addicted
Full Access Member
Well today I got stuck. Really good.
So with my 40% tread all highway tires I got stuck in some good NC mud today. While backing up with 2 full tanks and a bed full of wood I got stuck at what first appeared to be a bit of water. Which soon turned out to be good enough to get the passenger side of my truck stuck all the way up to about 1" from my bottom door seal and the other side up to the rims.
The puddle was very small (about 3 times the length of my truck and twice the width with plenty of room to pull. But the powerstorke dually across the road couldn't get me out becuase he had bald tires (the guy worked at Good Year MFG plant for crying out loud) and my buddies house I was at had a jeep....hahah yeah forget that.
So I called a wrecking company and the guy said it would be anywhere from 125-500. I told him the scenario and he still said the same things. I said well for 300 I can get a 8K winch from harbor frieght and for another 20 a chain and tie off to a tree and do it myself, get the pleasure and fun of pulling myself out and have a new toy for about the same price.
So my 8800lb (did I read the sticker on my door sill right?) truck with about 1400lbs of wood and fuel was a bit over the rating of the wich but they were out of stock for the 10K winch, otherwise I would have gotten it. But low and behold that little 8K winch pulled my approx 10k truck sideways out of the mud until I could get it straightened up with the tree and then it did it no problem. I'm not going to lie....the thing was having some hard times at first but hey that is pretty good I think.
Ok so now onto why I posted. It appears on my XLT bumper that there are some nice slots made just for a winch. Of course there is nothing to mount it to and I found out the hard way today that my truck has no tow hooks on the front. I've looked for about 30 minutes online trying to find a good aftermarket bumper that I like that I can mount this up to and have found nothing.
So have any of you made a bracket and mounted your winch on your stock XLT bumper (not sure if they are different but just noted online that they may be) or where did you find a good looking aftermarket bumper for our trucks?
So with my 40% tread all highway tires I got stuck in some good NC mud today. While backing up with 2 full tanks and a bed full of wood I got stuck at what first appeared to be a bit of water. Which soon turned out to be good enough to get the passenger side of my truck stuck all the way up to about 1" from my bottom door seal and the other side up to the rims.
The puddle was very small (about 3 times the length of my truck and twice the width with plenty of room to pull. But the powerstorke dually across the road couldn't get me out becuase he had bald tires (the guy worked at Good Year MFG plant for crying out loud) and my buddies house I was at had a jeep....hahah yeah forget that.
So I called a wrecking company and the guy said it would be anywhere from 125-500. I told him the scenario and he still said the same things. I said well for 300 I can get a 8K winch from harbor frieght and for another 20 a chain and tie off to a tree and do it myself, get the pleasure and fun of pulling myself out and have a new toy for about the same price.
So my 8800lb (did I read the sticker on my door sill right?) truck with about 1400lbs of wood and fuel was a bit over the rating of the wich but they were out of stock for the 10K winch, otherwise I would have gotten it. But low and behold that little 8K winch pulled my approx 10k truck sideways out of the mud until I could get it straightened up with the tree and then it did it no problem. I'm not going to lie....the thing was having some hard times at first but hey that is pretty good I think.
Ok so now onto why I posted. It appears on my XLT bumper that there are some nice slots made just for a winch. Of course there is nothing to mount it to and I found out the hard way today that my truck has no tow hooks on the front. I've looked for about 30 minutes online trying to find a good aftermarket bumper that I like that I can mount this up to and have found nothing.
So have any of you made a bracket and mounted your winch on your stock XLT bumper (not sure if they are different but just noted online that they may be) or where did you find a good looking aftermarket bumper for our trucks?
