I have a 3500 ATV winch I want to install on my 89 Wagon for fun....has anyone tried this? Can you weld it to the stock front bumper? Or bolt...any help appreciated!

You need to have a serious mount, the stock bumper is not going to hold up to the forces that a winch will provide.

 

 

Also, 3500 is not anywhere near what you need, sure, there are guys out there that have ones that are similar sized, but when you're stuck in mud/snow/dirt the rolling resistance of the car is much higher than it's weight. Be sure to double the line with a pulley and be sure that it can handle 7000 pounds weight if you do that.

I have a 3500 ATV winch I want to install on my 89 Wagon for fun....has anyone tried this? Can you weld it to the stock front bumper? Or bolt...any help appreciated!

 

remove the plastic off the bumper and weld up a mount that ties into the pinch welds

This is the winch on my Hatch. Its a Warn 6000 mounted to a standard winch bumper thats mounted to a steel channel front bumper. It has pretty beefy mounting brackets mounting it to the frame rails.

I have actually bent the mounts winching myself (and others) over the years.

 

Edited February 13, 201115 yr by Turbone

I have a 9k winch on my Loyale, I built a bumper that uses the stock mounting points, plus has a pair of braces that run down to an angle iron bolted into the lower radiator support. The winch, being mounted on top of the bumper, will try to rotate the bumper down as it pulls. Bracing into the radiator support prevents that. I have watched the headlight protector loops move an inch forward from the hood as the body flexes under full pull. I have used it to pull fullsize trucks out in the snow. I'd put it in 2wd, spin the wheels to sink the front end, and put the parking brake on. After pulling that lines worth, chuck it in 4wd and it would back right out. The truck owner was a bit embarrassed that my wagon was able to maneuver to any point I needed to get a line on him.

 

9k is really too much winch for a subaru. For the amount it got used vs the weight it put on the nose of the car it wasn't worth it. A 3.5k with a snatch block should do you fine.