June 4, 201312 yr Ea82 My brother wants/needs a winch on his 86 wagon, and i want his 85/86 short bumper. Ive been looking at the 87+ bumpers and i think with a little reinforcement, I could mount a 5klb winch on it like this one http://www.harborfreight.com/5000-lb-electric-atvutv-winch-with-automatic-load-holding-brake-68144.html it should fit. the power needs and wiring I have covered with some heavy wire, and a 140 amp alt. what do you guys think? we don't have the money to buy or build a bumper right now. but we could buy some scrap steel to weld/bolt on.
June 4, 201312 yr if you can find a towing kit that people use for towing cars behind rvs that would be better. you dont even need a tow bar you just need the mounts which would be alot stonger and hold up good. a guy who i got a totaled brat from did that and it was tuff. have seen some people just drill holes all the way through the factory bumpers and bolt winch on, they hold up ok but they bend foreward. Edited June 4, 201312 yr by turbosubarubrat
June 4, 201312 yr the 87 has some good steel in there, rip off the plastic cover and make a mount for the winch, the early 85 EA82 bumpers are junk
June 4, 201312 yr Author the 87 has some good steel in there, rip off the plastic cover and make a mount for the winch, the early 85 EA82 bumpers are junk thats what i was thinking, I've looked at them both and the 87+ are pretty heavy duty, i figure with some 1"x1" square tubing inside as reinforcement it should hold up pretty good.
June 4, 201312 yr the strongest points are the spot welded seams, run a bead along the seam and weld to that
June 5, 201312 yr I have used a fat lip bumper beam to flat tow a wagon 2400 miles. I welded 4 angle iron tabs to the beam and ran the pivot pins through them for the tow bar. It worked great. I would recommend bracing the bumper beam to the lower radiator support if you plan on doing serious winching. I had a 9k on my Loyale with a box tube bumper with braces running down to angle iron saddling the front of the lower rad support and it did a lot to help keep the bumper from twisting down since the winch was mounted to the top of the bumper. I used the bolt hole that the hood latch brace attaches to keep the angle iron clamped to the radiator support.
June 5, 201312 yr Author good to know, I dont have much of a welder or welding experience but I think I can manage to melt some steel to it. I was also kicking around the idea of mounting the winch INSIDE the bumper. I think it would fit, i wouldn't be able to use the freespool feature but the one i want has a power out so thats not too big an issue. the only thing is I'd have to figure out a way to reinforce the hole cut in the back without welding it shut. maybe bolt some 1" 3/16 steel strips in an x shape over the hole? It would look really clean with the bumper skin put back on, and i think from the inside it would be better for the bumper, as it would pull from the center instead of the top.
June 6, 201312 yr You don't want to use power out to unspool the winch. Under power out the motor is fighting the automatic brake and you will burn the brake up if you use power out to unspool for every pull. Extend the freespool lever to somewhere you can reach it.
May 2, 20187 yr Ea82 My brother wants/needs a winch on his 86 wagon, and i want his 85/86 short bumper. Ive been looking at the 87+ bumpers and i think with a little reinforcement, I could mount a 5klb winch on it like this one http://www.harborfreight.com/5000-lb-electric-atvutv-winch-with-automatic-load-holding-brake-68144.html it should fit. the power needs and wiring I have covered with some heavy wire, and a 140 amp alt. what do you guys think? we don't have the money to buy or build a bumper right now. but we could buy some scrap steel to weld/bolt on.
May 4, 20187 yr My Dad had a 82 and it came with a factory winch Just to be clear, there was no 'factory' winch. They were upfitted by the dealer using a winch from an aftermarket company licensed by Subaru. Still very cool and rare.
May 5, 20187 yr I would install a 2" reciver somewere maybe under the bumper cover and mount the winch to a removable winch plate for a 2" hitch that way its not out all.the time and can be used between differant cars i have a few winches mounted like this it works well I also on mine mounted my licence plate with the 2" reciver so i pull my licence plate and stick my winch in the whole and put the pin in and im good licence plate goes in the back
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