Gary Lewis

Looks good, Chris! On the winch, with as much concrete you have below you should be good to mount the winch on the drawbar. However, I doubt many drawbars are rated at what your winch is capable of pulling, meaning 5000 lbs. The issue is that drawbars expect the majority of the load to be in tension, like trying to stretch them as you tow the trailer. But you would be using it as if you had 5000 lbs of tongue weight on it, and I don't think it will take that w/o bending where it comes out of the receiver. If what your are going to pull comes easily then maybe you'd be ok. But, you don't have any way of keeping the drawbar in the receiver, so you need to make sure that you never have any upward forces. And the only way of doing that is to make sure that the winch is higher than where the hook is attaching to the vehicle. The higher you go the more leverage you have, and at some point the leverage times the pulling force will be greater than the wall of the drawbar can stand. I think the safest thing is a plate that goes on the floor and uses the bolts in the floor to hold it down and a piece of the drawbar to prevent it from sliding. Next is to use just the bolts in the floor. Last is to just use the drawbar in a vertical position and the winch attached to it. So, if it were me I'd make the plate w/a piece of drawbar through it for use in the garage. Then I'd weld a plate to another drawbar that could be put in the receiver of any vehicle whenever. It only takes 4 bolts to swap the winch to another plate. I do that from the front of Big Blue to my trailer. And, speaking of moving it, you'll need to be able to connect your battery to it. While you can disconnect via the connections on the battery or winch, take a look at the connectors I used on Big Blue, shown in this post.

That is a whole lot of truck for the money! In many ways it is comparable to Big Blue, and I wouldn't part with him for anything near that little. I think it is an original dual-battery setup or it wouldn't have the coolant recovery reservoir in the right location with the right bracket. But, that looks like a Bricknose reservoir, not a Bullnose. And he's rewired between the batteries with a massive cable across the top of the radiator support - unless that's for the winch, which it might be as there's a knife switch on that cable. It has what looks to be a vacuum gauge under the dash. And he's somehow gotten a radio of some kind, perhaps the Ham or CB, above the standard radio spot. And air horns with a compressor mounted in the bed. And, it has a tach. And a matching bed topper. Overall it is better shape than Big Blue, probably because it is a CA truck. And, he has the sun shades that may have helped a bunch on the UV exposure to the interior. If someone wants a truck like that then this one has to be a serious contender.

That makes sense - it could be a late '81 manufacturing date. Did the 300's go to feedback carb in '83? (I could look it up in the calibration codes, but I'm lazy.)

Nice truck - especially for the price. Obviously has an '82+ grille. As for the bezels, I'll defer to you. However, I like the "7 Band Graphic Equalizer" under the dash! Had one of those on some vehicle and loved it. So, somebody was into audio, and while the steering wheel blocks the view of the radio, it may have been changed out.

I used that phrase with my 6 year old grandtwins last week, and they couldn't comprehend. Turns out where they've been living, which is Nicaragua, the rice is brown. LOL;). I've learned, the hard way, that local colloquialisms don't translate well. For instance, I was giving a presentation in Germany several years ago and they stopped me several times to understand things like "out in left field" or "the whole 9 yards". And in England a guy never did get "Like, is the Pope Catholic?"

I used that phrase with my 6 year old grandtwins last week, and they couldn't comprehend. Turns out where they've been living, which is Nicaragua, the rice is brown.

That is a nice truck. Plane Jane, but straight and doesn't appear to have any rust. Plus, the interior looks good.

These things right here, the gold-colored ends (bolts + washer) are exposed: Which is exactly how I ended up feeling when I was figuring out exactly what to put into the cement... it's easy enough to add all this stuff, so why not. I don't have to use both methods together but I can, it's optional. A heavy-duty approach; typical of engineers, I guess. ;) Seriously, thank you for the idea, I will have to measure and see how large such an assembly would actually be, and where to store it when not in use. The Receiver hitch idea made perfect sense since I'd been using my brother's trailer quite a bit last year, and was already looking at how the winch mounts on that thing. That square tube stuff can be had as stock material. The thought of angle iron + some sort of small base came into my mind if I want to use only the bolts in the floor. Using only the draw bar, I'd want to effectively take your steel plate idea but flip it vertically and mount it + some supporting infrastructure (angle iron, that tube stuff, whatever) to the draw bar. And easily stored when not in use. :) To make both a plate + draw bar assembly, um, hmm.... I'll have to take some measurements.... Storing the HD arrangement with the drawbar and bolts would be more difficult, for sure. But the bolt-only arrangement should be easy to store. However, a drawbar-only approach puts the winch high enough above the floor that there is considerable leverage, and unless you have a lot of concrete around that receiver in the floor that may be a problem. And, even if you do you'll have to look at your winch to see if it can be used vertically. Some have a cover over the spool so can't. And even if yours can the piece will be difficult to store as the drawbar will be sticking out. But, it would be handy to use on a vehicle that has a receiver.

