I still can't get to my garage yet to get a picture for you. I don't understand your concern about the mounting plate. It just bolts on with 4 bolts. It in no way that I can see interferes with my trail armor a-arm skids. The plow itself hangs off that bracket with a couple of hitch pins, and the winch cable is attached to the plow to lift or lower the plow itself. Maybe I don't see the whole picture that you are concerned about. I do know that this set up (for me anyway) worked great last winter. I did a considerable amount of plowing. And in the spring I also used it to push all the gravel back onto my road where I scraped off more than I should have. The main reason I bought this P1K, was to plow and work around my property. Now that I have done that, the P1K has become very useful in my day to day life here. There is no way I could maintain my land without this machine. I don't care about heat coming up from the engine compartment, dust or whatever. To me its just a very reliable piece of equipment, that has never failed me. Its my opinion, and I do mean just my opinion, is that if you want more comfort, but a Jeep. Its probably cheaper, and almost the same size. I'll take a real transmission over a belt drive any day , I feel this P1K will last a long time. It ain't fancy, but the more I service and maintain this machine the more I see how strong it is.
Rant is over.