How strong do you think the drawbar is?

[Jesse]

Long story short I want to put a winch there. Not anything crazy, just a 1700 pound one.

I was thinking about mounting it to the drawbar near the middle mounts where it bolts to that triangulated part of the frame.

-Jesse

[Jesse]

Just read the manual, 1200 pounds on the bar. I could probably do better than that at my chosen location though

-Jesse

[johnrb3b]

Wow, really? Only 1,200 lbs?
I would think a 2 bottom plow in sod would pull a lot harder than 1,200 lbs, but what do I know.
We pulled four 16" bottoms in peat soil with an IH 450 which didn't have a lot more horse power than a Jeep but weighed 3 times as much and was geared with a crawl ration in the hundreds.  

[Carls_jeep]

I think you can pull much more than that with a winch using the draw bar to mount the winch to. I would not be afraid to mount a 5000 lb winch to the bar at all to pull yourself out of a gully, ditch or bog. On this trip I have hammered the hell out of the draw bar on rocks and in gully's and nothing is bent or damaged.

That spec may mean that's all the weight the Jeep will pull at the draw bar before it slips the wheels on dirt.

[Jesse]

Maybe, don't really remember how it was phrased.  I am not all that worried and will probably put the winch on. And hey think of it this way: On Tuesday the jeep got jammed into some mud and we winched it out with a 4 ton come along. Was the pull really 4 tons? No, but it was no cake walk turning that handle so it had to be at least 1,200 if not more.

I'll let you guys know how the install goes.

-Jesse

[johnrb3b]

That spec may mean that's all the weight the Jeep will pull at the draw bar before it slips the wheels on dirt.

I know a Jeep will pull more than its own weight. The old CJs were officially rated to pull their own weight.
As long as you've got traction, you can pull a hay rack with over 100 hay bales that weigh around 75 lbs - ie 4 tons. Been there, done that. You just have to go slow and give yourself a LOT of room to stop.

[Carls_jeep]

If you're going to drive over rough and rocky ground with gullys or washes to cross and the draw bar may drag it may be a good idea to leave the winch off and bolt it on when you need it. A winch on the front is some what protected by the bumper but a winch on the draw bar is ripe to be damaged.

[Jesse]

I don't know, I am sort of waffling on the subject at this point. Sort of thinking that more serious off road use will mean taking the drawbar off for clearance and maybe fitting up a smaller receiver hitch. Saw a really nice setup on a cj5 that used similar frame braces to the drawbar but was mounted right up tight to the rear crossmember.

Anyways, had a serious overheat the other day so now I have to focus on getting it fixed up again.  But that is for another thread! haha

-Jesse