I have purchased a new Superwinch 8500 for my 2005 Wrangler. When I ordered the winch I missed the fact that it didn't come with a mounting plate so I then ordered a Superwinch 2302294 Mount Plate and Roller Fairlead. When it came I found that the bottom plate was too big (ie too long, front to back). It would not mount on my front bumper due to the torsion bar (or whatever you call it) that is under the plate right behind the bumper. See photo.
I am sure others have had this challenge. Any suggestions for a newbie?
Thanks
That looks like a Universal mounting plate. Send it back and get one specifically for a TJ. I have a Warn mounted to a RC flat winch plate I bought a while back for $69.
I would however recommend a raised winch plate. I had to drill holes in the top of my aftermarket bumper, for the winch bolts to pass through, to get the plate to sit flat.
I run RC's mounting plate. $60. My winch mounted to it with no issues, and it bolted to the stock holes. I did too, however, have to drill two holes in my aftermarket bumper to get the winch plate to sit flat. Not a big deal at all, took all of 15 minutes.
I am running the smittybilt raised winch plate in the link above and had 0 issues installing or winching with it. I like the looks of the raised winch plate better than the flattie.
I don't know what anyone else did but I removed the plastic cover for the install. Then I cut & trimmed it, then I reinstalled it. I didn't like the way it looked without it.
if the winch mounting plate is to sit level with the front face of the bumper, it needs to be raised in order to clear the sway bar. the plastic thing needs to come off. Warn makes a raised winch plate for this exact purpose.
Winch with standard mounting holes...
and a Rugged Ridge Mounting plate.
Mounting the winch took about an hour.
all hole lined up (as they were meant to...)
Took me about 3 hours to get the solenoid mounted under the hood where the ABS pump is meant to be...
I needed to get 3 x 1.5m of cable to run from the solenoid to the winch...
The winch has wireless, so i will hopefully rarely need to access it...
Play time next weekend...
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