MileMarker Winch, Power Steering pump, and Front Bumper Installation on a 1986 – 1996 F250
The winch is a hydraulic Mile Mark 2 speed
10500 unit. I purchased it from Summit Racing for 729 US with shipping. Installation took a Saturday
afternoon. Unfortunately performance wasn’t what I expected, first
time using it I had to rev the engine up just to get it to pull in low
range. Second time out my power steering pump quit with 30 feet of
cable rolled out. For some still unknown reason the pump started
to work again long enough to get the cable reeled in. We figured
it must be a bad pump, it would whine a lot even during normal driving.
So I ordered a pump from AGR, after the installation it was like I had
two winches. The power is incredible. At idle it pulled my
truck through 35" deep mud without problems and even allowed me to steer
at the same time. The AGR pump is worth the $120.
In case you are wondering the bumper is
made by Sterling
Equipment, they were the only company I could find which made a tube
bumper with a winch mount for the full size truck. They also were
able to compensate for my 3" body lift, added mounts for toe hooks, and
the wrap around brush guards. Total cost was $535 US.
The final thing done was a set of 35" Super
Swamper SSR Radials mounted on American Racing 16×8 Baja rims. If
you like the Baja rims and are offered the Eagle rims instead insist on
the American Racing rims. The Eagle only have 2200 lb load rating,
the Baja have a 3100 lb rating. The best thing is they are the same
price as the Eagle rims. The tires and rims cost $1142 with $87 shipping
at 4 Wheel Parts Wholesaler.
The 5th time out wheel’n I cut a sidewall on a rock. 4WPW has an
‘offroad’ hazard warranty. I got a free replacement tire after sending
in pictures of the damaged tire, but had to pay $40 in shipping.
Oh well better than $180 for a new tire.
The truck has no suspension lift but does
have a 3" body lift. Plenty of clearance for the 35" tires.
Ah, now i am ready to pull the wimpy 5.0
for a real engine…
Here it is:
About the people who did the work:
Greg Carter is an Electrical Engineer but
spends his time writing security protocol code for Entrust
Technologies.
Steve Shaw is a Mechanical Engineer who
designs military killing machines (really!) for Computing
Devices Canada a subsidiary of General Dynamics.
