Damage while using winch on improperly installed Rough Country High Mount

[Rick Astley]

We needed some new excitement, we can only have so many "what trim should I pick" and "how to fit 37s" and "I color matched my shackles" threads.

Wait, wait, wait, what color shackles are you running now????

And more importantly, am I a poser for not keeping shackles out on the rig 24/7 but instead in the recovery gear bag?????

The winches are not mounting to the bumper, they are mounting in front of it. With most winch bumpers they are doing the same thing... mounting to the frame horns.

Warn
Factory FPP/Warn
Havoc off road
and LOD (optional) brackets

are the only ones that I know of that strengthen the mount. Any aftermarket bumper that doesn't have a different mounting/brackets will do the same thing as the RC mount.

To my understanding, only LOD is seeing the reinforcements separately. Or do you have info to supercede this?

I have the JCR with the winch mounted and with seeing this thread I'd rather pull the whole damn bumper to install reinforcements.

Sucks? Yup! But that's how it goes when on the "learning" portion of the curve as happens with a new chassis.

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[chtucker]

Wait, wait, wait, what color shackles are you running now????

And more importantly, am I a poser for not keeping shackles out on the rig 24/7 but instead in the recovery gear bag?????


To my understanding, only LOD is seeing the reinforcements separately. Or do you have info to supercede this?

I have the JCR with the winch mounted and with seeing this thread I'd rather pull the whole damn bumper to install reinforcements.

Sucks? Yup! But that's how it goes when on the "learning" portion of the curve as happens with a new chassis.

Yes they sell them separately, my point was, order and install them with your bumper. They are not included in the bumper purchase from LOD. They were not available when I made my winch mount. I spoke to Warn corporate and I looked into copying the Ford ones, in the end it was just easier to draw something myself.

 

[Tricky Dick]

Wait, wait, wait, what color shackles are you running now????

Active Orange obviously! But this is about the other posers.

 

[techdisaster]

Active Orange obviously! But this is about the other posers.

I color matched my whole recovery kit. Kingdom Off-road sells everything in a blue that closely matches Velocity Blue.

That makes me King poser.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I also considered utilizing the JKS kit to tie into for reinforcement, but then I remembered it just bolts on with 2 bolts from below. All it is designed to do is support that front body mount vertically. If you are tied in and start pulling on it with a winch you might see your whole front clip get yanked off. As someone else already pointed out, it does not sit flush to the side of the frame, but a good welder could fill the 1/4" gap (not me).

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

I color matched my whole recovery kit. Kingdom Off-road sells everything in a blue that closely matches Velocity Blue.

That makes me King poser.

Which would mean, of course, that you've also swapped out to KING coilovers as well?

 

[techdisaster]

Which would mean, of course, that you've also swapped out to KING coilovers as well?

This poser is too poor for that.

 

[Sitruc_btb]

I color matched my whole recovery kit. Kingdom Off-road sells everything in a blue that closely matches Velocity Blue.

That makes me King poser.

Got me beat. I only have an orange diff skid and orange shock skids to add some contrast to the VB.

 

[zuke]

I did not read the directions I took for granted they had you drill, sleeve and bolt through. So yeah, I think for the argument, it would be single shear, 4 times.

I took this when I was contemplating a plan of action when doing the IC. I would say same thickness all the way through.

I did look at it when I put my IC on. The frame has ridges/dimples in it as a crumple zone. I am not engineer but I can say that they look like crumple zones to me.

I took this pic because I have a JKS high clearance kit to put on and I needed to see how close it would be to my proposed winch mount bracket. The JKS kit goes to about the 4 1/2 inch mark in the pic, just after the second ridge/dimple back.

I know welding plates to this will not be a good thing if I get in a crash but I would rather have the peace of mind when I am in the woods using my winch to get me home than worry about how much damage it will do if I wreck the Bronc. That is just me. The Bronc is not a DD'er for me I have my F-150 for that.

The comparison shots I promised with the JKS already installed;

I'm showing a full 5 inches from the pad, and the pad still has the Ford nut plate on it, so probably more like 5.125 inches from the pad

A couple shots showing the gap on the side of the frame rail between the JKS body Mount and Frame;

The gap on the top of the frame is fairly substantial too;

Leaving the bottom as the only place you could get a really substantial mount contact weld to the frame. So I'm just not sure welding the JKS mount is practical, unles you maybe add some plates inbetween to fill some space.

On the fab Fours bumper, I forgot about these two horns that come out of the bumper and run under where the Skid Plate/intercooler mounts go;

These will add some strength to pulls to a point above the bumper, but won't do much for downward pulls. I'd still like to strengthen the pads.

