Very Mild '03 Ranger

[nb11]

Got some new tires! It's actually been about a year. 235/75-15 Duratracs. They've been great, and have been wearing well (20,000 miles).

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[mdn14]

Goodyear Duratracs make just about any truck look better. And white walls out, I like it!

 

[nb11]

I got a winch last week. It's a Superwinch Tiger Shark 9500. I'm taking a welding class at school and hoped I'd be able to use the shop there to make a mount for the winch, but apparently I would have to submit plans to whoever is in charge of the shop, and have them approved before I can use it for personal projects. I didn't have time for that, so I picked up a Hobart Handler 140.

I didn't get any gas, so I spackled it all together with flux core But I got some good penetration and some decent looking welds. It's all 1/4", most of which being 6" flat bar and a piece of angle on the front to stiffen it up and to mount the fairlead to.



Fitting it up


Trimmed the bumper brackets, fits a little tighter


Bumper height before winch


My tiny shop/work area


Almost ready to be mounted. Just have to burn it all in



Not bad for flux core! (minus the spatter)



I got it mounted, wired, and spooled today. I'll have to throw some more pictures up tomorrow. I'll trim the plastic valence so its tucked away real nice.
The fairlead sticks out in front of the bumper a half inch at the very most.

 

[nb11]

Here it is all mounted up



Looks like the added weight to the front end only dropped it about an eighth inch. Those are some stiff springs! I'll get the plastic valence trimmed and mounted tomorrow, hopefully.

 

[nb11]

And got the bottom of the bumper back on. I'm happy with the results. I'll paint it after I'm sure I don't need to add any gussets. I'll make a few pulls just to make sure it's strong enough.

I did a shear analysis on the bolts and a bearing analysis on the mount and the frame, and I have a factor of safety of over 6 for both (assuming 9500 lbs is applied to the cable). Still need to do an analysis on the welds, but I think it'll hold.

 

[Divh]

IT looks so clean and like it was there from factory nice job