Subaru Winch

spikeoo1

Forum Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
53
Location
Hastings, Vic, Aus
So why is it that there are people modifying snorkels and stuff but none putting a winch on?
I have looked at a few different things...

I see these as a problem...
https://www.bushwinch.com.au/index.html

I like the top one, It doesnt seem to hang out the back as much. But is it safe and worth it? I have seen a few cars, 1 was an Outback that had a Haymon Reese on the front for moving boats around.
https://www.dnaoffroad.com.au/products.php?product=Detachable-winch-cradle
https://orbitalfab.com.au/winch.html

Is there a reason for no one having put one on the front like big 4WDs?
What does other people use?
 
spikeoo1 said:
So why is it that there are people modifying snorkels and stuff but none putting a winch on?
I have looked at a few different things...

I see these as a problem...
https://www.bushwinch.com.au/index.html

I like the top one, It doesnt seem to hang out the back as much. But is it safe and worth it? I have seen a few cars, 1 was an Outback that had a Haymon Reese on the front for moving boats around.
https://www.dnaoffroad.com.au/products.php?product=Detachable-winch-cradle
https://orbitalfab.com.au/winch.html

Is there a reason for no one having put one on the front like big 4WDs?
What does other people use?
Click to expand...

Its been discussed before mate but basically a because Subaru's don't have an actualy chassis putting a winch on can rip and damage the actually body o0f the car. One from the towbar would be fine but you couldn't safely and securly have one on the front.
 
spikeoo1 said:
So why is it that there are people modifying snorkels and stuff but none putting a winch on?

Is there a reason for no one having put one on the front like big 4WDs?
What does other people use?
Click to expand...
If we could we would, well I would at least :iconwink:

taza said:
Its been discussed before mate but basically a because Subaru's don't have an actualy chassis putting a winch on can rip and damage the actually body o0f the car.
Click to expand...
Like taza says, it's due to the type of chassis we have, or I should say don't have on our Subi's :cool:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Thats exactly what I thought it was.
Couldnt a "larger stronger heavy duty" bar be engineered to go behind the bumper or something?
I would have thought there would HAVE to be a work around, just might be costy, lol.
The Brumby on my trip made me actually wonder how it could be done.
 
spikeoo1 said:
Couldnt a "larger stronger heavy duty" bar be engineered to go behind the bumper or something?
Click to expand...

This is actually how it's done on unibody Jeeps (and other vehicles): reinforce the area you're mounting to, attach heavy-duty bumper, attach winch to bumper. I've done this on XJ Cherokees and it works well, but they were engineered with space in mind for adding things like this; the Forester really wasn't.

For an example of one way to do it on a Jeep with a stock bumper, take a look at this link. A similar approach may be able to be applied to a Forester, but I'm honestly not certain that the space is really there to do it. My other concerns would be making the already-not-great approach angle even worse, as well as having the extra weight of the winch hanging off of the nose.

Not saying it can't be done... Just that it doesn't seem like something that can be done easily on these vehicles.
 
I actually just got finished putting a winch in the trunk of my 98 forester, seems to be good, it'll be all finished by the end of the day
 
Grunger27 said:
I actually just got finished putting a winch in the trunk of my 98 forester, seems to be good, it'll be all finished by the end of the day
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum Grunger.

Do you mean the winch is mounted to the rear of your Forester or just sitting in the boot? What kind of winch? Electric?

Taza
 
G'day Grunger27 & :welcome: to ORS.

That rear mounted winch sounds interesting. You'll have to tell us more about it :)

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
My effort, I've just never got around to throwing in the car and trying it yet, even got the nylon rope sitting there to go on the drum so it's only ever been turned on once in the workshop to see if it works lol.

Fits the tow bar using the tow ball as an anchor and was going to fit a tow tongue to the bash plate for front use.........one day.........maybe.

4,000lb winch & 3,800lb nylon cable and it will have to be used with a snatch block to double the strength.

DSCN1236.jpg


DSCN1233.jpg


DSCN1235.jpg


Designed to work at pretty much any angle and it'll be a few lb lighter with the 20' longer nylon rope.
DSCN1238.jpg


DSCN1237.jpg


DSCN1239.jpg
 
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Hello all!!!

The winch is a Superwinch LP8500, It is mounted in the trunk of my forester. I welded two pieces of C Channel Steel approx 54" long across the trunk right above the spare tire, and then reinforced them by bolting them to the tow hook rails. I will post pictures before and after I paint everything tomorrow afternoon. And I should have enough time to test it out and hopefully make a video to see how it works.

Thank you all for being so friendly! ha

It is currently hooked up to a Kinetik HC1400 which is also in the trunk and I need to figure out how to mount that at some point too but one thing at a time.
 
I will post another picture once it is finished being painted and I will be making a video once the paint drys so stay tuned!!
 
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Wow, Grunger! That is the cleanest underbody I've ever seen on an ORS Subie! :lol:

And while there's no space left for cargo, at least you managed to fit a subwoofer in the trunk. :raspberry:

Seriously, I think it's awesome that you had the balls to gut out your trunk and attach a winch to the structural parts of the unibody inside your Forester! Most of us have enough trouble finding solid attachment points on the outside! Case in point: the long-running challenge of attaching beefy recovery hooks to the front of the vehicle. That's the only type of structural attachment that I will look into, in order to tie off my hot air balloon during inflation.
 
Yah I'm gonna put it in a rut tomorrow around 2 and just see how well it works out since I haven't seen anyone else with this so hopefully it goes well -__- ha but it's not going to be stuck on the first video just so I can see how she holds up
 
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