Change of plans. You know how, when you hear something you agree with and want to believe, it makes it easier for you to overlook flaws in what you’re hearing? That happened to me last week. I wanted to add a front winch to my rig, and this post at ih8mud.com told me what I wanted to hear: it would be easy peasy to mount a winch. It would only take a couple cuts of some steel and a little welding.

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I bought the winch, the mounting plate, and some recovery gear. That Harbor Freight winch plate (pictured below at the bottom of the picture) is hefty! “I’ll need something beefy to cut that,” I thought.

Then I took off the bumper cover to take a look at how the plate would mount. What I saw surprised me because it wasn’t part of my mental picture of the project. It wasn’t part of my mental picture because that ih8mud post was missing it, too: the truck’s front bumper.

Under the bumper cover is the truck’s front bumper. This is one of the elements of the landcruiser that makes it such a safe vehicle. In a collision, it will either deflect an oncoming body or spread out the force of impact.

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What I was seeing on ih8mud (above and here) are guys who are removing the bumper to mount a winch. Once they mount their winch, there’s no way to replace the bumper.

Because I do far more highway driving than anything else, that bumper is important to me. It’s gotta stay or be replaced by an aftermarket bumper that includes space for a winch.

This means I’ll be returning that Harbor Freight mounting plate and picking up a receiver hitch mount. That’s how I’ll travel with and use my winch until I save up my pennies for a front bumper that matches my rear bumper.

Thanks for everyone who offered to help install the front winch. My local wrenching community is the best!