So... ...I had a winch cradle sitting on the bench today, and the new Shop K5 was sitting in the bay next to the fabrication area... And then there were questions about what would fit and what wouldn't...
1. I removed the factory bumper to reveal some pretty nice un-touched frame horns:
2. I bolted the driver's side mounting bracket up with no problems, then the passenger side hit the frame at the very lower leg of the "c" and caused the bolt holes to not line up properly:
3. After tapping the frame back into square with a BFH, the bracket fit properly, and all the holes lined up quite nicely!
4. Once the side brackets were on, the main cradle got bolted up. I even went so far as to re-bolt the factory anti-sway bar into place, even though it will be coming off soon. I just wanted to make sure everything fit nicely and all the holes were in the proper positions.
5. Measurement time!! Here is the distance between the framerails where the winch will mount. 23.5" on this '86 K5, which leaves 11.75" from centerline in either direction, without trimming that lower frame leg at all.
6. Height from the winch mounting base to the bottom of the radiator support with NO body lift. 8.75"
7. Stick-out past the very end of the framerail; only 1.25"
M12 warn w/ 1" body lift.
As far as the Warn M12 goes, I'm pretty shocked at Warn's website but they don't have their technical drawings available any more (at least not that I could find). It shows the mounting pattern to be the same as the winch cradle, and then it only lists overall dimensions. Height-wise you should be fine, and from the picture it looks like the solenoid box is clamped around the motor, so positioning it forward to fit shouldn't be a problem either. Width is listed at 24.375" which is a little wider than the framerails on these trucks. So the only thing I can be sure of is that you WILL have to trim the lower leg of your frame to get it up in there. Just how much, I'm not sure. Possibly quite a bit. If you already have the winch, can you get me a dimension from the center of the rope drum to the outside edge of the motor? That would tell me for sure how it will fit.
My winch is a Ramsey Patriot Profile 9500. I thought it had to be mounted feet-forward but I just looked at the owner's manual and it doesn't say anything about it. My guess is that it would be fine.
I ask about how far is stick out because I would like to build a tube bumper off of the cradle but I wouldn't want it sticking out farther than my current tube bumper. An adapter plate to weld the tubes to would be cool. I'd make a pic showing what I mean if someone posted up a side-shot.
There should be pics up above that you can see the side view in. The Ramsey Patriot Profile 9500 should fit just fine, with a slight bit of trimming to your lower framerail leg for motor clearance (their drawing shows 12.77" from centerline to outside of motor. The cradle is slotted, so you can offset the winch ever so slightly, plus the motor end is usually curved a little. Those two things will add up, but you will probably still have to trim just a bit.)
-Darren
