Another winch in a plastic bumper.

[ChrisNLA]

If you follow Mav’s build he used two cheap Amazon hausers for spares to fill the gap between plastic and fairlead, perhaps using a 3/8” coupling nut fasten to fairlead , then mount it all up and put bolts through hauser into the coupling nut. If all of this doesn’t help walk away do something perhaps drink a beer and come back and look at it, it’s nice to have the winch pretty covered up and concealed…..Jack

I have all three sandwiched together and bolted to the fairlead mount with one very long high grade bolt. Went to Lowes to find the right length. The plastic bumper cover is actually sandwiched between the first and second fairlead. Keeps the plastic very rigid and minimal hardware used (no couplers to lose strength with, etc).

I preferred my winch to be open on top so I could easily access the release lever and monitor cable to make sure its rolling in evenly. Also my solenoid box is mounted on top to the side. I know everyone has a different preference though for final appearance.

Edit: Maybe I should make a short video showing how its done and a little more up close on some of the details.

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[jav_eee]

Need to make a few changes but it’s (mostly) done. I don’t like how far the license plate sticks out, thats really all I have left to do.

 

[fireproof69]

Need to make a few changes but it’s (mostly) done. I don’t like how far the license plate sticks out, thats really all I have left to do.

I’m liking yours the best of all I’ve seen in the plastic bumper! I’d like to know the winch brand/model, and any specifics to duplicate what you have.

Is the plate on a magnetic bracket? I’d love to see a couple close front shots without it. Here in OK we don’t run front plates.

 

[jav_eee]

I’m liking yours the best of all I’ve seen in the plastic bumper! I’d like to know the winch brand/model, and any specifics to duplicate what you have.

Is the plate on a magnetic bracket? I’d love to see a couple close front shots without it. Here in OK we don’t run front plates.

Thanks! it’s a 12k smittybilt x20 that I’ve had for about 8 years. LOD mount plate. I could’ve mounted the solenoid under the hood and kept everything “covered” but I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait for the material to arrive to extend cables and all that. I did have to use all the spacers that LOD included in the kit which left a could have the tow hook bolts a tad bit too short for my liking. Thinking of how to correct that. Might need to either trim the stock grill or go with a 2024 version.

the license plate mount is from Amazon. It slides in behind the hairless. I got it because I have the factor 55 flatlink e AND I live in Texas where we have to run front plates. The X20 hawse fairlead got mounted behind the bumper because the wife said “black looks better”. So the Amazon fairlead got mounted on the outside.

I’m waiting for some parts to finish the install, hoping to clean it up a bit. I’ll post my results when it’s done. If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask.

 

[Jaxmax]

Nice job Jav_eee, welcome to the plastic winch bumper club…Jack

 

[jav_eee]

Nice job Jav_eee, welcome to the plastic winch bumper club…Jack

Thanks! The cost and weight of a steel “winch” bumper just didn’t add up for me.

 

[jav_eee]

Getting the fair leads mounted problem has been solved. Nutserts! I drilled the fairlead mount holes a hair bigger and set some M12 nutserts into them. Now I can remove/repkace/modify my license plate holder without having to pull the bumper and fairlead mount off. Still need to modify the plate mount to suck it in a bit.

 

[jav_eee]

Got a chance to modify the plate holder. It looks much better now. Just don’t look too close because I left some tool marks haha

Also, sorry for riding this thread so much with my own posts, but it’s one of the ones that motivated me to do this so I’m hoping my pics help the next guy.

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