Dedman
Forum Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2012
- Messages
- 766
- Location
- Perth Western Australia
- Car Year
- 1999
- Car Model
- Forester
- Transmission
- 5MT
Hi All. I recently put a winch on my forester so though I would write something to show what I have done.
I had been toying around with the idea of putting a winch on the Forester for quite some time. As my forester does not have airbags to deal with I thought it should be fairly simple task. Upon removing the front bumper it appeared that there were sufficient mounting points to support a relatively small winch however they were not near as good as the mounting points in the older Subarus. It was also evident that there was a possibility for mounting the winch neatly and completely inside the bumper with the hook of the winch coming out in one of the gaps in the nudge bar.
Being a poor uni student and all I decided to have a look on eBay for a winch. There was heaps of choice available and all very cheap although the quality may be questionable. I settled on a 4000lbs winch with synthetic rope for $160 delivered to my door as it sounded like a good deal and didn’t blow the project budget.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150615736714?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Two days later this is what I received
This winch was made for the location I had in mind fitting perfectly.
After investigating how the winch would fit exactly I next began the task of designing the supporting bar. I did many hand calculations and also conducted a Finite Element Analysis on the bar to check that it would be structurally sound. The results looked very promising and showed no issues with winching force.
I was stuck for a few more days without a workshop so I decided to get the electrical works done whilst I was waiting.
I disassembled the housing for the control switch for the winch and mounted it next to the cruise control switch which was nice and neat and well out of the way of accidental knocks.
The next decision was where to mount the control solenoid. I found a small otherwise unusable space between the headlight and the battery which worked perfectly and also was positioned such that I could significantly shorten the power leads to the winch. I had concerns that the wireless control might not work well in this position but so far I have not experienced any issues. Also all of the control units are completely sealed so there shouldn’t be any issues with mounting them down so low for water crossing.
Next stage was making a suitable bar to be able to support the winch. I decided that a span of 75x50x5mm angle should sufficiently take the load and two pieces welded together would fit the winch nicely between them. I sourced 2 metres of 75x50x5mm angle and 2 meters of 40x40x5mm angle for $40 and also picked up some longer high tensile bolts for $10 to mount the winch as I would be mounting through 5mm of extra steel
Here is the design I came up with, similar to the one tested using FEA the only difference being in fabrication variation.
The most difficult part was creating a sufficiently strong mounting point to the body. My original design had a lot less steel in it but after some calculations and testing it was evident that excessive deflection was an issue. The biggest issue was the low torsional stiffness of the angle which I solved by boxing it up with a second piece of angle. Although being heavier that I was hoping (winch and bar weighing 20ish kg) the end result was a very strong bar.
Cleaned up the bar and gave it a coat of paint. Mounted the winch, shortened the power cables and bolted it all together. The next stage was doing the finishing touches to make the front of the car presentable again. Firstly the bar I had made meant that the plastic internal bumper could not fit. As this is the mounting point for the nudge bar this was an issue. I decided that the easiest fix was to just cut down the plastic internal bumper to make it fit around the winch. This was a simple task and worked very well.
Next I had to modify the external bumper for the winch. As the winch was completely inside the bumper I had to create an access hole so the free spool could be engaged and disengaged easily. A large diameter drill, a knife and a blow torch to smooth the edges made an easy job of this. I also had to create a cover for the access port. I made this from the plastic from an old oil drum which matched the bumper. A piece of foam melted on to the other side of the plastic created a simple tight fitting cover.
Last part was cut a hole in the front of the bumper to allow the winch rope through and mount the fairlead.
Once I had bolted everything back together again the last problem was to determine what to do with the number plate. I decided the simplest thing to do would be to hinge the number plate so that it could be lifted up out of the way when winching. Not sure how legal this is but it was a very neat solution to the problem. I deliberately fixed the hinges with slight stress between them so the pivot was stiff and the number plate would stay up when folded out of the way.
So here is the finished product. I haven’t had a chance to try it out on a track yet but my initial test proved that the winch could drag the car on flat ground with all four wheel locked which should be sufficient to get me out of most situations. With this load the winch didn’t struggle very much and there was no evidence deflection in the bar so I’m happy. Total cost was around $250 for winch, all materials and all consumables. Around 2.5 solid days work and many many beers :ebiggrin: :ebiggrin:
Hopefully I will have some good pics of the winch in action to post soon!
