[MarkPickens]

If anyone is interest, when you purchase a Polaris Front Brush Guard it comes with a bracket that attach behind the winch fairlead. I purchase my front brush guard first, then a winch a month after. So don't misplace the bracket you will need it when you get a winch. I believe the front brush guard will work with any winch mount in the same place as a Polaris winch.

 

[Scoundrel]

Good info, thanks!

 

[Mungo]

Do you have photos?

 

[Scoundrel]

See this thread: http://www.aceforums.net/forum/9-ace-talk/579-winch-mount-brush-guard.html

 

[tattoo305]

Do you think the brushguard is strong enough to mount a winch on it. The lower part of the brush guard has plenty room for a smaller winch. Question is, is the brackets that the brushguard mount to be strong enough.

 

[mustang]

Do you think the brushguard is strong enough to mount a winch on it. The lower part of the brush guard has plenty room for a smaller winch. Question is, is the brackets that the brushguard mount to be strong enough.

no way .......................the brush guard mounts are not up to the task

 

[Mungo]

For those of you that use a hawse fairlead for synthetic rope.....I encourage you to purchase either two M10 1.5 x 30MM Cap Hex head bolts, or 3/8-16 x 1.25" and matching nuts.

The fairlead will often come with 3/4" hardware so the thread will not make it all the way through the fairlead+ brush guard plate + the KFI cover plus the nylon threads of the nut.

Just an FYI.

M10 is not a size that is commonly carried by Lowes or Home Depot, but you can get stainless steel 3/8 inch hardware.

 

[Scoundrel]

The fairlead will often come with 3/4" hardware so the thread will not make it all the way through the fairlead+ brush guard plate + the KFI cover plus the nylon threads of the nut.

Indeed, I am just getting to this stage with my KFI mount and the Warn allen bolts are not long enough. The wells that the bolts go into on the fairlead are pretty deep and not very big around, so I can't get a socket in there if I use a decent sized bolt, so it's off to the store I go to look for allen bolts.

 

[Mungo]

I called them Cap hex, but allen bolts is what I used. 3/8"-16 thread x1.25".

My winch barely left me any room in there to slide a 17mm wrench and undo my original fairlead hardware. Getting in a 3/8" wrench so I could mount the new allen bolts was easier.

Putting in the driver side nut first was easier.

 

[Scoundrel]

Driver side? :biggrin:

I just found some nice Polaris cap/hex/allen bolts I removed at some point. Gonna try and use those. If I can fit the wrench back there. Might have to remove the winch and do the fairlead and brush plate first.

 

[Scoundrel]

In case anyone's wondering what the F we're talking about...

The KFI winch mount comes with carriage bolts that you can run through from the inside to attach your fairlead.
That works great for roller fairleads, but hause fairleads are shaped differently, and you may not be able to stick a nut on the other side to attach to the carriage bolt.
So you may need to put a bolt in from the front and put a locknut on the back.
But the bolts that came with your fairlead are probably 3/4" long, which is usually fine for the thickness of the fairlead plus the mounting plate.
However, the KFI mount also has a brush plate in there adding 1/8" thickness.
That means once the bolt goes through all layers of material, there is not enough thread left to engage the nylon part of the locknut.

So you need a longer nut/bolt setup, and the tricky part is that your socket might not fit down into the hole that the bolt goes into in the fairlead.

View attachment 2202 View attachment 2203

 

[Stubby]

FYI...I have a Viper 3000 on my ace. This was first, and it came with the metal lower plate that is identical to the new KFI plate. Later I installed front and rear brush guards. The rear might of taken all of ten minutes to install. It was a very simple "bolt-on". Now for the front....I got the lower front mounting plate out and carefully looked where it fit on the front. I took the fairlead off (roller one) for the wire rope. Had to use an open end wrench to get the nyloc nuts off, as there is absolutely no room to get a socket in there. At first, nothing seemed to line up with the mounting plate even tho that the mounting holes are bigger. Next I loosened up the lower two bolts of the lower metal facia sandwiched everything together and tightened all four bolts. Wal-la!!! all is fine and the origional two stove bolts were long enough for the nylock nuts.

 

[Mungo]

FYI...I have a Viper 3000 on my ace. This was first, and it came with the metal lower plate that is identical to the new KFI plate. Later I installed front and rear brush guards. The rear might of taken all of ten minutes to install. It was a very simple "bolt-on". Now for the front....I got the lower front mounting plate out and carefully looked where it fit on the front. I took the fairlead off (roller one) for the wire rope. Had to use an open end wrench to get the nyloc nuts off, as there is absolutely no room to get a socket in there. At first, nothing seemed to line up with the mounting plate even tho that the mounting holes are bigger. Next I loosened up the lower two bolts of the lower metal facia sandwiched everything together and tightened all four bolts. Wal-la!!! all is fine and the origional two stove bolts were long enough for the nylock nuts.

Very nice. The people running Hawse fairleads have it a little rougher I think because you have to go outside in and use allen bolts which are very hard to source locally in size M10 on 1.5 x 30mm.