Installed a winch on my stock (plastic) Rubicon bumper - DIY writeup

[Concentric_Killa]

I am part of the winch in the plastic bumper group now.

Used the rock jock winch plate. I did have to enlarge the frame bracket holes as they were slightly off. I should email rock jock so they do better at the manufacturing QA.

As OP mentioned, lots of trimming and fitting. The zeon barely fits with the cover.
I initially tried to save the entire center portion of the plastic fog light frame, but ended up cutting out that as well. I just need one or two zip tie squares to secure the fog light harness

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[Hootbro]

I am part of the winch in the plastic bumper group now.

Looks good!

 

[jav_eee]

One of these days I’ll get the guts (and the tools) to do this…

 

[Concentric_Killa]

One of these days I’ll get the guts (and the tools) to do this…

It honestly isn't that hard if you take your time. If you buy the factory steel bumper, you need the winch plate anyways. Might as well try this and save $1200.

 

[20Silver20]

I just finished a similar project on my 2022 Gladiator Sport. Yes, it is a 2-piece bumper and the approach is similar. The metal portion appears similar or identical. I too disassembled everything and reassembled the metal portion only, but then installed the plastic - needed to slightly trim the mating side to clear the collision absorption 'cans'.

See https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/...per-and-a-winch-educate-me.48026/post-1018374 for a view.

Very nice work!

 

[Madtom]

Which winch is that and which LOD winch plate? Best install I’ve seen and I’d like to do the same. I’m guessing 0701 plate and rc9.0 winch. What did you use to support the hawse fair lead, lod mount?Thanks

Jaymax Really loving your winch install.. Can you PM me those pictures. I plan on using the plastic bumper if i can get away with it as you seemed to really utilize the available space to the max Great idea on rotating the clutch portion to reduce the space requirements even more.

Tom

 

[Giova92]

I'll PM you and keep off this thread...but yes LOD plate, expensive very light winch, and 1/4" steel plate across frame horns then some large flat washers to space it out exactly. Pix coming your way

Lot of guys are figuring out how to use the plastic bumper with winches, I used a LOD winch plate that fits flush with front of frame horns seems real solid and powder coating was excellent, plus price was right at $149.00……Jack
Ps: Rotating the clutch handle to rear let’s you keep bumper top area intact on some basic frame winches.

Hi Jaxmax, I find your winch installation brilliant! Can you text me in pm all the details you can provide me in order to do the same? Thanks in advance

 

[1JeepFamily]

Thanks for the writeups, y'all! Gonna try it myself in the new year with:
- Harbor Freight's Apex Badland ZXR 9500 that was on sale last week.
- LoD's JWP0701 Winch Plate from Quadratec.
- A generic fairlead mount from Harbor Freight.

Happy to be finally doing this! I've been holding onto a Superwinch Winch2Go with a 4,000 lbs straight line pull. They say it can reach max pulling capacity of 8,000 lbs using an included snatch block... but I've also seen Project Farm's winch test video—so I know the advertised strength is a best-case scenario. I also doubt the Winch2Go has the rope length to use a snatch block in 95% of recovery situations.

 

[AverageJoe]

Thanks for the writeups, y'all! Gonna try it myself in the new year with:
- Harbor Freight's Apex Badland ZXR 9500 that was on sale last week.
- LoD's JWP0701 Winch Plate from Quadratec.
- A generic fairlead mount from Harbor Freight.

I went with the LoD plate and the Harbor Freight fairlead mount. You may find that you will need spacers between that fairlead mount and the outer bumper skin. I went with Max4x4Chris method of using 2 fairleads from Amazon as spacers to fill that gap. They're hidden inside the bumper and take up the space very nicely. Or you can use steel shims to fill that space. You will need to buy longer fairlead bolts as well. They will need to go through your outer fairlead, the plastic skin, the spacers, and the fairlead mount and sandwich everything together as a solid unit.

Good luck! You will love the result.

 

[1JeepFamily]

I went with the LoD plate and the Harbor Freight fairlead mount. You may find that you will need spacers between that fairlead mount and the outer bumper skin. I went with Max4x4Chris method of using 2 fairleads from Amazon as spacers to fill that gap. They're hidden inside the bumper and take up the space very nicely. Or you can use steel shims to fill that space. You will need to buy longer fairlead bolts as well. They will need to go through your outer fairlead, the plastic skin, the spacers, and the fairlead mount and sandwich everything together as a solid unit.

Good luck! You will love the result.

So rad. I love this community. Thanks for saving me the guesswork and extra home Depot trips!

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