Bulldog Winch Custom-Fit Steel ATV Winch Mount

Video Transcript for Bulldog Custom-Fit Steel ATV Winch Mount Review

Jake: Hey guys, it's Jake here with etrailer. Today we're going to be taking a look at and I'm going to show you how to install this Bulldog winch mounting plate. This is going to give you a place to mount your winch to your ATV. This is what our winch plate is going to look like when it's installed. It's going to attach to the frame of our four wheeler and our front bumper. This winch mount is going to be custom fit to be able to fit your 2012 to 2013 Honda Foreman.The winch mount is going to be a heavy duty steel construction with a nice black powder coat finish to help resist against that rust and corrosion that you might encounter while out on the trails.

The plates are going to be slotted to give you the ability to wash it properly. So it's not going to be a solid plate, you'll be able to spray water through here to be able to wash the plate behind it and vice versa. It's also going to take some of the weight off so that you don't just have a solid steel plate on the front of your four wheeler. I like this winch mount because it's going to be a really, really clean fit to fit on your Foreman. It's also going to have eight different locations where it's going to bolt to the frame and to the front guard of your four wheeler.

So you're going to know it's plenty solid when you need to pull yourself out.Now as far as mounting our winch, our winch is going to be mounted upside down and this top plate is going to sit fairly high when compared to the ground. That's going to be a nice feature because it's going to keep your winch up and out of any water, mud, or debris that you might be going through. It's also going to be tucked back behind your front grill and these two safety support plates so you know nothing is going to run into your winch. It's also going to be back behind our front bumper cover so that when this is reinstalled, you're not going to be able to see it to be able to damage it or cause any harm to it. But you will still have access to your fairlead and your hook down here in the bottom to be able to pull it out whenever you need it.To start our install, we need to start by removing the plastic guard on the front of our four wheeler.

There'll be a couple of snap pins, here on the end, here and here, and we'll have a couple of bolts to remove on either side of the front fascia here. To remove these, you're going to stick a screwdriver between the pinhead and the base and just pry out. Now we can take a 10-millimeter socket and remove these bolts. Now we can put our fingers behind our fascia here and pull it off. Set that to the side.

We're going to have one more 10-millimeter bolt to remove the lower skid plate. Now this is going to give us enough space to be able to get in here and mount our plates up. And we need to remove this plastic guard so that we can get our first mounting plate in. Simply pull out on each side and take it out. These plastic tabs will be through the side panels and you just pinch in on the two sides so that you can slide it out.The first plate we're going to install is going to look like this. We're going to take it with the square end and put it inside on this mounting plate right here. And we'll take our bracket, slide it in, set it in place. Now if it makes it any easier, you can take that plate back out, slide your bolt through the hole if you can't get your hand back, and slide the bolts into place. And we'll take our locking nut and thread it onto our bolts. Now we can take a 9/16 socket and wrench and tighten down our hardware. Then we can go ahead and take our two remaining plates. Take the smaller plate, put it over the top of the larger one, slide our bolts into place, and we'll slide this entire assembly down into place. Now we can slide our bolt assembly into those two holes on the front of our first plate we mounted. Now we can insert our lock nuts on the back side of our bolts.Next, you're going to take your spacers, slide them in between this diagonal bracket and this frame here. Now with our spacers in there, go ahead and insert a washer and a lock nut on each of our bolts. Now we're going to put our hardware in these two holes to hold the lower end of our bracket. Take those same spacers, slide them into the track, slide them over to line up with the holes. Take our other one and slide it in the other end. Now we can take our bolts, slide them up through the spacers and through our plate. And just like this top bracket up here, we'll take a washer and a lock nut and insert it on the back side. The reason we're installing all this hardware loose is so that we can make sure everything lines up properly before we tighten it down. In your kit, you'll have these two U-bolts. Put a U-bolt there, holding onto this bar, and another one on the other side. Then we'll insert our four lock nuts on the backs of them. Now we can go ahead and tighten down all of our hardwareNow in order to get our winch into place, we're not going to have enough space on our four wheeler to be able to fit our winch up through any other opening. So we have to remove these plastic guards that are on the sides of our radiator. And what we're going to do is we're going to cut a hole in the end of it to accommodate for the end of our winch. To remove this, it's just going to be two snap pins. Now depending on the size of your winch you're putting on your four wheeler, you may or may not have to trim these side panels. We're putting a pretty big winch on there, so we're going to have to trim both the left and the right. Now with everything tightened down and that one panel removed, you're ready to get your winch in place.This is going to be a winch plate that is going to mount the winch upside down, so we'll want to hold it in that orientation and slide it up into place. And in your kit for your winch you should have included hardware in order to bolt your winch to your winch plate. Your winch plate is going to have six available holes to insert your bolts in. Just use whichever is most appropriate for your winch. Now we'll take a socket and wrench and tighten down our hardware. Now what's nice about this winch plate is there's two bolt holes included to attach your fairlead. Once you have everything secured and tightened down, you can go ahead and wire up your winch like it says in your directions. Well guys, with all that being said, that's going to do it for our look and installation of our Bulldog winch mounting plate.