Glad you saw that because I forgot to mention it. Are you planning on running a skid plate on the bumper? If so, then you definitely don't have much of a choice.

Yeah i am. I recently built a bumper for my truck that I decided to sell so I could buy the winch. I pretty much want to replicate it and just have the winch behind the skid like that other guy (picture below). The only way to mount the winch without putting it super duper low or having it stick out really far is by putting it where the cross member is located. It's just that now I'm about to finally at that point of no return. Once I cut it that's it, no more going back to stock. And messing with the frame always seemed sketch to me.

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Here's what I did. I was in the same boat as you. 2" x 2" x 3/16" angle just under the cross member and some 1/4" plate gusseted to bolt it up to the factory holes, had to remove the tow hooks though. Don't know how/if I'll be able to fit a skid plate in there at an angle that'll actually help me though.

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05 Ranger XLT 4x4, Dixon Bros. 4x4 LT kit, Fox 2.5 x 8 in C/O Shocks, Custom front/rear bumper, smittybilt xrc 9500, synthetic line, flat link, Lowrance HDS-5m GPS, vison x 4.5 light cannons

Is that all you have holding that winch on? Have you used it yet? I'd be afraid of it ripping off or bending and twisting. I'm not trying to be a dick or anything but I was looking into doing something similar to that when I was looking at my options and I just didn't know if that would be strong enough.

P.s. I have the exact same winch setup. How do you like it so far?

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It works fine so far. I tested it on a slight up hill and it the bumper didn't flinch. I still need to test the recovery points for piece of mind. However, I did try a high lift on the tube that wraps around and the winch stayed put but the tube started bending up. I think it's because of the angles the pieces holding it up are at.

Love the winch so far by the way, Haven't had a chance to test the flatlink but I doubt that's going to be the weak link.

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05 Ranger XLT 4x4, Dixon Bros. 4x4 LT kit, Fox 2.5 x 8 in C/O Shocks, Custom front/rear bumper, smittybilt xrc 9500, synthetic line, flat link, Lowrance HDS-5m GPS, vison x 4.5 light cannons

If it makes you feel any better, 2wd rangers don't even have a front cross member. So I'm KINDA assuming that you don't need it to keep your truck from falling apart. Its there to mount tow hooks on a 4x4 and i m sure it helps beef up the frame a bit. But its not going to fall apart without one.

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Dennis Brady

Black 2001 4x2 XLT Supercab 3.0 "Shadow" - WIA

Black 2001 4x4 EDGE Supercab 4.0 ('Body donor' for Shadow lol)

Build thread:
http://www.fordrangerforum.com/proje...adow-redo.html

so jelly, he started doing a cage, sorry for the odd post, i just like his truck

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^So beast!

It has a crossmember, but it just doesn't have the tow hooks. Whenever I get around to building it im sure what I put there will make it much stronger.

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I worked on the bumper over the weekend. I only got the winch mount welded up, but now I can start the actual bumper. What do you think? With the mount the way it is I can still bolt my stock bumper on.

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