Hidden Winch: 1st Gen Tundra

Here is my Hidden Winch install on my 1st Gen Tundra.

Shoutout to @oscardog86 for the link to this where it had been done previously. https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-2259#post-3826399
I liked the idea of it but had not yet seen where it had been used to retain the OEM bumper. This is the thread that does just that.

Step 1 is to remove the front bumper. This is fairly simple. Here is a thread on how to do that 2000 Toyota Tundra front bumper removal | Toyota Tundra Forum


$50 Badlands Universal Winch Plate from HF


Just a rough mock up to see what needs to be trimmed, removed


Here you can see that the ears on the front of the frame horns will need to go away to allow the plate to sit as flush as possible on the frame


Underside shot of the same ears


Again, the ears will need to be trimmed for the plate to fit


Also, this support for the wood latch will need to be trimmed. I used a cutting disk and placed forded cardboard box between the support and the condenser as not to hit the condenser and put a hole / gash in it.


The ears trimmed


More trimming


Now you can see that they are flush


The other side


A mockup of how it will sit


Mockup from the front


My winch is 7' tall, so this is just to confirm how much of the support I removed.


Another mockup pic, this time with the winch in place.


As you can start to see here, the winch in it's forward orientation will not allow it mount as designed on to the plate.


This is due to where my a/c dryer is mounted. Depending on your truck's configuration, this may not be an issue. This is how my 00 5VZ with no external trans cooler is set up. There was no way for me to slide the dryer over.


Ultimately, I decided it best to mount the winch backwards. The plan then became to swap the directional leads from the head to the winch to allow it to run backwards with the cable still spooling from the bottom and the trigger to operate out as out and in as in. It worked when testing before mounting.


Here you can see that the winch will now mount properly on the plate


And there is no issue with the dryer location


Another mockup pic


Now it was time to see how and if it was even possible to have this mounted with the front bumper in place. Besides, that's the whole point behind this thread anyway.
I actually expected that I would have to trim the corners of the plate and was willing to do so if need be as long as everything else would fit. To my surprise, I didn't have to trim anything, and it fit like a glove!


Another bumper on mockup


Full frontal bumper on mockup


How the setup will look from the top


The space between the winch and condenser. Roughly 1/2 inch


Inside the bumper showing the corner of the winch plate


The other side showing that there is room


Now that I know it will all fit and how I want it to fit, the time came to drill holes and commit. This pic shows where the holes are to be drilled


The passenger side


This is the center. Being that the winch has to mount on to the plate from below, the bolt heads extend down below the winch plate. These holes allow for the heads to sit inside and the plate will sit flush just like the mockup.


Driver's side


I used a step bit to drill all of the holes. This is from the underside of the frame and is an access hole only so that a nut can be attached to the bolt above.


Passenger underside, same thing


Now that the holes were drilled, I mocked it up again just to ensure I made my marks correctly and that everything would line up as planned.


Here's the other side


Now it's time to secure the bolts. The bolts I used to mount the plate to the frame are 10x1.25x35. Being that the front crash bar sits higher that the frame, it was necessary to put a nut in between the plate and the frame on the back side as a spacer so that everything sits level.


Here's the passenger side


Mounted front view


Another


And another


Now to mount the bumper again to find where to cut the hole for the fairhead.


I'm mad at this a bit because I measured it left to right and had it centered when tracing. You'll see later on about this


After cutting, I found that the hole for the fairhead is about 1/4 off to the right. Even though I measured perfect and centered the mount to the frame and centered the fairhead to the bumper, it's somehow off center. Oh well, I can fix that later.


Fully mounted bumper shot


Next attach the winch rope to the winch and pretension as directed by the winch owner's manual.


Fairhead closeup


Finished product of a true hidden winch behind the OEM steel bumper on a 1st Gen Tundra.

 

Looks awesome!

What size are those bolts?

 

That was fast

 

That was extremely fast!

I am interested to hear more about the bolts/holes/shim that are holding this plate on here!

 

Here’s the kit
https://www.4wheelparts.com/product/smittybilt-winch-mounting-hdw-97495-43

 

It took me about 6 hours from start to finish

 

I had to trim off those same “ears” on top of the frame horns to get my bumper to mount flush.

Looks sharp, man.

 

Excellent work and great picture tutorial. I might need to do this. 40% for hunting and 4wheelin and 60% to pull my truck into the garage when it breaks down.

 

Damn good job, need to do this in the future when I do more solo trips

 

Looks great! OEM+ always looks best IMO.

 

Slick

 

Wow, that looks great! Nice work and thanks for the pictorial!

 

I don't need a winch
I don't need a winch
I don't need a winch........

 

Yes. Another person to yank my 2WD truck to cool places

 

As promised, the pics are now edited with captions.

 

I want to see you use the winch. Sling it over a tree limb and lift up a kid, piñata style.

 

I should’ve actually taken a picture of me pretensioning it in the neighborhood street. I’m sure my neighbors have never seen anything like that before. I parked my wife’s car about 100 and feet up as an anchor point.

 

Do you have to pop the hood to operate the fwd/neu/rev lever?

 

Or better yet...

 

Yes, I have to pop the hood to engage and disengage the spool. I also mounted the control head right beside the left headlamp assembly that the winch control plugs into. I have a switch on order so that it doesn’t have constant power going to it from the battery. All of those will require me to pop the hood.

 

So. Many. Pics.

 

Ah yes, that one's a classic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RXV-p_Ec6Q​

 

I was wondering if anyone would recognize the source!

 

Nice work Mamba.

 

Mounted the switch today. Placed it near the control head on the hood latch support so everything is easily accessible from the front

 

China Freight has their big 12k-lb one on sale this week.

 

@KNABORES

 

I’m not in a hurry to pull the bumper back off and straighten my cut out.

I snagged a strip of this rubber door edge guard we have the we use to finish the holes we cut in the rear bumpers for trailer hitches. Same type application. Jazzes the cut up a bit.