Zeon Platinum on a BudBuilt HWM in a 2013 Model
Older thread, but I thought the title was most appropriate to my message.
So many winches I could have gone with, but for me it boiled down to the Smittybilt X20 as the value option and the Warn Zeon as the premium option. The Zeon Platinum was just too pricey. That is until I found one on sale and Warn offered the $200 rebate. I was lost. So can you fit one of these in 2103 4Runner? Yes but it was close and it wasn't straight forward. So here we go:
First of all the winch mount holes in the BudBuilt HWM are just a bit small for the bolts that come with the winch. I would have had to ream them out a little bit so the bolts could slide through easily, but as it turns out another snag made that unnecessary. It turns out the mount holes on the Platinum are 10.125" apart, not 10" like the spec sheet says. At least the one I received was like that. Drilling the holes on the HWM out to 1/2" fixed that problem.
So the winch is bolted to the mount, and now you have to install this assembly to the bumper, which is of course removed from the truck. Unfortunately, the mount is just a smidgen to wide front to back to fit in there. The very front of the mount has a couple of tabs that should ride on the back of the aluminum bumper, but it wouldn't go in there. Believe me, I and a 3lb sledge tried. Angle grinder solved that problem.
Now lets attach the entire assembly to the frame of the truck. It's heavy and bulky, but it would have went in there if not for the horizontal support member that stiffens the upper bumper mount. I spent about an hour grinding that away, until I realized it just had to go. Notice the nice scratches on my brand new winch caused by trying to repeatedly squeeze that thing in there. By the way the winch fits under that horizontal bumper support with about an 1/8" to spare.
So now the assembly is partially bolted up, but that damn power steering line is in the way. I twisted it as much as I could in the mounts and that allowed me to bolt the assembly in, but the power steering line is pinched between the winch and the vertical support member that goes from a lower body portion to where the hood latch bolts on. I thought about just removing it, but to much flex on an already flexi hood so out with the grinder again. Room for the line now, but it won't twist anymore due to the hoses it attaches to; more work to be done there.
This picture shows the horizontal support cut off, the vertical support with a bunch of material removed, and the tight fit under the bumper support.
Finally, BudBuilt provides a u-bolt to clamp the mount to the aluminum bumper, but with this winch there is not enough room to fit standard nuts in there. Local hardware store did not half half height jam nuts in the proper size, which may not have fit anyway, so out comes the grinder again.
So is it possible? Yes, but given the cost and pain to install, I might have just chosen to wait for a good samaritan to come by and pull me out of whatever trouble I have gotten myself into. Not really. It took an entire day, but it's in. Now I need to go get stuck somewhere to make it worthwhile. :cheers:
