Badlands apex winch on rock hard aluminum bumper question

[nycbhoy]

Looking at getting the mid length aluminum bumper from rock hard and putting on a badlands apex winch. Anything I should be aware of? Good combination? Have a 22 Mojave so the light weight of the rock hard was appealing. First time winch buyer so not sure what to look out for.
Cheers

Sponsored

 

[cranbiz]

Absolutely nothing wrong with the Apex 12000lb winch. I have 2 of them. One is on my JK which is my rock crawler, the other one is on my Gladiator in the Mopar knock off steel bumper.

I use the crap out of the one on the JK. For the price, it's hard to beat it. It has very good line speed and both a wired and wireless remote. (the remote plugs into the cable for wired use)

 

[nycbhoy]

Thanks. Appreciate it. Want sure if there were potential issues installing it on the rock hard aluminum bumper.

 

[cranbiz]

Thanks. Appreciate it. Want sure if there were potential issues installing it on the rock hard aluminum bumper.

I can't see any. It's a bumper designed for a winch. The Roch Hard bumper has a large top opening which will help tremendously with that winch. The Apex winch is a big one but no larger than any other 12000lb winch. I won't lie, it is a tight fit on both of my bumpers (top openings were on the smaller side) but it fit. I did have to trim the engage handle on the JT but that is because the bull bar has a short rise. On a higher rise bull bar, it's fine.

 

[Hootbro]

Watch a few SEMA 23 videos recently and seen one where Harbor Freight has a booth and they had a physical cutaway of the APEX 12K pound winch. I have to say I was impressed with the internals and would buy one if I was in the market for it.

 

[nycbhoy]

Just picked up the winch at harbor freight. 500 after 15% coupon. Need to decide on bumper now. Probably the rock hard aluminum mid length with lowered winch plate but they also do an aluminum stubby where I assume you would mount the winch on top.

need to call to see if that has the built in skid which would replace the Mojave skid and protect the shock reservoirs.

 

[Stan H]

I personally have never trusted Aluminum but to each his own. Everything I ever hard that was aluminum went south at some point .

 

[SoCal Gunner]

That's what I'm going with... already have the mid/lowered bumper and just got my 25% HF coupon, so tomorrow I'll be picking up the winch.

Have you watched the Install video on Rock Hard?

 

[TigerInFL]

just put on their full width aluminum bumper and will be adding the Badlands winch.

i can't see any issue with putting that winch on the Rock Hard bumper.

it's an awesome looking bumper as well.

 

[SoCal Gunner]

It's funny, I just hopped on to look for wiring tips, routing, etc and here we all are doing the same bumper/winch combo.

 

[SoCal Gunner]

Just picked up the winch at harbor freight. 500 after 15% coupon. Need to decide on bumper now. Probably the rock hard aluminum mid length with lowered winch plate but they also do an aluminum stubby where I assume you would mount the winch on top.

need to call to see if that has the built in skid which would replace the Mojave skid and protect the shock reservoirs.

The bumper has a built in skid plate that covers the Mojave reservoirs. Not sure why everyone (myself included) was so worried about losing the factor skid - got to shed some more weight!

 

[SoCal Gunner]

just put on their full width aluminum bumper and will be adding the Badlands winch.

i can't see any issue with putting that winch on the Rock Hard bumper.

it's an awesome looking bumper as well.

It fits just fine - the rock hard even comes with extra spacers to push the bumper out an extra bit to deal with the apex wiring coming straight out the back (into your grill).

 

[Andy29847]

Looking at getting the mid length aluminum bumper from rock hard and putting on a badlands apex winch. Anything I should be aware of? Good combination? Have a 22 Mojave so the light weight of the rock hard was appealing. First time winch buyer so not sure what to look out for.
Cheers

I have the full width Rockhard steel bumper and an Apex winch on my Gladiator. I did a write up in the install.

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...d-full-width-bumper-install.38206/post-617563

 

[SoCal Gunner]

I have the full width Rockhard steel bumper and an Apex winch on my Gladiator. I did a write up in the install.

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...d-full-width-bumper-install.38206/post-617563

Wish I saw your winch wire reroute before I intsalled mine! Great tips - thanks for the share.

 

[Aleph]

I found an issue with the Badland and the RockHard aluminum bumper with lowered winch plate. The bolts provided by Badland are too short to accommodate the provided steel reinforcement plates and need to source a longer bolt.

Sponsored