Buddy of mine wanted some Dana 44 front old axle parts I had laying around in my garage from the solid axle swap, so I did some trading for an older Warn M12000 winch.
You cannot buy winch mounts or winch bumpers for these older F150's any more. The old Warn Classic winch bumpers are very hard to find now, and they are also notorious for being light duty.
So it was time to get creative!!
Basing my design off the style of the Warn Classic winch bumper, I bought a winch tray designed for large frame Ford trucks.
The front frame on these old 1980-86 F150's and Bronco's have no support from the front suspension forward, and that's why it is not recommended to install a plow on them. I know people who have twisted and mangled the frame plowing with them.
You can see on the photos the previous owner had added some C section to the frame rails for plowing. However, the front frame rails move a lot!! So I was able to pull them in slightly so they fit tightly inside the winch tray.
With the rails tied in to the winch tray, the frame is stronger now than it ever was, and squeezing the rails slightly will not effect anything on the truck.
Once the tray was installed and tucked in tightly to the body, it was time to finish the look, so I used some 4x6 3/16" rectangle tube bent to the body lines to make bumpers.
I really didn't want to loose the old school chrome bumper on this truck, but I'm really happy with the way this bumper has worked out :-)
