Winch Mounted on Nissan Alloy Bullbar.

[myzathreeby]

I need a winch for a trip next year so have been deliberating about winch bars and the multitude of winches on the market. been through all the debates on the forum and google etc.
I have a standard nissan alloy bullbar fitted which is no good for mounting a winch.

Naturally looking for the best deals and value for money, I had almost decided on the bullbar and winch when I spotted a steel cradle on ebay.
I decided it was the way to go and bought it for around $300

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251113423785...84.m1497.l2649

Fitting it was quite straightforward, I disconnected all the lights and arials etc, took the alloy bar off and the cradle fitted perfectly into existing threaded holes in the chassis members.

I was initially going to risk it and buy a cheapy winch for about $350, but because I had saved a heap of money I decided on a mid price range and bought a tigerz11 Grande with dyneema rope.
This mounted straight on to the cradle, no problem. it also took the aluminium fairlead.

The next job was modifying the alloy bullbar for the winch access. I used an angle grinder to remove the three centre holes and left 1 on each side. A bit of panel beating, filing and sanding was needed to tidy it up. Fitting the control box was a bit tricky but it was just a matter of making a bracket and securing to the chassis (with the bull bar removed) Also had to make a neat hole in the top of the bullbar for access to plug in the winch control and /or the remote.

Then it was just a matter of bolting the winch bar back in place. 2 of the bolts were quite tricky to get to because the winch was now in the way. but got to them eventually with a variety of socket extensions and spanners. Also had to buy 2 more high tensile bolts.
The alloy bar is quite light and was easy to take on and off

Really dead chuffed with the finished item and the winch looks great, its a very well made piece of gear. I can't see why it shouldn't work well, The proof of the pudding.......!!

Took 2 days over a weekend, but definitely worth the effort.
Really must find out how to put photos on here!!