How the heck do I go about mounting this winch on my 2004 FX4?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

 

Several options. None of which are all that inexpensive... You can use a winch bumper like a Buckstop / Road Armor, or a winch mount / brush guard like the Warn Trans4mer / MileMarker... You might want to talk to a local 4x4 shop to see if they might be able to fabricate a mount for you....

 

You mean all the options would be expensive? And yeah I never realized how difficult it would be to actually mount the damn thing.

 

I believe that Warn makes a hidden bumper winch mounting kit that installs behind your stock bumper.

 

Yes Warn does offer a hidden winch mount for the '04 and '05. It uses a special short spool winch in order to clear everything....

 

Does that fit an '06? It looks like it should, though it is not listed.

Edit: Never mind. I see that the gap is smaller on the '06, so it would not work. Bummer.

 

Just swap the bumper, brackets etc... from an '04 '05 and you should be good...

 

i built a tray for my winch and put it behind the bumper in between the frame rails. Not hard to make at all and in expensive.
Although you will have to cut out an area in the bumper for the line to go through, but id doesn't look bad.

 

So if I buy the warn kit I can still use my stock bumper and it will still look stock? Also can I bolt any winch to it?

 

It will still look stock, you might see the fairlead through the bumper hole but i don't think they even make it anymore,
its ridiculously expensive, you have to use the special winch for it and the winch only has a 50ft line. Kinda small if you ask me. i would get the milemarker winch mount to be honest.



they still make it, its $1400

 

Good god in heaven its $1400 for a winch mount?

 

Ha. It includes the winch, also. An XD9000.

 

Yes it will still look, relatively stock. And no you can't bolt just any winch up to it. There isn't a ton of space behind the bumper, which is why the Warn kit uses the short spool winch I mentioned earlier. They had to modify a winch to make it fit...

For what it's worth, I am saving my pennies (okay nickles, dimes, quarters, dollar billls, $10s etc...) for a Buckstop bumper / winch mount. To heck with looking stock. I want something to scare the Miata driving crowd out there...

 

Did you really expect to buy a winch and screw it to your hood or something? Although the fact that you're considering a $349 12K pound winch threw a red flag as to how much you probably think a professional winch setup should cost anyway.

 

The MileMarker mount seems to have come way down in price recently...

http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sk...ries&intcmpid=

Well worth the $$...

You might want to seriously rethink the particular winch you are looking at though... You don't want your winch giving you rude surprises...