Centre-mounted winch

Hi,

Any thoughts/ideas or experience with a centre-mounted winch?

i like the idea of not having a heavy winch and bumper mounted out front, reducing approach angle.

I've seen it mounted om Patrol GR's with great succes, but never on a Jimny.

Tom

Not one of you guys with any comment on this subject?

Guess I'll just have to do this by trial-and-error then

Run a rear mounted winch and weld a ring on a roll hoop/cage to route the winch rope through?. Far more versatile than a dedicated centre winch imo.

There is a problem with this approach on a Suzuki.

I once saw an SJ with a centre mounted winch which looped through a snatch block in the rear bumper passed through metal tubing and appeared out of the front bumper. Nice installation.

Later in the day I watched him winching, pushing a wall of mud in front of them - then suddenly the chassis folded in half! The truck was wrecked!

I've heard of this happening to other people too. It may be that the chassis was rotten? But I don't think there is sufficient strength in it to do this. You may get away with it - but the costs are high if it goes wrong!

I would keep the winch at the front - then it's pulling the chassis, in which direction it's pretty strong.

It may be that if you vectored the winch through a piece of heavy wall CDS, braced and gussetted to take the force, yAou could arrange for it to be pushing the front of the chassis (in effect). The tube takes the compression force and the chassis is in tension. Certainly possible!

Si

Thanks Si,

Well that's a thing I didn't think about. But I get your point.
Maybe I'll just mount it in the front then.

In a few weeks I'm heading off to the UK hoping to find a Jimny in usable condition. Then It will be easier to figure something out about a winch.

How strong is a Jimny chassis compared to an SJ chassis?

you could have a look on the off road armory forum at the big trayback build - that has a rear mounted winch that pulls both ways