So I recently upgraded my F150 to a F250 Stroke and it has a real nice Westin grill guard/brush guard thingy lol on the front. (i joke cause its tiny but looks good). How do I mount a winch to it or do I just get a plate to put in my receiver at the back and where? Farm and Tractor doesnt have anything or local feed/ranch stores.

I would think that would depend on what kind of winch you get.

I've got a cradle that my Warn Winch fits in and it plugs into the hitch receiver front or back of The Beast.

Did you have to custom build it?

Most winches that fit in a cradle and can be removed won't be enough to pull your new truck. Rule of thumb is 1.5x the weight of your truck, but 2x is better. Winches of #10,000 and greater are supposed to be mounted with the bolts horizontal, not vertical, essentially taking a normal winch from it's typical mounting and turning it 90 degrees. Since a larger winch needs to be mounted in such a way, cradle mounts and removable mounts are not recommend, strength reasons are #1 and the weight of a winch that large makes it a chore to move, ecspecially in the dirt. Permanently mount it to the front of your truck and you will have no problems. As far as using it with the existing brushguard, as long as you stay even with the trucks frame you should be fine, but I would add extra reinforcement, just because I overbuild things.

^^^What he said and here is why.

Winches lose pulling capicity depending how much cable is on the drum, a 9K# winch is only going to have that much pulling capicity with only a the first layer of cable on the drum, you lose generally 10-20% capacity with each layer of wire rope on the drum.

Also factor in suction/vaccum from what your stuck in, or being high centered on fram/suspension components. Also you might have to pull something out bigger than your rig or even while your rig has a heavy load on it, all things to consider.

I would definately look at 12-15K# range for anything over half ton. You could not incorpirate your brush gaurd into the mount its not strong enough, you however generally can have a winch plate fabricated that will fit between the two uprights so it looks like a 1 piece unit.

Well my first problem then is the size of the winch my dad gave me for Christmas. I think 2k lbs lol. Guess i got a good skinnin winch.

Thanks for the posts.

Don't go any smaller then 10,000lbs, and even with one that small get a snatch block, it doubles the pulling power but also makes your line speed half of what it normally is. I think smittybuilt came out with a large 15,000lb or bigger winch, that would be ideal for your new truck

I have a 2005 chevy druamax quad cab 4x4 and have the smittybilt xrc 10 which is the 10,000 lbs winch. I have a snatch block and i also have it so i can connect on the front or rear ofmy truck. With my winch and snatch block it is a 20,000 lbs pull. I have never had any problem with my winch not being able to pull me out or anything i have hooked it to. I have a grill guard on my truck and had a custom built reciever built onto it.

I may have to do that.

Like others have said, anything less than 10k won't do anything. I have a smittybilt 12k and all the associated rigging along with it for the different situations. I have a full replacement bumper with a winch mount built into it.