Why do 4Runners hide the winch?

Who makes a winch mount for the 5th gen that doesn't hide the winch and let it ride under the stupid TSS s*** stain plate. I don't want my winch buried inside the front end and I have to work around the TSS contraption

 

I don’t know of any option that fits what your posting. You could get with a custom fabricator or if you know how you can build your own. I bought the only full bumper that I could find at the time that took into account the TSS. I surely don’t have a problem with my setup and I have used the winch on more than 1 occasion (just never to recover myself).

 

How do you get into work on the winch if you have issues with it if it's buried inside the front end like that

 

To each their own, but the only way id have one on my rig is hidden.

 

Because of the way it looks or to protect it?

 

Yep

 

Approach angle comes ro mind along with suspension and weight leverage and a few other things. Who often do you need or want to be "dicking" with your winch? Besides getting to the clutch lever. Put it in, and put the thing to work. If your dicking with it more than using it, seems counter productive. But like i said, to each their own mate. Im sure some one could fab you something up that hangs out like a sore thumb. Happy adventures mate.
Edit/also, i dont even know what tss is, and seems that im glad i dont. Speaking of dicking with stupid shit.
Best of luck whatever road you go down mate.

 

Jeep TJ/JK/JL front ends and bumpers are engineered dramatically different. With Jeeps, the winch still sits on the forward portion of the "horns" of the front end frame but attached to cross members. Toyota doesn't have such a design. You'd be hanging a metric shit ton of weight on the front end that will affect everything. Front tires sit further back to the actual front end of Jeeps giving more room to mount across the frame. In other words, the distance from the front of the engine to the front of the frame in a JK/JL is longer than a 4th or 5th Gen:

Braking - Rebound and compression would necessitate upgrading spring rate at bare minimum with every non ATV rated application.
Suspension droop - Would be exacerbated compared to a JK/JL, again due to distance of mounting compared to spring mount.
Approach angle - I'd think a pretty significant amount unless the mount was partially above the hood line.
Exposure - While the sturdiness in winch design has gotten better, enclosure does help reduce exposure to dust and ice.
Radiator air flow - Jeeps have a larger frontal intake and more open design to allow air in, around and to exit the engine bay much more easily, mostly due to the Pentastar motor being a naturally warmer running engine. Toyota, not so much. Air flow would be compromised and that would need to be addressed, especially in very hot and very cold climates.

When I was younger, SHOW and GO were equal footing. Now its all function, but make it look good too.

 

ARB puts it in a position kind of close to where I'd like it to be but I just don't want all the extra weight just a simple heavy duty winch mount without hacking half of the bumper off. But then the pain in the ass TSS is the issue

 

This just looks funny to me for some reason

 

Give the man a front hitch and he can run a winch on that, accessible 360 degrees and fast to remove.

I'll stick with the hidden one though.

 

My brother did this for his Taco and put the winch on a receiver. He said that way he can put it in the front or back when needed but stores it in his bed.

 

Who makes that bumper?

 

Why do 4Runners hide the winch?

Simple. 4Runner owners would like to believe their rig is so capable, a winch is never needed. However, they know better, so hiding it is a compromise. You have a winch, but maybe no one will notice...having it out there in front of God and everybody is sort of like admitting defeat.

 

It kinda all boils down to what personally floats your boat. Coolness is in the eye of the beholder while functionality is... functionality. When the two come together you have scored.

 

Not true whatsoever. I have a winch to help pull everyone else out . But you know since I actually do wheel I have it there just in case I need it.

Lil b’s custom fab

I can reach in there just fine. But if I need to remove the winch I unfortunately have to remove the bumper. I don’t know if it would come out the backend. But it is not a big deal on the rare occasion I need to work on it. How often do you plan on working on your winch?

 

It’s kind of nice to have that synthetic winch line protected from the weather and UV.

 

Lots of good points here!

I prefer having it hidden in the bumper. It's more protected from the elements and thieves. I even chose the Warn Sidewinder specifically because it covers the line and protects it.

Accessing the clutch lever is easy enough by reaching behind the grill from above. If I need to work on it, I can have the grill off and winch removed in a few minutes.

I really haven't seen any bumpers that leave it exposed like a Jeep. A custom bumper might be cool, but might cause issues with TSS.

 

It’s not really “buried” on a 4Runner. It is just behind the grille and a couple strips of plastic. You could always install a hidden winch mount and cut the plastic from in front of it.

 

Maybe we should take it a step further by removing the fenders and hood so the engine is exposed too. That would make maintenance easier.

 

Recently I chopped out one section of grille so as to allow clutch access without opening the hood...

 

You don't open the hood while you winch? When I was helping on a recovery, a guy told me to leave it open in case something goes flying. Seemed like a good idea, so now I always do.

 

Oh like it adds a layer of protection if you are inside the cab? I guess that sort of makes sense.

I don't open it though. Until I cut out the grille I had to open it to manipulate the clutch but I would close it before winching. I guess I could have saved a step and been safer all this time!

 

Yeah, I had never thought of it before that. I certainly hope to never need it, but I'd much rather have a snatch block or shackle total my hood than come through the windshield, LOL!

 

You can always go full Australian with a bumper and winch sticking out 5 feet in front of the truck.

 

Nope