Okay, here is the deal, I bought an 88 Cherokee for $200 that I want to use as a trail only rig. I have a winch I want to put on the front, but I don't want to spend anything putting it on, as in no expensive bumpers or anything like that. How would you go about mounting the winch to the front...I do have the ability to weld.

 

Gonna be pretty hhard not spending any money

 

You gonna need some 3/16th or 1/4th steel plate, enough to make some kind of extended bracket and winch plate

 

Spending money^^^^ ...lol...

 

If I just removed the front bumper and mounted it right to that cross member, you think it would take the force?

 

No the unibodys are very weak .

 

Most definitely not. We ripped off my buddy's with a few slight tugs.

 

At very least a front winch plate is needed/fabricated ...

 

Yea, sounds like I will at least have to spend a little on materials and fab something up

 

By crossmember do you mean the sheetmetal inbetween the "frame" rails?

I wouldn't run an ATV winch off anything OEM much less an 8,000lb winch.

At the least you need a front receiver hitch. Make a plat for the winch and weld a male hitch on it to plug in to the hitch. This way you can use it in front or back with hitches, and stow it when not needed thereby improving approach angle and reducing weight in front, plus making it lees "shiny" to potential thieves. My buddy went in to his work late one night to grap a file, and came back out 10 minutes later to an empty winch bumper and some bolts laying on the ground....

AFAIK there is no way to put a winch on anything without spending some coin.
If there were we'd all have winches.

 

I understand what you are saying, but I'm not going to spend $100 - $150 on a front hitch when the whole jeep was $200. It is in really bad shape, so I really wan to avoid putting anything into it, and yes I was referring the the piece between the "frame" rails as the "cross-member" maybe this can be reinforced enough to make it work.

 

Can ya gett free steel plate ?

 

Not really, I have some stuff lying around, including a universal winch plate

 

Make some of these out of at least 3/8 steel then meld universal winch plate between them

 

No. You are pulling horizontally from a vertical surface. SNAP! I could be wrong but it doesn't sound safe or strong.

Nail a piece of wood flat to another piece and clamp it to a table.
Now pull upwards (90 degrees away from the mounting surface) on the top piece,. The top piece will pull the nails out and the 2 boards will seperate.
You could do the same thing with a clawfoot hammer. It's called prying and that's what the winch will do mounted to a vertical surface, plated or not.

That is why a winch is mounted on a horizontal plate tied in to bumper rails that mount parralel to the intended direction of pull. all is in line with the force, not opposed and perpendicular, as you are proposing doing. Not safe, strong or reliable at all.
Spend 200 bucks or so to do it right and NOT completely FUBAR you entire front end.