BlackDog
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Ryan
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2017
- Threads
- 14
- Messages
- 260
- Reaction score
- 235
- Location
- Evergreen, CO
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 Sting Gray JTR / 2005 Grand Cherokee
- Thread starter
- #1
At the advice of a friend, I decided to give the Smitty x20 a shot on this Jeep. I paired it with a RockHard 4x4 aluminum bumper, FWIW. Install was straight forward so I'm not going to go through that, but I did have a couple issues I wanted to share.
First issue: After I had the bumper and winch installed, I moved on to attach the rope to the drum so I could spool it up. I found that the screw to attach the rope to the drum was cross-threaded (or so I thought) and wouldn't come out. I decided to get it out best I could and then move on perhaps with another bolt, which resulted in the bolt shearing in half but it did come out.
That was the end of that until I could reach Smittybilt customer service the following Monday. When I called in, they asked me to email them a pic with the issue. Their customer service was great. The guy I worked with took immediate ownership of the issue and sent out a new drum. After it arrived, I called him so he could walk me through replacing the drum and it was dead simple. After I got the old drum out, I saw the issue that caused the bolt to be stuck:
Sucky phone pics but it looks like after the bolt was threaded in the drum, it somehow got hit with a drill bit or something similar that tore into the threads. Mystery solved.
Second issue: The new drum that was sent included a new bolt as well, but a different design. Instead of a completely threaded bolt like the first one, this one was only threaded near the end and the first 1/4" or so by the bolt head was smooth so it could only be screwed into the drum so far. There's probably a name for that but I don't know what it is. All fine and dandy, but the diameter of this new bolt where it was smooth was larger than the hole in the end of the winch rope. Took me a while to drill it out but all good.
Finally, the end result:
Even with the hiccups, I'm happy with the choice so far. The install was only worth commenting on due to an issue I've never heard anyone else ever having, and Smittybilt took care of it no problem. I'm looking forward to getting out to see how it performs!
First issue: After I had the bumper and winch installed, I moved on to attach the rope to the drum so I could spool it up. I found that the screw to attach the rope to the drum was cross-threaded (or so I thought) and wouldn't come out. I decided to get it out best I could and then move on perhaps with another bolt, which resulted in the bolt shearing in half but it did come out.
That was the end of that until I could reach Smittybilt customer service the following Monday. When I called in, they asked me to email them a pic with the issue. Their customer service was great. The guy I worked with took immediate ownership of the issue and sent out a new drum. After it arrived, I called him so he could walk me through replacing the drum and it was dead simple. After I got the old drum out, I saw the issue that caused the bolt to be stuck:
Sucky phone pics but it looks like after the bolt was threaded in the drum, it somehow got hit with a drill bit or something similar that tore into the threads. Mystery solved.
Second issue: The new drum that was sent included a new bolt as well, but a different design. Instead of a completely threaded bolt like the first one, this one was only threaded near the end and the first 1/4" or so by the bolt head was smooth so it could only be screwed into the drum so far. There's probably a name for that but I don't know what it is. All fine and dandy, but the diameter of this new bolt where it was smooth was larger than the hole in the end of the winch rope. Took me a while to drill it out but all good.
Finally, the end result:
Even with the hiccups, I'm happy with the choice so far. The install was only worth commenting on due to an issue I've never heard anyone else ever having, and Smittybilt took care of it no problem. I'm looking forward to getting out to see how it performs!
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