It seems I've been working on my winch install for a year. Between Christmas, work and life in general I haven't been able to finish anything.
I bought my Pioneer in mid October and had my dealer install a hard roof. After taking the Queen for a ride she mandated a windshield, so I ordered and installed a Honda two piece hard coat.
With deer season fast approaching I needed a gun rack. Amazon to the rescue. I used factory roll bar clamps like hold the roof on and fabed up the brackets out of 1" tube. No time to paint it ( good thing) as I finished it up the day before season opened.
During deer season I discovered that with the windshield that dusting was horrible so a hard rear panel was going to be a must have. My local dealer had one but the way I work I wasn't going to be able to pick it up for over a week. I ordered a winch from Amazon that week, free two day shipping! Great I can be figuring out how I'm going to build my mounting bracket while I'm off at night and waiting to go pick up my rear panel. Wrong on the two day shipping, that turned in a week. I guess they mean two days after they decide to ship. LOL
The first day I'm off I was going to pick my hard panel but decided to call before I drove down there. So I call and talk to my parts guy, yep it's here. Okay lay your hands on it before I drive down. After a few minutes on hold he comes back, they don't have it. They had installed it on a new unit a month before and it wasn't taken out of inventory. This was Friday so they order me one, should be there Tuesday. Great except it'll be Friday before I can be off work to pick it up.
No problem I can finish my winch mount and fab a bumper to protect the winch. I finally get the mount and bumper fitted, welded up, painted, mounted to the 1000 with the winch on. Finished the wiring and mounting the solenoid. Ahhh, I forgot to order the Positap! So Amazon to the rescue again, I have no illusions of having them in two days this time and I was right.
Now the hard panel is here but I can't put it on with the headache rack on as the bed won't tilt and I don't want to take the headache rack off until we take our deer stands down. Waiting until my brother and I are both off so we can do it together takes a few days. With the stands down I took off the rack and started installing the rear panel.
Remember the gun rack mount I mentioned earlier? The clamps on the rear of the mount on the roll bar were within 1/2" of being in perfect alignment for the rear hard panel! So the gun rack comes out and the rear panel installs without a hitch. Yesterday my positaps come in and I cut the gun rack down and refitted the tabs after moving the clamps and welded it back up. Today I installed it to make sure I didn't tweak it when welding. Everything fit fine so I cleaned it up and started painting it. I also finished the wiring by installing the positap and my winch works great.
While typing this novel I also put on a big pot of chili. Sitting here at the computer one of my eyes started itching so I rubbed it. Didn't take but a second to remember I didn't wash my hands after cutting up the jalapenos! After a good scrub with hot soapy water I'm finally no longer crying.
Sorry for such a long post, just wanted to give you guys a glimpse of how my days go. LOL.
I bought my Pioneer in mid October and had my dealer install a hard roof. After taking the Queen for a ride she mandated a windshield, so I ordered and installed a Honda two piece hard coat.
With deer season fast approaching I needed a gun rack. Amazon to the rescue. I used factory roll bar clamps like hold the roof on and fabed up the brackets out of 1" tube. No time to paint it ( good thing) as I finished it up the day before season opened.
During deer season I discovered that with the windshield that dusting was horrible so a hard rear panel was going to be a must have. My local dealer had one but the way I work I wasn't going to be able to pick it up for over a week. I ordered a winch from Amazon that week, free two day shipping! Great I can be figuring out how I'm going to build my mounting bracket while I'm off at night and waiting to go pick up my rear panel. Wrong on the two day shipping, that turned in a week. I guess they mean two days after they decide to ship. LOL
The first day I'm off I was going to pick my hard panel but decided to call before I drove down there. So I call and talk to my parts guy, yep it's here. Okay lay your hands on it before I drive down. After a few minutes on hold he comes back, they don't have it. They had installed it on a new unit a month before and it wasn't taken out of inventory. This was Friday so they order me one, should be there Tuesday. Great except it'll be Friday before I can be off work to pick it up.
No problem I can finish my winch mount and fab a bumper to protect the winch. I finally get the mount and bumper fitted, welded up, painted, mounted to the 1000 with the winch on. Finished the wiring and mounting the solenoid. Ahhh, I forgot to order the Positap! So Amazon to the rescue again, I have no illusions of having them in two days this time and I was right.
Now the hard panel is here but I can't put it on with the headache rack on as the bed won't tilt and I don't want to take the headache rack off until we take our deer stands down. Waiting until my brother and I are both off so we can do it together takes a few days. With the stands down I took off the rack and started installing the rear panel.
Remember the gun rack mount I mentioned earlier? The clamps on the rear of the mount on the roll bar were within 1/2" of being in perfect alignment for the rear hard panel! So the gun rack comes out and the rear panel installs without a hitch. Yesterday my positaps come in and I cut the gun rack down and refitted the tabs after moving the clamps and welded it back up. Today I installed it to make sure I didn't tweak it when welding. Everything fit fine so I cleaned it up and started painting it. I also finished the wiring by installing the positap and my winch works great.
While typing this novel I also put on a big pot of chili. Sitting here at the computer one of my eyes started itching so I rubbed it. Didn't take but a second to remember I didn't wash my hands after cutting up the jalapenos! After a good scrub with hot soapy water I'm finally no longer crying.
Sorry for such a long post, just wanted to give you guys a glimpse of how my days go. LOL.
