My rear mount winch bumper

[Uberoo]

In addition to making my own front struts Ive also been making a rear winch bumper for my EA81 hatch.I put the winch in the rear for a couple reasons.

1. My car is a hatchback,with the addition of an EJ22,transfercase,and front diff my car was front heavy as it was.No sense in adding any more weight to the already overweight front end.

2. For self recovery purposes a rear mount winch is often superior to a front mounted winch.Most of the time when you get stuck its alot easier to back through the tracks you already made than it is to go forwards into the muck.Most of the time I probably wont need the winch because I never wheel alone.On the other hand If I get stuck somewhere they can't go I need to get myself back out.

 

So without further ado.I had to reinforce the rear "strap down" points because they are not up to the task of recovery.Mine were ripped off.To reinforce the mounts I cut them out and used 2" thin wall square tube to make up the channel part of the frame. 2" angle iron was then welded to the square tube and the body to tie into as much sheet metal as I could.

 

After the reinforcing it became clear that my actual bumper mounts would have to be made from 1.75" thick wall square tube because it fit tightly in the reinforcements.the bumper mounts extend 20" into the "frame" on each side.They will be secured by 3 bolts on each side. The bumper is 2x5x.125 box tube,because I am  mounting a winch to the bumper it needed a hole cut in both sides for the cable to pass through.So I cut a hole about the size of the roller fairlead.I also boxed in the hole on the sides and top to get back the strength that was lost from cutting the hole and to give the cable a smooth surface to slide against.

 

The actual winch mount is a 3/16" plate welded to the bottom of the bumper,it extends towards the front of the car and bolts to the rear most gas tank crossmember .Obviously that thin stamped steel crossmember will not take the load of winching so I ran some support pieces from the middle of the plate down to my rear diff mount.The support pieces are made from 1.5 x .085 wall round tube.To attach the support pieces to the car I crushed the ends of the tube in my vice then welded them closed.From there they are bolted to some 2x2 angle iron that is welded to the diff mount or the winch plate.

 

here is the rear bumper

 

this is the winch mounting plate.To get the right clearance the floor hat to be cut,this also allows me to watch the cable spooling in.

 

here is my 5000 lb harbor freight winch.

 

here is a couple pics of the support brackets.

 

I am going to add some angle iron behind the support bars on the mounting plate for some rear impact protection.I am also going to weld on some D ring shackles to the bumper,I haven't done that yet because the car is not sitting level and I don't want to mounts to be crooked.The roller fairlead will get mounted over the hole for the winch cable.

[Uberoo]

seeing as this thread is more like a rear end remodel I thought I would post this pic of how I plan to organize my trunk area.I am putting my toolbox,my battery,my spare tire,my windshield washer resivour, the winch and its electronics in the cargo area for better weight distributution and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a layout that wouldn't quite waste so much space. Tetris people this is your chance.Heres a pic of how I have everything layed out right now.Nothing other than the winch is mounted yet.

 

 

any ideas for how to optimize that space?I want at least an inch gap on all sides of the spare to account for differences between brands.

[86hatchback]

Here's my take on what you could do. Have you thought about mounting the tire like the baja truck guys with the tire at an angle so you could put your tool box under the high side of the tire and access it by either hinge point or front from the front seat.  Put the wiper fluid in the back driver side corner. With building a tire mount you can expand the frame to tie into your winch mount plate and rear suspension mounts. I love all the work you put into your hatch it's pretty sweet.

 

Another thought I'll throw in that I've been kicking around. Using Toyota truck ifs front diffs as the gears and carriers are the same as the 2wd trucks  So lockers and gear selection goes way up. The only thing I haven't verified is if 2wd axles are thick enough to be cut down and splined to Subaru axle stubs.  You could also use supra rear diffs Here's an awesome link to what a guy has done with his 4runner ifs and 37 14.50's http://www.yotatech.com/f199/ccraviottos-1987-4runner-long-travel-build-up-thread-223750/ Page 4 show's how he modifies the stock cv's to run a max droop angle of 28 degrees.

Edited April 29, 2013 by 86hatchback

[Scott in Bellingham]

I like the bumper and its cool how the winch is hidden, wheres your gas tank?

[Uberoo]

My gas tank is sitting in my garage while I am doing all the work on the car. I am not quite brave enough to do all the welding back there with the tank in place,But I am brave enough to weld on struts.Go figure..

 

I was looking into a angled spare tire mount but it would cut too much of my rearward visibility.I could mount the spare tire angled where the rear seat used to be but then I loose out on some of the weight balance effect.