Whelp, I finally won the fight with my winch, winch plate and bumper and got the damn thing mounted. Man, there really isn't much room in there when using a winch plate and the factory steel bumper. I had a helluva time.
Getting to this point is the easy part
The plate I used, made by Maximus 3 was really well made but it didn't fit for shit. I had to grind one of the corners pretty significantly, like 3/4" of an inch to allow the plate to clear a flange on the frame and the bolt to be inserted. I was so aggravated by the time I got it to fit I forgot to take a damn pic.
So problem 2 reared when I tried to mount the bumper with the winch sitting loose in the frame. The instructions say to, get this, bend the flange where the bumper mounts onto with a pair of vice grips to allow the winch to clear. Yeah, right. No way can you bend the frame flanges with a pair of fucking vice grips. I didn't even attempt that nonsense. Time to get the grinder out. I took about a 1/4" off of each flange
Here's how much clearance that gives you on each side while preserving the two upper/inner bolt holes. Not much room at all.
Tried to mount bumper again and no go. It's just too close for you to get to the inner bumper bolts and it's impossible to get the two winch bolts the closest to the front of the bumper after the bumper is on. There just isn't any room to get your hands in there to insert the bolt.
Fine, since cutting anymore would lose the bolt hole I just cut out that whole damn corner out on both sides.
That allowed to to move the winch around enough that all of the nuts and bolts were accessable.
This is how tight it is around the winch once the bumper is mounted
All buttoned up. Looks good nestled in there. Hope I never have to take the bitch out :crazyeyes: