My K5 Blazer Story.

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Been too cold and too busy to do anything on the t-case. But I did manage to get a correct rear bearing housing from another member over on CK5. All the housings need cleanup, but I've got all the parts to get moving on that.

Though a couple of months back I did something to change the truck in the front end again. My original Warn Premium winch bumper took on more damage on Steel Bender in Moab (quite the appropriate name I think) and added with the damage it took from a snow wheeling trip where it actually was torn, it was time to retire it from abuse. The free to me Warn XD9000i winch was still capable but was going to need some love in the motor department. I had an intermittent condition where the motor wouldn't respond to the switch input without tapping on the motor itself to get it to work.

I've been following a new company that caters to old squarebody trucks and started out making sweet shackle brackets to replace tow hooks for safer recoveries and slick winch mounts that hide behind stock bumpers. Look them up over at Engineered Vintage on Instagram or online. They posted a coming soon item as a replacement for the long discontinued "bumper in a box" type bumpers sold by Warn and other winch manufacturers back in the day. Anybody that has shopped for one on craigslist, FB marketplace or even at a swap meet have found that the owners think they were cast out of gold or something. If you happen to lay eyes on them they have decades worth of abuse, the mounts require work or all new parts and usually full on restoration. On top of that they are not that "beefy" in the mount department to start with. The last one I found online wanted $1500 for a very crusty one.

So the Engineered Vintage solution is to get the look right with much much stronger structure and mounting. It's the spitting image of a vintage Warn bumper but 10 times stronger. So the day he opened up the ordering I put my order in over my morning toast. I clicked another box on the order for the winch I planned to run. As they have been come to be known as the "one winch to rule them all" otherwise known as the old school but fast and strong Warn 8274 upright winch. I got mine by horse trading a set of squarebody hydraulic clutch/brake pedals to a buddy that needed them and he was willing to let go of the winch.

It fits my plan to have the vintage look and feel, but with a modern twist. In this case I've got a list of part numbers to update the 1977 built winch to today's 8274-70 specs with the 6.5 hp motor and modern albright contactor relay over the old solenoids. The mechanical bits have very little changes, but the motor and relay bump the winch weight rating up from 8,000 pounds to a full 10,000 pounds. Combined with 125 feet of synthetic rope it will be a combination that will be hard to beat.

Two of these boxes showed up a couple days before the holiday. Merry Christmas to me!

Looking good so far..


Thick lazer cut goodness.


The winch is crusty, but all there. Plus the freespool handle isn't frozen like many this age normally are.