I was actually just transporting them. They aren't installed - though my kids want me to!

 

One of the advantages of hosting your own pics. You can do stuff like this to one post trolls:

 

OK, thanks. I had hooked into a thick chain around the base of a big tree so I was confident it would be fine. My logic was that if it snapped anywhere in front of the blanket, I wouldn't care how fast it was going or where it went, but I wanted to slow the cable if it was headed towards the direction of me or the truck. I'm confused though, if I had the blanket close to the hook with 75 feet of line out and it snapped at say... 50 feet away from the winch, then the blanket wouldn't do any good and I have 50ft of steel cable with a lot of kinetic energy headed at me and the truck, right? Is there some physics principle I missing here? Maybe the cable unwinds on the drum a little to stall the energy?

 

If your cable breaks at 50 ft then you should not be using that cable. The weak link is at either end. If it comes off the drum then it will go away from you/the truck. Plus you should always leave at least 4 to 6 wraps on the drum, never spool out all the way to the end of the cable. Now on the other hand if it breaks at the hook or comes unhooked under load, then you have alot of energy comming at you. What the blanket does is make the cable drop to the ground. By hitting/draging on the ground it will loose all that energy. If you don't have a weight on the cable then it can and will go where ever it wants, through the windshield or radiator. If you are in the path of travel it could literally take off an arm or a leg, even slice you in two. Kinda like shooting a bow and arrow and releasing the bow instead of the arrow!

If you want put a blanket at the mid point and the hook end (a little overkill) that would be OSHA safe!

Glad you didn't take my comment the wrong way.
Happy winching!

 

That is the piece I was not thinking about. Thanks!

 

I added some round stock (formerly a side impact door beam from the turbo SC300 - LOL) and a gusset. Everybody happy now?

 

Good to see....that will help a lot.

 

I think it looks pretty stout. Good job!
I have a buddy who has a 74 F150 he bought when we were kids still has it 30 something year later.. He built a winch bracket for that truck super gnarly. 1/4' Steel Tube and plate. I've seen the guy mow down some incredible stuff. Fences trees a few cars. One time he forgot to set the brake in that truck at the boat dock and it rolled into the lake up to its roof. incredible the abuse its taken. 4 engines and over 400 thousand very HARD miles and he still uses it to take feed to his horses..
heres a picture of it

 

that is hilarious! great trolling, OP! dont let the haters get to ya. They wish they had a Ford

 

It looks great to me.

There are always people who will tell you they can built it better in half the time. If it's built, tested and your happy with it that is what counts.

 

That looks a bit better I wasn't saying anything about your work being crappy but I have seen peoples winches get ripped off their trucks before. Better off being safe than sorry and when it comes to a winch I mean you don't wanna chance too much there is a lot of tension on that cable when you start to spool it in...

 

Exactly. Peace of mind too.

Although, a sadistic part of me would love to see that thing rip through the front bumper!

 

can we get a picture of the truck without the winch and just the 2" reciever hole hanging out the front of the truck? id like to see where it comes out may do this to my truck tomorrow haha

 

Good lord I'm glad you at least gusseted it up... Still, Not sure what the thicknesses of material are but sure dont look like much.

 

i got a question for ya. why do you take 8 bolts out to take the bumper off and not the 4 21 mm mounting bolts??