Jeep Wrangler Forum banner

Hidden Winch

10K views 48 replies 24 participants last post by  F1LOCO 
#1 ·
Ok, here we go. I have been looking at all of you stock bumper hidden winch guys, took your info and ran with it. Here is the first real mod I have made. It's not finished, I still have to cut the two bumpers and mount them but it looks like all the tough stuff is done with. Smittybilt XRC-8, Harbor Freight universal winch mount. This afternoon I am going to re-spool the cable and cut the bumpers, put in the spacers and mount the Fairlead. It is all wired up and ready to go. Whwn it is finished I will post all of the step by step pics and info on each step like the rest of you did. Thanks to everybody who ever posted info on this, it made it much easier. Special thanks to Sharkbite who e-mailed me a couple of times being that for the most part I was following his plans on this.
 
#6 ·
Here is the next step. I realize the metal and plastic bumper need to be mounted together but I finished the mods to the metal bumper and slapped it on just for fun. I will finish the mod to the plastic bumper tomorrow, just need to cut the hole for the cable, drill the holes for the fairlead, measure and cut the spacers for the bolts that will mount the fairlead to the winch plate. Special shout out to Roll Former Corperation in Chalfont PA, my buddy works for them, they manufacture Roll Forming Machinery, that's where I cut all my metal om one of thier milling machines, made everything look professional. In case anyone is planning on doing this mod, beware of where you mount the plate, forward or pushed back on the frame rails, this affects many things. It affects whether you freespool lever can be manipulated and also affects how much cutting you have to do to the metal bumper. I mounted mine somewhat forward and had to notch out a coupl of spots on top and had to cut out a lot of the bottom, the metal bumper was hitting the winch and I had to cut away some of the bumper to fit. Also if you plan on keeping your fog lights be aware of this as well, if you mount it too far forward you will have trouble with you fog loghts clearing the motor and the other side of the winch. Heres a pic of the last mod to the metal bumper. Looks meaner like this than it will with the plastic one reinstalled.
 
#8 ·
Thanks. The credit has to go to all the other folks that posed this mod in the past. Huge amounts of info, I actually got a chance to pick what I liked best from each one; type of mounting plate, fairlead location, solonoid location, ect...
 
#9 ·
Final product! It looks great! I wound up using some heavy duty aluminum block pieces with a hole milled through them as the spacers between the fairlead and the mount, worked out great, extra strength. Again have to give a shout out to the guys at Roll Former Corporation, their guys in the shop helped me with the milling!
 
#10 ·
On Monday i get my stubby conversion kit from Quadratec, then I will cut the bumper down and put the stubby end caps on to finish the deal.
 
#16 ·
Huge mess? I dont understand? Any steele cable or any cable for that matter needs to be re-spooled under load. You can't look right at it to see how it is getting spooled perfectly but if your really anal and need it spooled perfectly then I don't know. I figure if it winds up being an issue I might wind up going with synthetic line. I don't really forsee a problem, worst case scenario I would need to re-spool it after I got someplace where I could look at it from underneath.
 
#17 ·
Hope it works for you, looks awesome all tucked away clean. Yea, I'm thinking I will swap to synthetic! I've always had isses with the cable bunching up in one spot and under heavy pulls turning into a pain in the butt. Never used, or been with someone with synthetic, sounds like the way to go...
 
#19 ·
That looks really great, almost factory made...excellent work!

Are you concerned with being able to fully access the winch's nooks and crannies after wheeling to get it thoroughly cleaned (if you care)?
 
#20 ·
I can get in there. I really researched a lot of other installs like this and tried to take the best from each one and do it on mine. I trimmed away some of the underneath of the metal bumper for more access. You have a lot of access from underneath, I may even have enough access to drop the winch out of there if I have to work on it. Lets hope I never have to do that. Some of the other guys that did this install said there are some pitfalls. I guess if your out rocking a lot you could bend the frame crossbar underneath and that winds up limiting access to the free spool lever and the winch itself.
 
#25 ·
Looking at this is making me want to go that route...until I buy a JCR bumper. I gues I need a winch first though.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top