Factory Warn winch mount question

[Toynut]

My Max IV has what appears to be a factory option 2500lb. Warn Winch on it. I just noticed that there does not appear to be any steel backing plate on the inside of the hull, just a through-bolt and washer setup. Is this the standard factory/dealer installation setup or did someone forget a critical piece?

[larryf]

Im not sure on max four but the max two has to have a backing plate that when the winch pulls it pulls on both the upper and lower of the tub so i going to say yes a piece is missing richards relics sell winch plates for the max and all of them have backing plates with out that back plate you get that thing stuck in a bad mud hole it will rip and stretch the tub to the point of being ripped off or crack the tub very bad

[Mike]

I believe it depends on the year. The newer winch mounts have backing plates. They look basically like this:


The older Max IV winch mounts didn't have the lower part of the mount and may not have had the backing plate, but I'm not sure on that. If yours looks like the one above then it should have a plate. If not, then I don't know, but you could always just cut a flat piece of steel and drill the holes in it for the bolts.

[Toynut]

The winch is bolted to a L-shaped steel plate that is through-bolted directly to the hull with stock sized washers. There is a round cable port for the winch controller mounted through the hull close to the right headlight. When I reached up in there in front of the fuel tank, I just felt the fasteners and nothing else.
So........ it looks like I will have to fabricate a plate out of 1/4" or thicker steel to act as a backer. Hard to believe someone installed this unit like this.

[brushcutter]

You definitely need some sort of backing plate. 1/8" might do it and keep the weight down a little, but 1/4" will certainly do the job, I don't think you would need to go any heavier than that though.

[Toynut]

This is what came with my Max IV.
Is this a factory unit (or dealer installed), or is it something the PO did himself?
Notice the plug in controller port by the right headlight.

[Mike]

That doesn't look like a factory mount. I think there were only two different styles from the factory, both of which had a plate behind the winch that was the full width of the winch. Since you have the newer style Max IV, if yours was a factory mount, it should look like the picture I linked to above.

That's not to say that the mount won't work fine. It looks like it is mounted to the upper body as well as the lip which is good. If you add the backing plate you should be fine.