yeah i never figured out a way to get the winch line straight out to the front once its behind the engine..

someone somewhere must have done it..i would think there must be some kind of production vehicle that has it and maybe that could shed some light on the subject

theres an interesting thread here:http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthr...28mid-mount%29 on a "foers winch" for a land rover which uses a snatch block and flared pipe to redirect the cable to the front from between the frame rails..presumably with the option to go to the back too.

the idea for an inboard winch is mainly to put the weight in a better spot and also not impact the approach angle or radiator cooling with a huge object hanging of the front bumper, right?

heres another link to it with pics Foers 4WD Winch

i barely researched it, there may be alot more in the google

"
The winch, in this case a Warn electric winch, is mounted under the floor, between the main chassis rails and immediately behind the front seats, i.e. in the centre of the vehicle, and facing to the rear. This is the optimum position for a low polar moment - that is to say it does not give the 4WD's springs a hard time. The winch cable leads out to the rear of the vehicle, around a snatch-block which is normally embedded in the rear chassis cross-member, around a second pulley and then into a tube inside the left-hand chassis rail whence it emerges from the front of the chassis (below)."


I think if you end up with a rock-crawling X5 with an inboard mounted winch you will go down in some sort of history book lol


by the x5 i meant the M62 4.4liter versus the jeep straight 6..im thinking i may have to do a timing chain/guide replacement on it and its hard to get accurate opinions on how difficult it is on here..as you can tell the usual forum swing applies from "threatened and terrified youd touch your engine" to "i regularly dismantle my engine for fun and this is no big deal"