Looks GOOD!

Ahhhh! My bad! You are absolutely right! Good catch.

I paid $600 for Rusty, and his engine ran - although the rear diff was blown. But, that's a lot of parts for $500.

Nice carpet.

Keep in mind that if you space the winch up using loose spacers that you will be putting the bolts in bending rather than shear. That makes the bolts holding the winch to the plate much less strong. If you attach the spacers to the plate (strongly enough to not break free), then you will still have the bolts in shear. Good point. I was expecting the drawbar to take the load though.

Not a bad truck, but maybe priced a bit high. I think I got $3000 for Rusty about 18 months ago, and he had a warmed over 351M and was also 4wd. Similar tires, and a bit better interior. So, this truck may be a little bit high, but not too bad. However, maybe things go for more there. And, that's the asking price, which is where I started on Rusty too, if I remember correctly.

Yipes! And down there you'd better have mosquito spray, a snake charmer, and other protection! Not sure the truck is worth the effort, but you can't tell until you make the effort.

Someone beat you to that good deal.

Yep, I remember it. But, I don't see in the above posts what is in the concrete that the bolts screw into. I ask because my 12,000 lb winch bolts to the bumper with 4 bolts - and that's it. Granted they are the equivalent of G8's, but if what you have in the concrete is significant then you might not need the draw bar part of the equation. But, you have it so why not use it. For max strength I'd make the plate of 1/4" thick material (my Warn bumper of made of 1/4" plate) a bit bigger than the bolt holes in the floor. Put those holes in it and then lay out the holes for the winch, centered as much as you can. Then weld nuts to the backside for the winch, just tacking G8 nuts to keep the heat down. Then in the very center cut a hole just to fit the drawbar. Cut part of the drawbar off and slip it in the hole in the floor. Put the plate over it, and mark the top of the drawbar where it comes through the plate and then cut the drawbar down. To get the strongest weld you need maybe 3/8" of the drawbar above the plate so you can weld to it. But that may interfere with the winch. If so, you may need to space the winch up off the plate to clear the drawbar. You will probably find that things are off just a bit between the drawbar hole and the holes to the bolts in the floor, so those holes will need to be a bit larger than the bolts and you'll need to use washers. But that arrangement should be very strong and will easily hold the force from your winch. Have fun!

Could you make those if there was a demand?

Nice looking truck, and not a bad price at all. However, my experience shows that on a truck you cannot drive to test there's always far more wrong with it than you are told. On the other hand, for that price an a truck from Oregon it would be a good buy.

Happy to help. But I'm no guru. Just someone who spends way too much time with obtuse and obscure documentation.

I can't wait to see it all together. It is going to look awesome!

The catalog doesn't give me any measurements. All it gives me is part numbers. Here's the info from the catalog on crossmembers. It shows that Broncos from 1980 through 1989 take the same ones, and that we need Parts List #2. Here's parts lists #'s 1 and 2. Note that F means Front and R means Rear. Also note that #'s 3 & R were replaced by an F2 number, which is a 1992 part. So that means that the Broncos didn't change until after 1992. Surely that is true of all of the crossmembers, and that must also include the skid plates.

The Bullnose trucks are coming into their own. Bumps and Dents have been sought after, but more and more folks realize that ours are old trucks as well, and with their slab sides and sharp corners don't look like the newer trucks that are hard to tell apart. When the guy with the '81 Flareside comes invite him to join the forum.

Perfect! I took out your pic from my post.

I have skid plates here: Driveline/Skid Plates. And if you look all the Broncos (U150) took the same one from 1980 through the end of the catalog, which was 1989. Since my catalog stops at '89 I can't say about the later ones. However, the D8TZ prefix means it was designed in 1978 (D=1970's), so I'd bet the same rear skid plate was used from 1978 through at least 1989. As for crossmembers, which one are you looking for? Here are the Bronco crossmembers and if you tell me which one(s) I can look up the part numbers and what years they fit.