My bro inlaw/sister bought me a winch I dont know what kind it is, as I havent gottne it yet...but i THINK its a warn 8K. I want to run it off the back of the truck, but not in a reciever. What is the best way to do this? The bed is just easy to get to when stuck,without having to walk on the hood, or thorugh waist deep mud. I like the idea of having rear recovery. What do you guys run as far as mounting rear winches, and what do you do on pulls that arent straight out of the back?

 

Your choices are either receiver mount or custom rear bumper.

I have considered setting up a receiver mount with some kind of strap/chain to the shackle mounts for more sideways stability.

 

There is a real easy location to mount a winch on the rear of the truck, put on a receiver.

Custom is the alternative.

 

well you could try to put something behind the cab and tie it into the frame. I'm not sure how exactly to go about it since if you had to winch from a low point it would be complex but its a thought.

 

I was thinking the same thing sort of like a roll back and cut a opening in the bottom of the tailgate for the fairlead.

 

Do you have a front winch? If not I would get a receiver mount and have the best of both worlds, why limit yourself to only being able to pull in one direction?
Bed Mounted IMO might be kind of a pain in the rear, takes up bed space and than when you need to use it you need to make sure your line pull is clear of all the crap in the bed..Bed mounted is going to take quite a bit of fab work to get it tied to the frame rails.
But if you have to go rear mount I think this is one of the best set ups:
This is a guy '2Tense' on ttora.com rear winch set up. I think his '05 is set up pretty good for wheeling:
http://www.ttora.com/photos/showgall...&condition=and

 

I have a rear hitch....I could just throw it in there. I plan on keeping the stock front bumper and running a prerunner light bar. Has anybody made a winch mount ON the stock front bumper, or using the stock front bumper?

 

I Originally thought about mounting it in the bed, near the cab...than installing a fairlead in the bottom of the tailgate, and running the cable through that. I didnt know if that would put to much stress/pressure on the tailgate though.

 

Best bet is to run it off the hitch, you can have a custom under the bumper mounted hitch receiver up front too, pretty simple and then you get both.

 

that would definitely be a lot of stress on the tailgate, and i dont think its a good idea at all. unless the line is going straight though, the fairlead in the tailgate would be acting as a snatch block of sorts and would take some big stresses. the more severe your angle, the more likely you are to crunch your tailgate.

 

I was really hoping to get rid of my rear hitch...for departure angles.

 

You keep coming back with requirements that can only be satisfied with a custom setup...

 

I would get a wench cradle on a receiver tube. Then you can take it with, use it on another truck or up front if you had a front receiver.