Chris Crampton
Full Access Member
I installed a Warn Xeon 10S hidden behind the stock bumper with a Rough Country Winch Mount. I spent probably too much time deciding on what which and which mount, and should I replace the bumper now or not.
Overall it wasn't too bad of a project but I have quite a few tools and I had to do some modifications.
To start I removed the skid plate, dust shield, tow hooks, and the front skid plate mounts. Pretty easy work.
At this point the frame rails look like this.
Here is a pic looking throught the front of the bumper opening. At this point I still thought I could install all without removing the bumper.
The Rough Country mount went in pretty easily. I did it by myself without much trouble. Nicely made and heavy.
So far pretty easy. I was maybe an hour into the project and all was looking roses. Then I tried to slide the winch into the opening. No fit. Rough Country said the mount was designed for their winch but it fit many others. Most seem like clones of the older Warn design. The new Zeon is a bit deeper front to back and that was the issue. I had to remove the bracket that holds the secondary hood release. That meant removing the front bumper, which would have made things easier if I had done that at the outset.
Here is a pic of the hood release handle bracket with the release removed. I have already trimmed it about 1/4" in this pic. In the end I had to remove another 3/8" or so. I also had to trim about 1/2" from the plastic release handle base.
It's hard to see in the pics but there is about 1/4" of clearance between the bracket and the winch.
The winch also sits all the way against the back of the open space.
I wanted to keep the stock plastic trim to I cut it to fit around the nose of the winch mount. That was pretty easy but I spent enough time to ensure it fit well. Sadly the very nice Warn Hawse Fairlead was too large to fit inside the plastic trim. I have access to a milling machine so I used that to cut it down to size. It looks like the fairlead is cut down too far but it just fits.
I mounted the fairlead upside down because when I machined the top away it created a void in the back. I wanted that void at the bottom to let any water drain out.
The electrical was very easy. I chose not to cut the cables even though they are maybe 12" longer than necessary. I thought I might need extra cable in an emergency on the trail.
Lastly about getting the synthetic cable on the drum. I tried using the cable tie that Warn supplied on a dry loop and the cable tie easily broke. Some quick reading online showed that many struggled to get the cable on the drum. It seemed like most spent an hour and they used lube. I wasn't sure what would be safe for the synthetic cable. In the end I used some carnuba wax and a piece of wire looped to pull the robe on the drum. It was super easy. Maybe 30 seconds to pull, and also super easy to get the keeper key in place to secure it.
I still need to get something for the front of the rope to keep it from banging around and scratching everything. Overall a fun weekend project in the 110 degree AZ heat. Here is the end result. I may add lights on either side of the winch, not sure yet.
So nice, I really like super clean installs.
