Anyone know if the Harbor Freight winches will fit? I know they sketch some of you out, but I have a 25% off coupon for this weekend. For $225 I'm willing to give it a shot.
:sadwave:
Anyone? Coupon is about to expire.
Winch mount patterns are all the same. The only problem you might have is with the roller fairlead if it is steel.
Get their 9K winch and a warn or similar Hawse fairlead.....the Badlands winch works great.:flame:
Installed this weekend, only problem I had were the support brackets ended up touching the sway bar on both sides. Ended up grinding them down a bit, pic attached.
Some have mentioned having to drill out the forward facing bracket holes, I nearly did this myself but then ended up using the jack and a piece of wood to apply some pressure from the bottom of the bracket and I was able to get the bolts through no problem. Smitty X20 was a breeze to wire up.
Next up are the RCI skids. On my stock suspension the winch and bumper dropped the front about an inch. I've got my sus gear inbound but figured I'd mention it in case anyone was planning to stay stock height with this bumper setup.
I had the same issue with my sway bars but a sway bar relocate kit solved the issues. It’s probably in your kit that’s coming
That was me. I have the bumper & winch installed already & my skids are sitting in the garage waitin for some free time so I can put them on. It looks like there may be a gap between front skid & bumper. I'd be interested to know if the filler plate will work.
My support brackets are touching my sway bars. What is the danger or issue with that? What is the purpose of the sway bar relocation kit & where can I purchase one?
Hey man just a quick follow-up on the above, the filler plate will not work without drilling new holes in the bottom of the winch bumper in addition to a few holes in the plate itself to clear the winch mount bolts. Some additional bending would be in order as well, not a huge PITA but certainly not a quick solution. Since I have it, I might mock something up in the coming weeks. I'll get a picture of me holding it in the gap, maybe you or someone else might see some alternate/easier way to fill that gap.
The relo kit consists of a few spacers that drop the 2 sway-bar mounts by about 1/4". Metal on metal is no good and I'd suspect that any bump you hit will result in clanking, if not on regular streets, certainly on trail. I'm not sure where you can grab a kit.
I've looked at a number of them in salvage yards. I've looked through a bunch online at the insurance auctions. I've yet to see a single example where the crush can collapsed and the frame didn't. That doesn't mean it can't happen - but if it does ever happen, it doesn't happen often. The airbags go off with a fairly significant margin before the crush cans collapse. I think it's fair to say that elimination of them has no bearing at all on airbags. I do think they have some value in collisions, but how much is hard to say.
I'd guess that little strip of foam adds more protection from incidental airbag deployment than everything else inside the bumper assembly.
Edit: I just went out and measured the thickness of the steel used in those bumper extensions. It's about .090. I'm guessing its 2mm and I measured a bit over. I think it's exactly the same thickness as the frame horns. So it would reason that they would collapse at about the same time. The crush cans have an area near the front with more stamped in weakening area than the frame horns - but they also have an octagonal shape that may be stronger in resisting deformation in some impacts.
Got the bumper and winch on. Looks great and works great.
Have a 3inch front 2inch rear Pro Comp lift.
This dropped my front end significantly.
Will be changing shocks and set up ASAP.