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And always use grade 8 mounting hardware.
That's what I always thought until my friend gave me a Warn 8274 that was on a truck he just sold. I just bought a Warn mounting kit so I can mount the 8274 on my 80 CJ-5 and am surprised that the winch plate is basically held to the Jeep by 4 grade 5 7/16" UNC carriage bolts. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

ANSI Standard grade 8 bolts are the only way to go. Some machine tool purchasers mandate grade 8 screws in all assemblies, Grade 5 is a bean counter at warn saving 0.3 cents per bolt over 10,000 units sold!


I tend toward over engineering bolts also...however the shear of 4 7/16" bolts is enormous compared to the tug of the winch. Common no. 5 bolts are holding most of the winches in this country as I type... Did anyone EVER hear of a winch popping all 4 bolts? Didn't think so..
If the winch came with bolts...use em is my advice..
Big JIm <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />
Just as a followup, this is what I decided to do. I had these two tow hooks that I've been wanting to mount on the front of the Jeep for a long time. I ended up enlargening the front hole on the winch mount to accept a 1/2" bolt and drilled another hole to accomodate the rear tow hook hole. The hardest part was filing the holes square in the frame mount as those are square necked grade 5 carriage bolts.
[img][image]http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj71/canoly/winchmount.jpg[/img][/image]

Last edited by 80CJ; 02/10/08 05:39 AM.