Finally, I wanted to add a few shots of one of my TJ's Frame in this area... I don't want to start an arguement, But I love both Jeeps and Broncos, There are clearly some things that are better on the Jeep, and Better on the Bronco. Somebody said a manufacturer had told them the frame horns are about equivalent, and I gotta call BS on that.

The Bronco frame horns are made by taking a C-Channel Frame, and Boxing it in with a welded cap of thinner material, the TJ frame is made with and extruded and pressed single piece that is thicker material, pressed into the shape of the frame and seam welded. (Much the way HREW pipe is made); The TJ Frame extends well past the grill, and includes a "torque tube" welded into it. The extension provides a solid place to put a winch plate that is going to be pusking and pulling directly on the frame rails, with much less leverage than the Bronco setup

TJ Frame Horn;

TJ Frame Material Thickness;

Two Piece Bronco Frame horn;

I don't have either my JKU or JT at the house today, so can't get photos of those frame horns, Both of those have "crush zones" similar to the Bronco, While the TJ doesn't. I'm pretty sure they both are more substantial than the Bronco frame, and if anyone is interested, I should be able to get pics of the JK frame rails tomorrow evening, and the JT frame rails over the weekend.

 

[Deleted User 5719102]

Well I purchased and am waiting on my Rough Country hidden mount w/PRO12000S winch. I will see how this works out. I may have to modify for strength, but I may wait until I use it to see if there is a weak area with it. The picture below represents my actual setup on mine, with the 5" lift and frame horn towing points and bumper.

https://www.roughcountry.com/hidden-winch-mount-51065.html?find=2022-ford-bronco--2-door--4wd-939786

 

[Tricky Dick]

On the fab Fours bumper, I forgot about these two horns that come out of the bumper and run under where the Skid Plate/intercooler mounts go;

I think those may actually do a lot in compression. Once my bumper is off I'll know whether top or bottom of the plate deformed more or if it was equal.

I would do stiches here if I was going to weld the JKS on.

 

[zuke]

I think those may actually do a lot in compression. Once my bumper is off I'll know whether top or bottom of the plate deformed more or if it was equal.

I would do stiches here if I was going to weld the JKS on.

That's a great plan if you want to weld it, that upper section you marked out is right where you will cut the front body/crash bar mount out, and the JKS instructions give a maximum amount of material that you can leave there (.25"), by leaving that amount there intentionally, you'd actually have an excellent place to put a strong bead...

 

[huey]

I kind of panic bought them so I'll work with them. It will save some time too. Moab is in 3 weeks, tick tock.

hmmm those brackets would overlap the crumple zone - I wonder how that would affect things during a collision if the bracket were welded onto the frame

 

[Tex]

Well I purchased and am waiting on my Rough Country hidden mount w/PRO12000S winch. I will see how this works out. I may have to modify for strength, but I may wait until I use it to see if there is a weak area with it. The picture below represents my actual setup on mine, with the 5" lift and frame horn towing points and bumper.

https://www.roughcountry.com/hidden-winch-mount-51065.html?find=2022-ford-bronco--2-door--4wd-939786

I have the same setup as pictured. Had a hell of a time getting the winch tray lined up with all the mounting holes in the frame and crossmember, I had to partially install bolts in one side and use a ratchet strap to pull the winch tray open enough to reach the bolt holes on the other side. The bash/fairlead plate was another problem area, if you look close at that pic, you'll notice the tab that connects it to the tow brackets is a little bent. Mine had about a 3/4" gap there, and instead of making it look stupid with spacers and finding longer bolts, I just decided to bend that tab by using bolt torque to close the gap. You'd think that using all RC stuff on the front end would mean everything was designed to interface and play nice with each other, but RC couldn't even get their own stuff straight. No doubt that it's solid, but just a little disappointed at the huge amounts of misalignment for parts that are supposed to bolt up to each other.

 

[huey]

I don't see the real reinforcement with the brackets in these color illustrations. With only 1 bolt securing them to the frame itself (based on illustration), the same result from excessive stress would still allow for oem bumper mount to bend up or down or both. In my view the only way those added brackets would work as intended is for 2 bolts to be used to secure the brackets to the frame. 2 bolts would prohibit the brackets from moving up or down with the oem bumper bracket when stressed under load.

yeah two bolts would definitely be better, since the front horns only have one one hole from the factory that is likely why only the single. The owner could drill a hole thru the frame horn but that brings it's own issues.

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