Here is also a video version of this writeup with some winching footage;
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXgw2GzS0s4"]Subaru Forester Winch Build - YouTube[/ame]
I had been toying around with the idea of putting a winch on the Forester for quite some time. As my forester does not have airbags to deal with I thought it should be fairly simple task. Upon removing the front bumper it appeared that there were sufficient mounting points to support a relatively small winch however they were not near as good as the mounting points in the older Subarus. It was also evident that there was a possibility for mounting the winch neatly and completely inside the bumper with the hook of the winch coming out in one of the gaps in the nudge bar.
Being a poor uni student and all I decided to have a look on eBay for a winch. There was heaps of choice available and all very cheap although the quality may be questionable. I settled on a 4000lbs winch with synthetic rope for $160 delivered to my door as it sounded like a good deal and didn’t blow the project budget.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/150615736714?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Two days later this is what I received
This winch was made for the location I had in mind fitting perfectly.
After investigating how the winch would fit exactly I next began the task of designing the supporting bar. I did many hand calculations and also conducted a Finite Element Analysis on the bar to check that it would be structurally sound. The results looked very promising and showed no issues with winching force.
I was stuck for a few more days without a workshop so I decided to get the electrical works done whilst I was waiting.
I disassembled the housing for the control switch for the winch and mounted it next to the cruise control switch which was nice and neat and well out of the way of accidental knocks.
The next decision was where to mount the control solenoid. I found a small otherwise unusable space between the headlight and the battery which worked perfectly and also was positioned such that I could significantly shorten the power leads to the winch. I had concerns that the wireless control might not work well in this position but so far I have not experienced any issues. Also all of the control units are completely sealed so there shouldn’t be any issues with mounting them down so low for water crossing.
Next stage was making a suitable bar to be able to support the winch. I decided that a span of 75x50x5mm angle should sufficiently take the load and two pieces welded together would fit the winch nicely between them. I sourced 2 metres of 75x50x5mm angle and 2 meters of 40x40x5mm angle for $40 and also picked up some longer high tensile bolts for $10 to mount the winch as I would be mounting through 5mm of extra steel
Here is the design I came up with, similar to the one tested using FEA the only difference being in fabrication variation.
The most difficult part was creating a sufficiently strong mounting point to the body. My original design had a lot less steel in it but after some calculations and testing it was evident that excessive deflection was an issue. The biggest issue was the low torsional stiffness of the angle which I solved by boxing it up with a second piece of angle. Although being heavier that I was hoping (winch and bar weighing 20ish kg) the end result was a very strong bar.
Cleaned up the bar and gave it a coat of paint. Mounted the winch, shortened the power cables and bolted it all together. The next stage was doing the finishing touches to make the front of the car presentable again. Firstly the bar I had made meant that the plastic internal bumper could not fit. As this is the mounting point for the nudge bar this was an issue. I decided that the easiest fix was to just cut down the plastic internal bumper to make it fit around the winch. This was a simple task and worked very well.
Next I had to modify the external bumper for the winch. As the winch was completely inside the bumper I had to create an access hole so the free spool could be engaged and disengaged easily. A large diameter drill, a knife and a blow torch to smooth the edges made an easy job of this. I also had to create a cover for the access port. I made this from the plastic from an old oil drum which matched the bumper. A piece of foam melted on to the other side of the plastic created a simple tight fitting cover.
Last part was cut a hole in the front of the bumper to allow the winch rope through and mount the fairlead.
Once I had bolted everything back together again the last problem was to determine what to do with the number plate. I decided the simplest thing to do would be to hinge the number plate so that it could be lifted up out of the way when winching. Not sure how legal this is but it was a very neat solution to the problem. I deliberately fixed the hinges with slight stress between them so the pivot was stiff and the number plate would stay up when folded out of the way.
So here is the finished product. I haven’t had a chance to try it out on a track yet but my initial test proved that the winch could drag the car on flat ground with all four wheel locked which should be sufficient to get me out of most situations. With this load the winch didn’t struggle very much and there was no evidence deflection in the bar so I’m happy. Total cost was around $250 for winch, all materials and all consumables. Around 2.5 solid days work and many many beers :ebiggrin: :ebiggrin:
Hopefully I will have some good pics of the winch in action to post soon!
Here is also a video version of this writeup with some winching footage;
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXgw2GzS0s4"]Subaru Forester Winch Build - YouTube[/ame]
Last edited:
to ORS.
