Kiwi
08-22-2005, 02:25 PM
Not one to be persuaded by reason, or sanity, for that matter, I undertook the challange of mounting a 9k winch on the Sorento.
For starters, modern vehicles such as this were'nt ever really meant to be mated up with some sort heavy duty winch bumper. Hence the advent of shiney, but worthless, plastic bumpers. Since I already did away with the lower 2/3's of the bumper, the shiney and new part no longer applied to me.
So, took out the handy sawzall, and proceeded to remove the front crossmember. Amazing how nicely a good saw blade can go through a steel frame. I then welded in a re-enforcement piece, out of the way. I then made up some frame extension brackets that were welded into the frame. Next, I made the winch tray out of 1/4 plate.
Of course, all of this work would be for naught if my already approach angle challanged Sorento were to give up any more degrees. So the winch was mounted higher up and tucked in, which meant once again turning to the sawzall and removing a front section of the body, then welding back in some re-enforcements. Piece of cake. Well, considering I had never fabed anything before, and my tools were limited to an angle grinder, chop saw and small drill press, anlong with my MM 210, and my workshop was the driveway and a couple of old sawhorses, and it was like 100+ degrees out and I was working on it for 4 days, ok, so maybe it wasn't exactly a piece of cake. But it turned out real nice like in the end! :D
Making some measurments for the frame extension brackets:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_001.jpg
New crossmember in place:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_003.jpg
My 'workshop' :
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_006.jpg
Frame extension brackets:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_007.jpg
Body section cut out and re-enforced:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_008.jpg
Welded in frame bracket:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_009.jpg
Finaly, it's done:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_010.jpg
Well, mostly. Still want to put parts of the bumper back on under the headlights, need to modify the skid plates, and of course, wire the thing up!
For starters, modern vehicles such as this were'nt ever really meant to be mated up with some sort heavy duty winch bumper. Hence the advent of shiney, but worthless, plastic bumpers. Since I already did away with the lower 2/3's of the bumper, the shiney and new part no longer applied to me.
So, took out the handy sawzall, and proceeded to remove the front crossmember. Amazing how nicely a good saw blade can go through a steel frame. I then welded in a re-enforcement piece, out of the way. I then made up some frame extension brackets that were welded into the frame. Next, I made the winch tray out of 1/4 plate.
Of course, all of this work would be for naught if my already approach angle challanged Sorento were to give up any more degrees. So the winch was mounted higher up and tucked in, which meant once again turning to the sawzall and removing a front section of the body, then welding back in some re-enforcements. Piece of cake. Well, considering I had never fabed anything before, and my tools were limited to an angle grinder, chop saw and small drill press, anlong with my MM 210, and my workshop was the driveway and a couple of old sawhorses, and it was like 100+ degrees out and I was working on it for 4 days, ok, so maybe it wasn't exactly a piece of cake. But it turned out real nice like in the end! :D
Making some measurments for the frame extension brackets:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_001.jpg
New crossmember in place:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_003.jpg
My 'workshop' :
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_006.jpg
Frame extension brackets:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_007.jpg
Body section cut out and re-enforced:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_008.jpg
Welded in frame bracket:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_009.jpg
Finaly, it's done:
http://www.shadowlakes.com/winch/index/images/IMG_010.jpg
Well, mostly. Still want to put parts of the bumper back on under the headlights, need to modify the skid plates, and of course, wire the thing up!