have been.  This bumper also does not reduce the approach angle, the lowest part of it sits higher than that of the factory plastic bumper - the front tow loop, which passes through the factory bumper, passes below this one.

If I ever get around to completing my design it will probably be similar to the AFN in appearance, with the winch mounted in between the rails but "feet forward" as this allows thinner (and lighter) metal to be used whilst still maintaining adequate strength.

That second photo looks very similar to my bumper, and when I was running on 30" tires I learned to approach obstacles at an angle so I could get past the bumper.  Now with 33" tires (1 1/2" of lift from the tires) the approach angle is not an issue.  The same could have been done by lifting the winch 1 1/2".
I didn't want to cut into the box reinforcement.