> I'm not an offroader, so I don't know all of the issues involved,
> and talk is cheap, but... :-)
>
> Would it be possible to mount the winch up underneath the bed? Maybe
> mount it on a crossmember, or weld up a beefier crossmember between the
> frame rails if nescessary? Then what you'd do is to run the cable out
> the back of the truck (through pullies or eyes if nescessary), so the
> only thing hanging out the back would be the hook... You'd lose a few
> feet off the entire cable length, but you wouldn't have to worry
> about your approach angle, and it should be out of harm's way up
> under the bed. (You could put a skid plate on it if you really wanted
> to, but you'd bend your driveshaft before you hit the winch I should
> think...) Also, from a security standpoint, no one would even know you
> had a winch on your truck; it'd be completely invisible. :-)
>
> Ok, back to reality, I guess. :-) I dunno; seems like it would work,
> but I may be overlooking something.
>
> -Jon-
>
Jon
The only thing that you possibly overlooked was the spare would have to
be moved and possibly a body lift installed to get the winch up between
the frame rails. It's a very good idea as I did this on my old chebby
4x4, 12,000lb winch up front and a 10,00lb positioned under the bed as
you described. A neat trick would be to put a hinged license plate
bracket on and have the fair head and hook concealed by the plate. The
problem that I see with a receiver winch on the front of the new style
Dakotas, is the position of the radiator and air conditioning condenser
the receiver would have to mounted to low and really affect approach
angles as was stated in a another post.
Dave Tremain
99 Solar Yellow Sport CC 4x4
64 Mercury Short Box Stepside 4x4
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