Winch Security

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khorsa

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How do you keep your winches secure on your bumpers to make sure that it doesn't "walk away" while you are parked somewhere?
 

000

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How do you keep your winches secure on your bumpers to make sure that it doesn't "walk away" while you are parked somewhere?

You’d have to disassemble the front end of my truck to get mine, otherwise I’ve seen security nuts made for this, I think I remember seeing them in quadratec’s cataloging I remember right from my jeep days. A tack weld on one bolt and nut would probably be the cheap easy way if you don’t plan on removing it anytime soon and if you did it’d be easy enough to grind the weld off?



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58-fc170

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Green cylinder sleeve lock tight would be the next best thing to a tack weld.

Also as Lintnercorey showed don't make it a simple 4 bolts and your winch walks away type install. For example mount lights or additional brush guards over and around the winch. This would be a two fold advantage, it slightly hides the winch and it also puts more fasteners of various sizes between the thief and your winch.
 
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toxicity_27

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Mine is set into the bumper and like @000 said, you'd have to take the whole front end apart to get it out.
 

Mike W

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Mine hides in my ARB also. Pretty tough to get out. You'd have to undue all the under shielding and some bolts that are really freaking hard to reach from there.

The other aspect of winch security is just the fairlead and hook and winch line. People can mess with your clutch lever and get slack to pull things off. I went with the Zeon Platinum 10-S which is all on remote, so no clutch lever for people to mess with. I also hide the fairlead behind a flip up license plate bracket. Does it count as a "hidden winch" ? ha!


The control box hides pretty well from the front, its flush. But you could mess with the wiring I guess.

My HUGE security concern is my dang Intensity lights. Even with the security bolts and such, those things are worth $676 each!
 

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After I built my bumper, winch plate and bolted my winch in I tack welded one of the nuts and bolts. It would take a torch to get it out now.
 

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It would take hours to get to my winch. I'm more concerned about controlling the power to it. I have the controller mounted under the hood and use a Anderson connector to control power. I've read of environmental terrorist using a trucks winch cable pulled over the top, hooked to the rear bumper and then activated.

 

bgenlvtex

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It would take hours to get to my winch. I'm more concerned about controlling the power to it. I have the controller mounted under the hood and use a Anderson connector to control power. I've read of environmental terrorist using a trucks winch cable pulled over the top, hooked to the rear bumper and then activated.
Scalping is going to come back into fashion one of these days, for reasons just like that.

My experience says that people commonly engaged in outdoor activities are far better custodians of the environment, than your average run of the mill "environmentalist"

Take a look around after an environmental protest, or any leftist gathering for that matter. Looks like Haiti after a hurricane.
 

Boostpowered

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It would take hours to get to my winch. I'm more concerned about controlling the power to it. I have the controller mounted under the hood and use a Anderson connector to control power. I've read of environmental terrorist using a trucks winch cable pulled over the top, hooked to the rear bumper and then activated.

Never heard of that happening but if thats a worry run the winch power through a relay so it wont work without the truck being started. I did that so mine wont run the battery down accidentaly when sitting unused. Or wire the power to a cutoff switch with a removable key like dragsters use for emergency power cutoff. Id be suprised if a eco terrorst could figure out how to work a winch.
 

Lanlubber In Remembrance

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How do you keep your winches secure on your bumpers to make sure that it doesn't "walk away" while you are parked somewhere?
A good car alarm will go a long way of preventing auto accessory theft away from home. Cross threading one of the bolts with a hammer will give someone fits ! Everything can be stolen given enough time for the thief to get it. I have a good guard dog and a loaded shotgun ready and waiting. I once caught 3 thieves stealing the tires and wheels of my neighbors car. They had placed bricks under the car frame and deflated the tires and pulled them off. They had all 4 tires off as I watched. Then I went outside with my handy six shooter, fired two shot over their head and watched them run for their lives. I had called the police but they had not gotten their yet. As they were running away the police drove up and caught them. BTW the bullets were rat shot but they still make a horrible sound. All my loaded guns have two rounds of shot shell, the rest are lethal bullets.
 

Pathfinder I

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Environmental terrorist, leftists, etc etc,, c’mon guys, you can do better than that.. this just isn’t the place for spreading wack job opinions or passing along stories that simply did not happen.
Google is your friend, this did happen about three or four years back. There may still be a Youtube vid on line. I agree it's very uncommon.
 

MOAK

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All I can say is, wow. You guys must live in some bad neighborhoods.. We once went away for a long weekend and neglected to close the garage door to my Cruzer’s home, shop, etc.. For three days it was wide open and not bothered.. We rarely lock up our house, our vehicles or the carriage house./garage/shop. A lifetime ago some thieves went down the alleys of SoCal with bolt cutters and a van. Cleaned me and many neighbors out. That was a sure signal for me to get the hell out. We moved shortly afterward to where we are now.
 

bgenlvtex

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All I can say is, wow. You guys must live in some bad neighborhoods.. We once went away for a long weekend and neglected to close the garage door to my Cruzer’s home, shop, etc.. For three days it was wide open and not bothered.. We rarely lock up our house, our vehicles or the carriage house./garage/shop. A lifetime ago some thieves went down the alleys of SoCal with bolt cutters and a van. Cleaned me and many neighbors out. That was a sure signal for me to get the hell out. We moved shortly afterward to where we are now.
There are shitty people everywhere, admittedly a higher concentration in some places than others.

However tempting fate with complacency is an ill fated venture. Don't confuse fear and prudency , they are not the same thing.
 

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Here in Orygun there have been several cases of Truck yards being burned to the ground, dozens of logging trucks burned, they do a lot of eco damage in the name of saving the eco. Crazy people. You can find treads about winch vandals in the toyo and jeep forums, it's not really a common occurrence but does happen.
 
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MOAK

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There are shitty people everywhere, admittedly a higher concentration in some places than others.

However tempting fate with complacency is an ill fated venture. Don't confuse fear and prudency , they are not the same thing.
I don’t nor have I ever confused fear with being prudent. Unfortunately a lot of people in this country live in downright fear. Fear of neighbors, fear of weather, fear of nature. Hey, fear of everything. I refuse to live in fear. That way of life does not make me complacent, it does however, cause me to live.