AKJeep

I have been searching the forums and doing a good bit of reading since buying a slightly used '10 Rubicon(1900 miles). I purchased a Recon 10,500 Recovery kit, and now I am looking at mounting options. I live in the Southwest, so I am a little leary of having the winch block too much of the grill and lowering the airflow through the radiator. I do not have a good set of tools, but I am mechanically inclined. I am thinking of a new bumper that has the winch mount inside, but I do not want to add too much weight to my Jeep, and I really don't want to lower the front end of my Jeep either. So I am soliciting some opinions on options. I like the modified factory bumper (shortened), not sure about that undertaking. So far I love this Jeep, my last one was a '56 Willys CJ-5 that was pretty much stock, this one is my ticket to mountain stress relief, and I am even pretty impressed with the mileage, especially when compared with my Ram 2500 24Valve Diesel. I must say, climbs like a Mountain Goat.

NH-JK

All the bumpers are pretty heavy that house the Winch inside. To keep the weight down aim for a shorty/stubby.

I'm a huge fan of the LOD mid width. you can cut your plastic bumper and ad end caps and your which.... Not too sure how to increase the air flow due to blockage. At least the hot season is almost over!

Also you might want to get some 1 inch coil spring spacers for the front to prevent sag... Good luck.

blazer4949

I bought a Teraflex front bumper. Liked that it is not a stubby
or total full width, but in between. Also, as you said, did not
want to block air flow to radiator, winch sits down in bumper.
And...had holes for stock fog lights. Bumper also does not
stick out too far, so easier to climb up waterfalls. Finally,
got a very reasonable price on it. Happy.

remark

My winch is between the frame rails, but there are several guys out here with the winch mounted on top of the bumper. The airflow has not been a problem for them.

The only issue with airflow is the cheap idea that jeep has for a tranny cooler for the autos. At that you have a choice to add an aux tranny cooler, program your fan to go on sooner or offroad in 4 low with the gear in D with o/d off.

AKJeep

Thank you for the inputs. I also don't want to lose the current protection provided by the plastic (??) skid plate in the front. Really loving the instant stress relief I get just from driving it, I didn't buy it to go fast, I bought it to go anywhere(what I tell my friends before I tell them, "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand").